Every Other Year Temple Square Photo Session

I won't go over all the reasons that I love Photographing the Temples of my Church. Suffice it to say that I love it, and that Christmas Lights make it even more enjoyable.

It was unfortunate that I only had an hour and half on one night to go. Fortunately it had snowed recently and it looked fabulous! I stayed on the East side instead of running around through the crowds, and managed to mostly stay dry and warm. Hope you enjoy the photos!

And a belated Merry Christmas!

Missed a few.....

Occasionally I troll back through the archives to see if I have missed processing anything. Found some. These were taken with my older 10MP K200d and my really old Pentax SMC 135mm f2.5 lens. This is actually a really REALLY killer combo. The photo below is heavily cropped, it is sharp. Really sharp, at 100% Love this lens, I really do!

Getting a little CRAZY with things!

Sometimes I find myself wanting to push things a little bit, I try to not alter reality too much, in fact I try to use the manipulations I can do to create images that look more realistic than the camera can capture in a single exposure. This particular trip into downtown after work I decided that I wanted to just let it all hang out and capture the weirdness of the clouds.

This shot is actually flipped, it is a reflection in a pool that just begged to be turned so that it looked like the actual thing. The reflections made for a cool look once run through Photomatix, HDR is pretty much a have to use with this kind of backlighting. Makes it look like the temple is on fire!

If you could term any of my HDR's to be conventional this is more that way. Still pretty crazy.

These used to be used as the main entrance to the temple, I wonder how many hands have used these knobs!

I stooged around waiting for the sun to get DIRECTLY behind the spire, then I stood in the slightly wrong spot and slightly missed it. Like the effect a LOT though!

This is my FAVE!!!! I truly want to print this one. Maybe Canvas????

Downtown after work!

I made a trip to the State Capitol Gift shop to drop off some cards, turns out that the store is closed and I never heard about it! Grumble whine.

To make up for my disappointment I figured some camera therapy was in order. The clouds obliged, and I got not a spectacular shot but just a fun one. No perspective correction etc... just sharpen and adjust the color.

I had a slightly different color balance here still trying to decide which I like better.

This turned out to be one of those moments where you just see a situation and grab a quick shot, not expecting much and when you get home and play with it, you get blown away. This was a 3 shot bracket, and walk away to catch the train deal. My first rough processing looked good and has had 60+ likes on Facebook in a very short period, so I went back this morning to try to optimize the shot for sharpness so I could print it at 16x24. That shot is the one below. I took the RAW files, and processed them in ACR to TIFF files, mostly for WB correction and sharpening.

I then imported the three files into Photomatix, selected a pre-set that got me the closest to what I wanted then continued to tweak it until it looked right. Saving that file I opened it in Photoshop and adjusted the curves, levels, brightness and contrast. Then I upsized it so it could be printed larger, partially corrected the perspective, watermarked it and then saved it.

I'm excited to see it in print!

Temple Square Christmas Lights!!!

So it seems that I go downtown every other year to shoot the Christmas Lights at Temple Square. Rather surprising considering how much I like to take photos of temples. Then I start thinking about crowds and realize that is why. People are EVERYWHERE, all the time. I tried to use my 10 stop ND filter but realized quickly that I would be taking very, very. VERY long exposures and that I need to try that some other year..... So with my usual HDR tricks etc... I was able to get some quite nice shots. Not perfect but quite nice!

I really didn't think I would get anything out of this, I was just getting settings right and working on getting the camera level. The clouds show the effect of some pollution, but I still liked the colors. As you will see further in this gallery, this is one of my favorite views.

I decided to go portrait orientation for when the lights came on (5:00 pm if you care) which I like a little bit better. I think I need to go back and pull down a couple of spots of greenish/aqua on the temple. WB is a pain sometimes!!!!

I have a special liking for this statuary that gets put out every year. Next year I will be on this reflecting pool right as the lights come on. I have an idea for a panorama that will be AMAZING!!!! If it works....

The steam coming off the water here was tough to catch, I like how there is just a little movement.

There is something about this angle that I like, not just because it is a walkway that I have walked a zillion times, I just like the... something. As a side note, this photo was taken with my OLD Pentax SMC 24mm f2.8 lens. It is at least as sharp as my Sigma 17-70, if not sharper.

The northeast side of the temple has been somewhat kind to me, but only when I am fairly close. I love the view from North Temple Street but so many things get in the way, it bugs me. I have been determined to find a somewhat new angle. This first one issomewhat similar to one I have done before, but from a more extreme angle. The biggest difficulty with this type of shot is getting everything vertical that needs to be vertical. I am usually less than .5 of a degree off, but photoshop makes fixing that a lot easier!

These next two shots are even more off to the side than is my usual wont. I have enjoyed this view from Main Street before, but never photographed it. I need to experiment more and find more unusual angles to shoot from.

This is my favorite from this angle, I like the sidewalk and movement of the people, the balance of the lit trees with the temple. Works for me.

I really wasn't sure whether this would work or not, I think it is interesting shot, I did no perspective correction and no straightening. Wonder if an 8x10 aspect ratio would work better....

Don't look too closely, this was shot through very dirty glass. I do love the angle though. I wonder what it takes to get up on the roof to shoot in the open air... bet it is more than a smile and  a "Howya doin?"

I prefer the sweep of the sidewalk in this shot to the one below, but I much prefer the trees in the shot below.

I think this is the shot of the evening, as I mentioned, I tried an ND filter to blur out the people, but didn't want to stand there for 45 minutes or an hour... People gave me a few looks, I'm guessing regarding why I was using a tripod etc... but I am used to that. I want ultimate sharpness and IQ, for that I need my ISO 80 and a tripod. If only they knew what I was thinking about them....

Back to the further reflecting pool, hoping there were less people... no dice. Heavy. Sigh. Still like the shots, well LOVE actually, but the people there just niggle at me, guess I could take a sleeping bag and a comfy chair, a 45 minute exposure would hopefully blur most of those folks out.

Yes this one is lighter, playing with the HDR settings and trying for a most pleasing result means each photo is different. I like the shinyness of this one.

 
I have shot this before. And again before that. This is the best so far, but I need to get there early and get the lighter sky like I got in my earliest shots. This will look awesome printed big!

 
I ran over to City Creek just to the south of Temple Square during the middle of the shoot, but I put them in here last because it makes more sense to me. It is a fun place, but not as photo worthy as Temple Square.

Looking back towards the Temple, busy but beautiful.

This fountain is a favorite, I missed the part where it has flames coming out, someday...

You can see the difference in field of view and perspective with a Fisheye (8mm) relative to the above rectilinear lens (10mm)

All in all, I had a really good time, I was dressed for the cold so I tolerated it OK, my largest problem was dealing with the camera backpack on my separated shoulder, no bueno....