I've been looking forward to photographing the Newport Beach Temple. The unique mission-style architecture and warm tone of the exterior made it even more appealing to me. Knowing the Temple would be closed, I thought a Monday would be a good time to visit. I didn't realize it would be locked up, without a soul in sight. The weather was warm and the light was nice, so I strolled around outside the fence and got a few snapshots.





     One important thing I overlooked was the fact that this Temple faces mainly northwest. In late February, the sun is still in the southern sky and never shines on the front of the Temple. A few minutes on Google Earth would have made that pretty clear. A little cloud cover would have helped, but the next morning was nearly cloudless.
     The grounds are more expansive than those of most smaller Temples, but a lot of the vegetation is close to the building. Also, the entrance is quite a bit higher than the driveway and sidewalk. I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended), but didn't get any help from some nearby clouds. I thought they would sneak in and even out the light, but a couple of jets made contrails that ruined my sky, so I just packed up and checked out the grounds from inside the fence.
     Here's a digital snapshot of the front of the Temple in the morning. I'm looking forward to photographing in the summer when the sun will brush along the arches at the entrance.