Where am I, and how did I get here?

While exploring the area around Lockwood Valley Road in Ventura County with Lisa the previous month, we came across this Buddhist temple. I vowed to return. Fortunately, Reverend Phoebe was amenable, and I even spent the night at the retreat. Everyone was incredibly kind. Anybody who lets someone in to take night photos, running around their property while waving a flashlight, must be really nice. I also got a delicious vegetarian dinner.

~~~

Starry nights underneath the stupa at Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple and Meditation Retreat in the mountains of rural Ventura County, with this long exposure photo showing the movement of the stars around the North Star. A stupa typically contains relics of the Buddha and is used by Buddhists as a place of meditation. 

Title: Pine Mountain Stupa Star Trails
Photographer: Ken Lee
Info: Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Feisol tripod. This is a long exposure night sky photo of 23 and a half minutes in total, with each individual photo exposed for 30 seconds at f/2.8 ISO 500, stacked "by hand" in CS4. I light painted the stupa and foreground with a Streamlight LED flashlight. Photo begun 7:40 pm D.S.T. on 23 November 2013.
Location: Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple, Maricopa, California, USA

Título: Pine Mountain Stupa Estelas de Estrellas
Fotógrafo: Ken Lee
Info: Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Feisol trípode. Usando largas exposiciones capturar el movimiento de las estrellas, 23 y medio minutos en total, 30 segundos a f/2.8 ISO 500, apilados "a mano" en CS4. Pintura de luz con una linterna eléctrica LED. Foto inició 19:40.
Ubicación: Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple, Maricopa, Callifornia, EE.UU.

Sitting Buddha.

I woke up good and relaxed. My original plan had been to take photos and then drive home, but sleeping over and waking up the next day to a beautiful morning certainly worked out better.

But my trip wasn't over yet, no it wasn't.

On the drive back up through Lockwood Valley, on the spur of the moment I decided I would drive up to the peak of Mt. Pinos. I'm not going to put a tilde over the "n" in Pinos because every time I do that it messes up. :D

Mt. Pinos is at about 8300 feet in elevation, about 2529 meters, so it's high up enough to get lots of snow.

I saw this sign posted at the top by the lodge and found it interesting. Maybe you might too. Then again, I'm easily amused, and rarely bored.

I mean, did you know that orange peels will last for two years, potentially outlasting wool socks? Who knew?

After this, I went to visit Sarah and Chuck in nearby Frazier Park, a pretty good day.

This is not a pretty picture exactly. This is an experiment gone awry. But it's an interesting experiment, and I'll share it with you even though ending with a bad photo is probably not a smart thing to do. :D

How was this done? Or at least attempted?

I'm glad you asked. I took a succession of photos while slowly turning the zoom in my Tokina lens. As you can see, I didn't do it very well. But it's cool looking and I may mess around with this and really focus on getting this thing smooth instead of haphazardly doing it spontaneously as I did here.

I don't remember any of the settings, but it was probably 30 second intervals at a moderately high ISO, probably something like 800, and probably f/2.8, for about 7-8 30-second sequences. I then blended in the last frame a bit more, light painting the Quan-Yin statue a bit while the last frame was being taken.

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.

Join the fun and participation on Ken's Facebook Page.