I'd like to thank everybody who made it to the garage sale and who has stopped by since then. It's always nice to talk and put faces with names.
     I'm still offering everything at least 40% off normal retail through the month of December. I've got quite a few framed pieces on-hand that are still 50% off, for anyone who's able to stop by (Mesa, AZ area). Quite a few people have stopped by for last-minute Christmas presents.
      Email me from the link under the bio section at the right if there's something you need and I'll give you my address and/or directions and phone number.
    

     I knew I needed to shoot the Bountiful Temple at sunset. Like the Draper Temple, it's up against a mountain and not a candidate for great early-morning light. I was a little worried because all the good clouds seemed to have left Utah once I arrived. There were a few clouds in the western sky, but they always have the potential to do more harm than good.

     The Bountiful Temple shares a lot of design similarities with the Mt. Timpanogos Temple.


     After living in Arizona, Daylight Savings Time always throws me off. What seems like late afternoon to me becomes evening in Utah. Because I was in Bountiful on a Monday, the Temple was closed and the grounds were open only until 8pm. That was almost an hour before sunset. Thanks to a really nice security guard, I was able to shoot until 9pm.
     Sure enough, the clouds in the western sky began to kill the warm, late light. After a while, I started to see some promising gaps in the clouds as a big shaft of sunlight hit the Great Salt Lake and started to angle my way. At this point the light got really good and I had to put down the digital camera and work with the big camera.


     This next image was taken a little earlier, but you can seen the composition I was working with.


     Yes, I'd prefer a foreground other than a driveway, but the shadows help a little bit.

     I first saw the Draper Temple last August when it was still under construction. I've been looking forward to photographing it ever since. As I planned a recent trip to Utah I was excited to hear they were having lots of stormy, rainy weather. I was not so excited to find out that all the stormy weather left the state the day before I arrived.
     As you approach the Temple from the valley floor it looks great against the flanks of Lone Peak.


There's just one problem - you're looking at the back of the Temple. From the front there's pretty much just blue sky in the background, and blue sky is boring.
     I set up the big camera and tried to get a dusk image.


     I got my film back from the lab and wasn't happy with the results. The sky is a little too dark near the top and the different colored lights shining on the Temple would be hard to correct. I took some snapshots with my digital camera that actually looked a little better color-wise than the film images. I went back the next morning to check out the sunrise light and got a little better look.


     The fact that this Temple is so close to a big mountain means it doesn't get any warm, rich early morning light. By the time the sun comes over the mountain it's too harsh and contrasty. Obviously, late-in-the-day light won't do me any good either. I'll have to be there when the sky is stormy, with diffused light coming from the front.
     If you decide to visit the Draper Temple, take my word for it that the "Deer Crossing" signs are there for a good reason. I came within a few inches of sending a big, healthy doe to the great pasture in the sky and my van into the body shop. I guess deer are drawn to the Temple too.

     I've grown fonder of the Logan Temple since my one and only visit. I'm looking forward to another visit, now that I can walk again. I'm sure there are a lot more photo opportunities around the grounds.
     I knew right away it would lend itself well to being converted to sepia. The clouds were dramatic enough in the original (here)

     I've been rehabilitating my ankle for so long that I haven't done much new photography. It's about time I posted some images, so I'll show some new versions of older images. Here's a link to the original black & white version of this image.

     A few days ago I was reviewing a color print of the Jordan River Temple and started to feel a little nostalgic for the great summer clouds. I pulled up my folder of images of the Temple and noticed this sepia version doesn't quite have the same feel. For some reason, I sell more sepia-toned images than either black & white or color. The sepia and black & white conversions tend to have a more dramatic or stormy feel than their color counterparts.
     This sepia version also has a soft-focus effect. One characteristic of the effect is an increase in contrast. The sky is darker and more ominous, but the Temple has a beautiful pure glow. It's almost as if light is emanating from the building instead of reflecting off of it. The statue of Moroni is much more prominent as well.

