Night on West Mesa
![[trails_000313_36.jpg]](trails_000313_36.jpg)
Winter nights are long and lonely on West Mesa, in the Carrizo Badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Far from paved roads and city lights, nothing disturbs the desert stillness as the sky slowly turns above. A first-quarter moon illuminated the scene for the first 4 hours of this 6-hour exposure, during which the sky took a quarter-turn around the North Star.
Date: March 13-14, 2000
Time: 9:45 p.m. - 3:45 a.m. PST
Location: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California
Camera: Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR on fixed tripod
Film: Fuji Provia 100F slide
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 6 hours
Scanner: Nikon Coolscan LS-2000