So, I hopped in my car and drove to the Smith Farm.  Parking in the lot, I got out and grabbed my Canon G12 camera, zipped up my coat and began my walk toward the grove.  There was a little bit of drizzle coming down, but it was bearable.  However, by the time I made it to the grove, it had changed from a drizzle to a steady downpour.

I really tried to walk, but I couldn’t in this weather.

Returning home, I went out to my office and began checking e-mails.  As I did, I thought to myself, “I really need to get a set of rollers for my bicycle.  That way, on days like this, I can hop on my bicycle and ride for an hour.”

I just might order those rollers this week.

Well, it’s been a whole day since the news of terrorist Bin Laden’s death.  Still no photographs.  Gee… Had they hired me I’m sure I could have Photoshop’d something by now.

Okay, okay… I know… I shouldn’t be so cynical.  But really?  They show pictures of a dead Sadam hanging from the gallows.  They show pictures of a man in Viet Nam getting his brains blown out.  But, pictures of the dead 9-11 culprit would be too gruesome?

Admittedly, I am really not interested in seeing pictures of anyone dead.  I just think this whole “transparency in government” thing is a crock.  They’ll (politicians) will be transparent when it suits their agenda.  Otherwise, mum is the word.

My voting policy from here on out is to enforce term limits.  That’s right.  If Congress won’t amend the Constitution to limit the terms of politicians, I can.  From now on I chose to vote for candidates who have never served before.  And, if we ALL do this, then there will be term limits – whether or not such a law is made.

I urge you to do likewise.

—–

I actually got to the temple before 5pm tonight.  It seems my last meeting at work ended at 4:30pm and that gave me time to wrap things up, and get there.  (Normally, I miss our 5pm prayer meeting because of late-running meetings at work.)

Enrico and Louise were there with a handful of family names.  Speaking to a group of youth who were there to do baptisms, President Straussberg commented on how proud he is of Enrico and Louise for being there every week.  I second President Straussberg’s comments.  They are doing a great job and setting a good example for others.

—–

A new shipment of Palmyra books arrived today.  AND, I can now take credit card payments over the phone or in person.  The book is available at Latter-day Harvest Bookstore, or you can order directly from me.  They are $69.99 + tax (and shipping if applicable).  This is a coffee table book of photos and paints I’ve done of the Palmyra Village and surroundings.

So, this morning I took my walk in the grove.  It was a beautiful clear day, early in the spring of 2011.  The air was crisp and clean and motionless.  Birds were singing.  (Way to early in the season for bees.  I think the author of the hymn took some great poetic license in that phrase, “bees were humming”, as the bees won’t be out until later in the spring – much later.)

April 6th, 2011

I would suspect today was not unlike the day Joseph took his journey in to the grove to pray.  It would have been chilly, so he would have worn a coat.  There would have been frost, and even ice in places.  There would not have been any leaves on the trees, especially after the mini-ice-age they were coming out of in 1820.  (This was caused by a volcanic eruption that resulted in several years of sub-normal temperatures starting in April of 1815 and lasting about 5 years.)  This leads me to think April mornings in 1820 were probably as cold, or colder, than they are now.

We so often see paintings showing leafy trees and a young Joseph on his knees.  Those scenes are more likely how it looks by mid-June and lasting through to September.  Instead, the view during his walk would have been more like this…

The Crooked Creek before the Grove

This would have been one of the first places Joseph got to before entering the grove.  This little brook divides the Smith Farm from the grove.  Today, a small foot bridge crosses the creek here.  Although the creek was flowing, puddles of water elsewhere were covered with thin layers of ice this morning.

I made my way around the grove.  It was just me.  Nobody else around to disrupt the peaceful morning.  I could see why he went when he did.  Any warmer, and others might have been out of bed and outdoors.  Instead, the chill kept them inside.

As I was leaving the grove, I felt some eyes looking at me…

Two Deer

There was enough distance between us that I didn’t spook them.

Upon arriving home, I couldn’t help not grabbing a shot of the yard.

The Front Yard 4-6-2011

First daffodil

I hope you enjoy this short video. I know that the events described truly did take place. Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ back in its original form in these latter days. I know he was called of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ is His true church. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

This is a sketch done with felt pen and colored pencils I did for my father’s birthday in October.  It shows what we call the Sacred Grove.  This grove of trees that anyone can visit and walk through is located in Palmyra, New York and is considered the second most sacred place in the world after Gethsemane . . . at least for members of our church.  The reason? Because in the spring of 1820 a young boy named Joseph Smith went into this grove of trees, after having read James 1:5, to ask God which church was true.  In his own words he said:  “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . . When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy alll description, standing above me in the air.  One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other – This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!“ 

The reason why this grove is called sacred and is designated as the second most holy place in the world is because God and Jesus Christ actually appeared here.  They told him he shouldn’t join any the churches because none of them had the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  No one can walk through these trees and not feel the holy spirit because it really did happen.  It’s such a privilege we can go there ourselves and experience a little of what a curious boy once experienced on one spring day.

My office has become a mess, so in between sorting numbers and getting things done, I managed to straighten up in here too.  We accumulate too much in our society, and this fits in with taxes too.  Look at how much you have to hang on to for your records.  It is crazy.

Anyway, I’m not done yet, but getting there.

A Light Dusting

I will count today and yesterday in my snow log.  It  is important to note, both days were hardly measurable.

At 9am I had a leadership meeting for the high priest group.  It took us about 2.5 hours to get all the home teaching assignments made and review some of the assignments we have.