   After I set up my large format camera to photograph the Logan Temple, I needed to wait while the light and clouds changed. My composition stayed the same, but the sky gave me a lot of variety. I had a little point-and-shoot digital camera (Casio EX-V7) that I had picked up on eBay, so I kept shooting to check the color of the light and the contrast. The human eye tends to even color and contrast out somewhat, and what you see is not always what you record on film. What you perceive with your eye and brain as an acceptable level of contrast might be way beyond what film or a digital sensor can record.
     A couple of times the sun broke through the clouds in the west and was really warm and contrasty. I rolled down the street a little (on my knee-scooter) and shot a few images of the Temple head-on. The shot on the left was with the white balance set normally for daylight (about 5500 degrees Kelvin). The one on the right was with the white balance adjusted down to approx. 3200 to 3400 Kelvin. The light was the same, and only the camera settings were changed. You could achieve a similar effect with filters on a film camera.
     While the light was nice and warm, the contrast was much too great. Notice it's hard to see much detail at all in the shadows cast by the Temple. The shadow of the tree has some light shining through, so it doesn't count. Also, you can see that the Temple appears to be leaning back. That's the result of a distorted perspective created when I tilted the camera up to include the top of the Temple. When that happens, the sensor or film plane isn't parallel with the Temple and you get a distorted perspective. In addition to the huge increase in resolution I get from my large format camera, I can make adjustments and keep the film vertical and parallel to the Temple. I'm not a big fan of leaning or tilting Temples.

     While I was looking through some old files I found this image. I made it several years ago and just kind of forgot about it. Recently, I've had more requests for color images. I'm going to start offering larger giclee prints in color, hopefully before Christmas. For some reason, I have a hard time coming up with good looking frames for color images.
     In the interest of full disclosure, I had to have something Photoshopped out of this image. There was a slight jet contrail running through the sky in the upper right. I knew it was there, but it was really slight to my eye. It showed up much better on film. For images like this, timing is everything. There's only a short time when the light in the sky and the artificial light on the Temple balance with the nice, rich blue of the sky. It's a nice effect. Lots of high-end real estate images are in this style.
     While I normally prefer more clouds, I was happy to get the nice, little pink ones on the right side.

     This wouldn't have been my first choice of compositions for the Jordan River Temple, but considering the circumstances, it was my best option at the time. I prefer an oblique view, but the symmetrical nature of the Temple makes a straightforward view pretty appealing too. I've found several views from near the front that look good, but haven't been able to schedule an early morning shoot. This is a VERY busy Temple, and a people-free image isn't always possible.
     The angle of the late-day light and the awesome clouds made this my best possible set-up at the time. I tried to achieve perfect symmetry, but couldn't pull it off. You can see at the base of the spire that I wasn't totally lined up. I was pushing my luck already, in that I had my tripod set up partially in a flower bed. In one way I'm like a doctor, in that I try to "do no harm" to the landscaping.  Any further to the left and I would have been rolling my knee-scooter through the flower bed.
 
  

     I've wanted to photograph the Logan Temple for years but never seemed to be able to make the time. On a recent trip to Utah I had a free afternoon and some nice stormy weather, so I couldn't resist a trip up to Logan. I had a couple of worries. I knew the Temple was on a hill, and I was still getting around on my knee-scooter with my broken ankle in a boot. I also wasn't sure of the orientation of the Temple and how the changing, stormy light would affect its look.
     It's always a gamble trying to photograph on location when you're limited on time. Without much time to scout around, I've got to decide on a composition and pray for great light. I've been shut-down many times when the light just dies or fails to materialize. It's disappointing enough when I'm shooting three miles from home at the Mesa Temple, but quite another thing 750 miles away in Logan.
     This time I wasn't disappointed.  Although I was limited to the bottom of the hill with my scooter, I liked the oblique view, and the late afternoon light was in just the right place. The clouds gave me a few worries. Those in back of the Temple got a little boring a few times and the clouds in the west threatened to block out the setting sun. All I could do was wait, so I stayed for several hours and shot as conditions changed.
     I knew this shot was going to be good. The light in the west was just slightly diffused and didn't become too contrasty. The clouds in the east looked stormy and dramatic and the warm tones of the Temple compliment the green foreground.