Alabama Hills, Mono Lake, Bodie Ghost Town - Desertscapes, Star Trails, and Long Exposure Photos, July 2012
Page 3 of 5 - Follow the birds!
11 July 2012, continued:The Patriarch Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains near Bishop and Big Pine. The Patriarch Grove did not disappoint. Odd, eerie, and beautiful in its own way, I had never seen anything like this before. The forest often consisted of isolated gnarled trees with mostly white rock since most plants could not survive with so little water at 11000 feet (3500m) in altitude. |
Furthermore, after the bristlecone pine finally goes on to that great forest in the sky, the tree can still remain standing for another 5000 years. It is conceivable that trees such as this could have been here for as long as 10000 years. The thunderstorm in the distance adds to the drama of the landscape. Later that evening, it would rain lightly a couple of times. |
Patriarch Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest at 11000 feet (3500m) in the White Mountains, overlooking the Owens Valley. |
 Patriarch Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Although quite isolated, probably about 35-40 miles from Big Pine, and 12 miles of that along a rough dirt road, I would recommend this trip to just about anyone, but particularly photographers. It is a photographer's paradise. I met Will, a photographer from San Francisco, who had been up here 3-4 times already. |
 Rain clouds gather in the distance. Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. |
 My car, with its Dublab and Free Tibet bumper stickers, at Patriarch Grove. |
 Me at Patriarch Grove. A couple of weeks later, I'd be going to West Virginia for my annual summer trip with Lisa, a place that is no stranger to thunderstorms. |
 Many non-photographers assume that bright sunny days are the best for photography. Usually, that's the worst kind of light. Photographers like clouds, and they like the sunlight playing on the clouds. Sunsets are often quite dull by themselves, especially in the mountains. After all, a sun simply disappearing behind a mountain really isn't all that fantastic looking. But add some storm clouds, and now we're talkin'. |
There's this odd, eerie storybook feel about this photo that really appeals to me, looking perhaps like something on a old children's novel about witches. Title: Storybook Bristlecone Pine |
This shot is facing what I believe is southeast, and you can see the Milky Way in the distance. |
Title: Storybook Tree Star Trails I love being able to see the curvature of the stars for both the north and south hemispheres simultaneously. |
Title: Patriarch Grove North As you can probably tell, this is facing north, with the North Star between the branches of the ancient bristlecone pine. I like the giant hole in the tree and the forlornness that this photo imparts. This photo is actually the first of the one hundred photos that I stacked to produce the next photo. I "light paint" the beginning and sometimes the ending frames and then simply leave the camera clicking softly away for fifty minutes or so. |
Title: Patriarch Grove North Star Trails As you can probably tell, this is facing north, with the North Star between the branches of the ancient bristlecone pine. At 12:30 am, I was finished shooting. The other photographer slept in his large truck. This seemed like a good idea, something to do next time I come up here to photograph. I had a bed waiting for me down in Big Pine, so it was time to leave this magical place. I drove slowly along the dirt road, getting out to look at the stars several times, finally arriving at Big Pine at 2 am. |
Left: My tire, caked with dust from yesterday's 24 miles of dirt roads. |
 Sunset at Mono Lake at the Castle Tufas, a seldom-visited area of Mono Lake. |
Unique In More Ways Than One NASA scientists discovered a form of life, But the life form NASA discovered here blew that out of the water, so to speak. This bacteria, with the catchy name of GFAJ-1, has DNA that is based on the usually poisonous arsenic for its building blocks instead of the usual phosphorus. |
 Title: Castle Tufa Golden SkyStuff: Nikon D90, Nikkor VR 18-200mm lens, Feisol tripod. ISO 200 at f/22 using two Tiffen 0.9 ND filters, 20-second exposure. Photography: Ken Lee Tufas of Mono Lake, California, USA. |
I had wanted to photograph Bodie in the early morning or at the evening, but the rangers who run Bodie are very strict about people adhering to the 9 am to 6 pm schedule. Someone in a black car drove up and stopped. After a few minutes, he asked, "Can you go in? There are already people in there." I pointed out the sign saying "No driving or walking into the park when park is not open" and that the people inside were probably rangers. But after a few minutes, he started up his car and drove in anyway while a photographer and I looked on, amused. Two minutes later, we saw flashing lights. And two minutes after that, the black car raced out of the exit. The rangers later told us that he could have been put in jail or fined for hundreds of dollars, and that there are sensors and alarms everywhere, and that the rangers are "armed to the teeth". Left: Built in 1882, the old Methodist church is the only church still standing in Bodie, and was the only Protestant church built. Click on the Bird Buttons to navigate. |
Ken's photos of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung
San Suu Kyi, as well as photos of Peru, Burma, India, Morocco, China, Thailand,
Ghana, Ecuador, and elsewhere, have appeared in many books, magazines,
websites, and galleries. Visit the
Ken Lee Photography Website. Some of Ken's select photos may be
purchased through his
Imagekind Store. |
Alabama Hills, Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town: Desertscapes, Star Trails, and Long Exposure Photos, July 2012
Page 3 of 5
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Contact photographer/musician Ken Lee
The bristlecone pines are the oldest living things on the planet, living for longer than 4700 years. It's fantastic to think that when Buddha or Jesus walked the earth, these trees were already ancient.
One of the best things about being a night photographer is that you can double your shooting time. When the sun goes down, you can keep right on shooting. 
Title: Patriarch Grove Milky Way
12 July 2012:
Title: Castle Tufa Sunset
13 July 2012:
