This past Thanksgiving, I was visiting relatives in central Iowa. I planned the last segment of the trip to pass the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa, near the town of Madrid - accent on the first syllable. http://www.iowatemple.org/
Photography is all about the light - and this spectacular structure faces east, perfect for reflecting the glow of the morning sun. The light was not promising, as the sky was overcast. There were a few gaps in the clouds, so I was hoping to set up the camera and wait for a brief opening, allowing the sun to cause the Temple to glow in contrast to the gentle dark rural backdrop. The other problem was the temperature. When I left home, I was counting on temperatures in the 40s for the trip.
The wind chill was about 11 degrees, in part due to strong sustained winds. My fingers were numb within minutes, as I assembled the camera and tripod. The clouds did not cooperate that morning. I made an exposure anyway, knowing that it would simply serve as a reference for a future attempt.
This stretch of rural two-lane highway features numerous photographic opportunities. If the light isn't great for one site, there are other attractions along the way. I stopped in Boone, Iowa, to check out the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad - http://www.scenic-valleyrr.com/ - the result in a future post.
That evening, I was returning to Des Moines, Iowa, reversing the path along Highway 17. It was about 7 PM, pitch black in the rural Iowa rolling terrain - and I started to think about revisiting the Temple - what did it look like at night? As I crested a hill, it came into view. It was aglow in the light - against a perfectly black rural sky!
I assembled the camera inside the car, a simple cold weather tactic used in Boone earlier in the day. The camera was in a compartment that was relatively cool, so I had the windows open a bit so that temperature differences would be less likely to cause glass to fog, the film to pop, or some other annoyance due to condensation. Since I had made an exposure earlier in the day, I knew exactly where I wanted to set the camera.
The next trick was to figure the exposure. There are no meters built into large format cameras. I have enough experience guessing exposures - and due to the cold, I wanted to make a decision quickly. I settled on an estimated Exposure Value (EV) of 6, choosing f5.6 for 1/2 second. More on metering and application to modern cameras in a future post.
Part of the attraction of digital imaging is the instantaneous result. I could have quickly bracketed the exposure, dialed in exposure compensation, and invoked all of the magical little technologies that make digital imaging so intriguing.
I settled for about six weeks of wonder - waiting for exposure of more film in order to send a larger batch to process, the lab time, and the shipping time... anticipation like when I was a kid waiting for a holiday or birthday!
Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa
Floodlights erased via Photoshop Elements
Click for larger view
Original Scan
I am not an expert with Photoshop. Friends that viewed the unedited version suggested getting rid of the two spotlights.
