Salt Lake Temple Mornings
Before I left Nauvoo for home, I checked the weather in Salt Lake City. The forecast was for cloudy/stormy skies for the next few days, so I drove across Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming to Utah. While I think stormy skies add to the atmosphere of the image, I take a chance that rain, wind, and even lightning will ruin my photographic opportunites. The weather was nice and sunny when I drove into Salt Lake City but changed to heavy rain that night. The rain lingered for several days while I got antsy to shoot or head home. My wife convinced me to stay a few more days.
I went to bed after setting my alarm for 1am and woke up every hour and checked outside. It was still raining at 3am, but the sky was clearing. I loaded my gear in the car and the rain stopped as I drove to the Temple. I had scouted a location for a morning shot the day before, so I knew where to set up.
The Salt Lake Temple is particularly challenging because of its size and surroundings. It's hard to get back far enough to include the the entire Temple without including distracting elements in the foreground. I tend toward simple, straightforward compositions, and I wanted a strong, oblique view of this particular Temple.
The movements or perspective controls on my big camera allow me to keep the vertical surfaces of the Temple looking vertical and the Temple standing straight and strong. Without these controls you have to tilt the camera up and the resulting image looks like it is tilting back - not something I want with the beautiful Temple architecture. Because of the size of the Temple and space limitations on this setup, my camera controls were maxed out.
Once I was set up and had everything on the camera locked down, it was just a matter of waiting for the sky to light up. Again, I was blessed without even a breeze. I love the deep, rich blue of the pre-dawn sky. The clouds add texture to the sky, and again, you can see the blurred effect as they moved across the sky during the long exposure. I was in need of a few more hours of sleep and was heading back to the motel when the rain started again.
I went to bed after setting my alarm for 1am and woke up every hour and checked outside. It was still raining at 3am, but the sky was clearing. I loaded my gear in the car and the rain stopped as I drove to the Temple. I had scouted a location for a morning shot the day before, so I knew where to set up.
The Salt Lake Temple is particularly challenging because of its size and surroundings. It's hard to get back far enough to include the the entire Temple without including distracting elements in the foreground. I tend toward simple, straightforward compositions, and I wanted a strong, oblique view of this particular Temple.
The movements or perspective controls on my big camera allow me to keep the vertical surfaces of the Temple looking vertical and the Temple standing straight and strong. Without these controls you have to tilt the camera up and the resulting image looks like it is tilting back - not something I want with the beautiful Temple architecture. Because of the size of the Temple and space limitations on this setup, my camera controls were maxed out.
Once I was set up and had everything on the camera locked down, it was just a matter of waiting for the sky to light up. Again, I was blessed without even a breeze. I love the deep, rich blue of the pre-dawn sky. The clouds add texture to the sky, and again, you can see the blurred effect as they moved across the sky during the long exposure. I was in need of a few more hours of sleep and was heading back to the motel when the rain started again.
Heya Richard. I ran into your fam the other day at Target's new store. They told me you had the site, so I checked it out. We have seen your photos in many places lately, homes, stores. You do good work man! Have a great one!
Coy Johnston & Fam.
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