Chuang Yen Monastery – Exteriors

I’d been to this monastery a number of times before. It’s such an unlikely sight in Putnam County, NY that we often take visiting friends there. Since we had some friends over for the weekend we thought we’d go again.

I’d already taken numerous broad view pictures of the monastery so this time I thought I’d focus on some parts of the complex that I hadn’t been to before and also on some interior details. This is the first of two posts. It concentrates of some of the outlying areas of the monastery, which I’ve never visited or photographed before.

Flowers in the Gazebo

We’ve been tidying up the garden in our house in Briarcliff Manor and I was cutting back some roses near the gazebo when I noticed the light shining on a old vase with some artificial flowers in it. I liked the effect and shooting through the screen seemed to add a kind of soft focus effect.

Kitchen Scenes

These are the result of sitting around in our kitchen while playing with my new toy: A Konica 50mm f1.7 AR. I’d earlier obtained two other Konica lenses: a 135mm and a 28mm. I’d been very impressed by the 135mm (I haven’t tried the 28mm yet) and I’d heard good things about the 50mm. They’re so inexpensive I decided to get one. It was pretty dark in the kitchen and I’m impressed with the results.