Terlingua Church

A couple of weeks ago I made this image at night as the full moon was rising.  I had scouted the location earlier in the day to see how I wanted to setup to photograph the church at night.  I decided that a wide angle lens was required because of the location I needed to setup the tripod.  When I arrived after dark the wind was blowing hard and kicking up dust.  There was some shelter from the nearby hillside that blocked some of the bigger gusts.  As I prepared my equipment I could see the full moon rising behind the church and I had to work quickly to get my exposure before it rose above the steeple.  I placed an LED light inside the church and set my camera for a five minute exposure.  Throughout the long exposure I walked around and lit the front of the church with a flashlight.  It is important to keep moving with the light to prevent hotspots in the scene.  I also try to maintain extreme lighting angles to the plane of the camera in order to create contrast and detail to the subject.  In this scene I was 90* to the front of the church wall as I painted with my flashlight.  Nighttime photography takes a lot of planning and preparation and can present some real challenges with working in the dark.  It usually requires a visit to the location during the day to choose camera location and lighting angles.