The San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos is one of those rare buildings that is most often photographed from the back of the building. Oddly enough, the back of the church is what faces the main road. Since construction of the church began in 1772, I guess it's possible that there wasn't a road behind the church at that time!

When I arrived at the church early in the day, I was disappointed to see that the back of the church was backlit. I was having trouble envisioning a decent composition--probably because the colors were completely washed out by the bright light shining in my face. Reluctantly, I worked my way to the front of the building.

I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the front of the church. After waiting nearly 30 minutes for a car that was parked right in front of the church to move, I captured the following image:

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church Moving a bit closer yielded this next image:

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church Although the church was open, unfortunately photography is prohibited inside the building.

My hotel room in Santa Fe was about a 130 mile round trip drive from this church, so I had no intention of returning to capture any pictures from the back of the church. However, I ended up spending about three hours taking photographs at the Taos Pueblo, which is located only 10 miles or so from this church. That gave me the opportunity to stop by the church one last time during the late afternoon before driving back to Santa Fe for the night.

When I arrived back at the church about an hour before sunset, the back of the building took on an entirely different look from earlier that day. Composing interesting photographs became quite easy. Here is my favorite image from the shoot:

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church Once again, it is important to arrive at locations at a time of day when you have the best chance of getting some nice light. In this case, the back of the church receives its best light last in the day, while the front of the church is best photographed in the morning. In the middle of the day, I tend to put my camera away for a while--or to shoot one of the many interesting church interiors in this area of the country!

Serious photographers understand the importance of arriving at a location at the appropriate time of day to capture the intended photograph. This was never more evident than during my recent visit to Santa Fe. While walking through the historic downtown area, I stopped by the Inn & Spa at Loretto several times. Each time, the building took on a new appearance due to the angle of the sunlight at different times of the day.

For me, the least desirable picture was the one I captured just before noon. The contrast is greatest at that time with darker shadows (which isn't necessarily a bad thing):

Loretto Inn A couple of hours before sunset, the image becomes less contrasty and the colors begin to warm up:

Loretto Inn But, my intention was to capture an image featuring the luminaria (lights) on the adobe walls. The luminaria is a small paper lantern (usually a candle placed inside a paper bag) which is used to decorate some buildings in New Mexico and some neighboring states during the holiday season. The luminaria on this building is electric lights inside hard plastic containers.

The best way to capture this kind of lighting is to arrive at dusk--just before sunrise or after sunset. Since I was not going to be in Santa Fe that night, my only chance was to arrive at the location about 20 minutes before sunrise. For the best results, it's best to shoot before the sun is in the sky. But, it is also important that there is some light in the sky. Otherwise, the sky goes black and more detail is lost in the building.

Luminaria on adobe building Unfortunately, most of the best photographic opportunities occur at the most inconvenient hours!

The Chicago area experienced a significant snow storm on March 5th, so I decided to go out and capture some photographs before all the snow melted. My plan was to visit some local sites and to concentrate on some scenes from the Cook County Forest Preserves.

Winter in the woods

Lone tree in winter Lone tree in winter Winter stream Winter stream

Night photography provides an opportunity to exhibit a scene in a different way. Generally, I prefer to capture night images of buildings before it gets too dark. During twilight, the color of the sky is more appealing. And, the dynamic range within the scene is more manageable for the camera's sensor before the sky goes completely black.

One night while I was walking in downtown Santa Fe, I captured the following photograph of the St. Francis Cathedral.

St. Francis Cathedral I tried to maintain as much detail as possible in the highlights and shadows of the frame by taking multiple exposures and blending them together to create a high dynamic range (HDR) photograph.

The next night, I took another photo of this church about 30 minutes earlier than my initial attempt. There was a little more light in the sky and the sensor wasn't challenged as much to retain details throughout the image:

Cathedral of St. Francis Although the church isn't lit as dramatically in the second image due to the artificial light having less of an impact, I prefer the second image for the color in the sky and the details visible throughout the frame. Of course, your preference may vary.

In November, Imaging Resource selected my "Dog in Flight" picture as its Photo of the Day for 11-5-2012. Then in December, my "Orangutan Pose" photograph was the Photo of the Day for 12-3-2012. "A Helping Hand" was selected as the Photo of the Day (1-8-13). Today (2-26-13), my "Frozen Lighthouse" photograph was named as the Photo of the Day.

Frozen lighthouse

At the end of each month, three of the daily winners from the month will be awarded Canon photo printers. So, I have about a 10% chance of landing another brand new printer. Imaging Resources has already shipped two printers to me in the past two months!

While shooting architectural images, I'm often amazed at how much symmetry exists in the design. I sometimes wonder if the reason we find symmetry appealing is because that is how our bodies are designed. Architects design many structures in a manner similar to the human body--with the parts on the left being duplicated and mirrored by parts on the right.

While shooting pictures inside the Indiana Capitol in Indianapolis, I came across a scene which I call "Extreme Symmetry". This scene is not only symmetrical from a horizontal perspective; it is symmetrical from a vertical perspective as well. It's symmetrical looking from East to West and again from North to South. This is a rather large interior space, so the architect must have taken great pains to ensure that the design was symmetrical.

Extreme symmetry On a side note, capturing this image was quite challenging. I lined everything up while laying flat on my back in the center of the floor. In the meantime, at least 50 kids sat all around me as they listened to a tour guide as part of a grade school field trip. Fortunately, the Nikon D800 offers Live View. Live View makes things a little easier as it is difficult for me to get down low enough to see through the optical viewfinder for a picture like this one.

On November 5, 2012, my "Dog in Flight" photograph won Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day. It then placed first for the month of November out of the 30 daily winning entries. The prize was a new professional photo printer--the Canon PIXMA Pro 9000!

This afternoon, I learned that my "Orangutan Pose" photograph was Imaging Resource's Runner-Up for the month of December out of the 31 daily winning entries. This time, the prize was yet another new professional photo printer--the Canon PIXMA MG822!

Orangutan

One of my the filters I use most often while shooting outdoors is the circular polarizing filter. This filter acts very much like a putting a pair of sunglasses on your lens. It serves to cut reflections, saturate colors and add contrast to a picture. With a circular polarizing filter, you can control the degree of polarization by rotating the outer ring of the filter--and just dial in the amount of the effect that you desire.

While visiting the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison, I noticed a contemporary building with all glass walls. Out of habit, the first thing I did was to reach into my bag for my circular polarizing filter. This is the first image that I captured. Note how the filter has eliminated most of the reflections from the glass--which allows the colors to deepen:

Glass walls Here's how the image appears without the filter:

Glass walls Without the filter, the reflections are more pronounced and much of the color from behind the glass is removed.

Both images are acceptable and some viewers will prefer the first version while other viewers prefer the second version. However, I was envisioning a different shot that would not utilize the filter:

I chose this final vision without the filter because the primary thing that attracted me to the scene and prompted me to pick up my camera was the reflection!