After my meeting, I took a walk, with camera in tow, in the Sacred Grove.  After my walk, ran in to a young man from Sacramento.  He knew Harvey Greer, and we talked for a while.  I then talked to Elder Wright for a while.  And, then as I was leaving, I ran in to Elder Hales and we talked for a while.

Early this morning

I came home and grabbed some lunch, and then made two fruit cakes.  The recipe was a little on the thin side.  We’ll see how it turns out.

A Seldom Seen View of the Sacred Grove

I’m grateful for the small beauties of this earth like this…

I’m grateful that I get to perform small acts of service like raking leaves….

I’m grateful for moments like this…

I’m grateful for my family…

I’m grateful for the restoration of the gospel Jesus Christ which began here…

Since Thanksgiving is coming up I thought I’d share SOME of the things I am grateful for.  My heart really holds an infinite list of things I am grateful for that I couldn’t possibly write down.  My challenge to you this week is to recognize the good things in your life and be GRATEFUL!   What are you grateful for?

Hail to all the honoured dead!

P.S. I got my Mjollner neckalce not too long ago! It is really really great! I’m so glad that It finally came. I actually got my friend to order and pay for it, and in return I crafted a set of runes for his personal use. A gift for a gift.

Any available land in local cemeteries and military forts was quickly filled.  In 1862,  the 37th Congress laid the foundation to buy land near the battlefields for the establishment of national cemeteries “for those who volunteered to keep the Union intact.”

It was specified that these grounds be securely enclosed.  Meigs himself–a civil and construction engineer–designed the stone lodges at each site and consulted with noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted on the grounds.   Olmsted’s recommendation was that the cemeteries be “studiously simple… a sacred grove.”

And so they are….

Here in this coastal city, where Confederate monuments and commemorative plaques are common sights on downtown streets, nearly six acres of land near the Cape Fear River was set aside in 1867 as a place to bury the Union soldiers who had died at nearby Fort Fisher when 3300 soldiers, including the 27th U. S. Colored Troops, overtook the fort late in the war, thus closing the last supply route to General Robert E. Lee’s army in northern Virginia.

Of the 2100 soldiers who were buried here initially, 1300 were unidentified.  Their bodies were laid out in trenches and marked with small white squares.  These remains were brought from scattered burial sites at the nearby forts, local cemeteries, and scattered graves.

Identification was difficult. There were no government-issued IDs and the slips of papers soldiers often carried in sealed bottles in their pockets or sewn into their clothing did not hold up well.  Throughout the country, 100,000 unknown soldiers are buried in national cemeteries, in straight, neat formations.

In death, even the Unknowns received a number.

In 1918, an influenza epidemic broke out among 1,900 Puerto Ricans being carried on a government ship docked in the Cape Fear River here, on the way to help build Fort Bragg in Fayetteville.  Those who did not survive the epidemic were buried in a mass grave here.  Union soldiers released near the end of the war from Confederate prisons like Andersonville and Salisbury, who were brought here to be sent home but died of illness or starvation before that could happen, are also buried in the early graves.

Initially, Quartermaster General Miegs, a Georgia native who grew up in Pennsylvania and abhorred  the Confederacy and its “war of rebellion,” insisted that only Union soldiers who died in battle be buried on the cemetery grounds.  This rule was relaxed during the war.  Now, national cemeteries may contain graves of veterans of both sides the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the recent wars.  Some wives and dependent children are buried there, as well as graves of soldiers who’d been buried on frontier outposts and later moved when the forts closed.

Most of the 128 national cemeteries are now under the authority of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  Their strict directives cover height variance and distance between headstones, even the percentage of weeds allowable within the lawns of the 16,000 acres.

The shifting sandy soil and the tree roots of the acreage here on the coast had made compliance difficult and necessitated a complete overhaul of the cemetery in 2009.  Each headstone was carefully dug out, cleaned, and reset according to plumb lines.  Where tree roots make the straight lines impossible, the headstones are laid on the ground .

The members of that 27th U. S. Colored Troops and some other similarly segregated regiments are buried in one corner of the cemetery.  Their headstones identify them as members of U.S.C.T.   That area, like most of the original sites, has been filled in with newer graves, area veterans of later wars.  Two victims of Pearl Harbor are buried here.

This cemetery, as is the case with many of the older ones, is closed to new interments, except in rare cases where a family decides to move a grave to another area and leaves a space.   It happened in 2009, so a local veteran of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and the Iraq War is now buried in that spot.

Flowers are placed there by his family.

These graves are interspersed among the Civil War headstones.  They are buried by regiment.

Indiana

New York

Connecticut… Illinois… Maine… Iowa… Pennsylvania… Indiana… New York… and the  U. S. Colored Troops….

U. S. Colored Troop

And so many sad Unknown markers.

In the early 1900′s, a religious symbol was added to the headstones, if desired.  There are 30 emblems of belief available.

The first decade of this century has marked the largest period of expansion for National Cemeteries since the Civil War:  12 new cemeteries.

The smallest National Cemetery is about 2/3 acre, the largest is 1,040 acres.  The sites are tended under the directive that “the resting places of the honored dead… be kept sacred forever.”

(If I have erred in my facts, it is certainly not the fault of Mr. Bill Jayne, Cemetery Development Coordinator of the Office of Field Programs, who kindly walked with me on a sunny fall afternoon and filled my head with information about this dignified place. Mr. Jayne, a former Marine and a historian, works with national cemeteries throughout the country.  For more information on the history of National Cemeteries, read here.)

The Harrow

Me, in front of the grove.

After taking this step I am feeling even more connected to my gods. I am very very excited for the future! I think that when I finish reading the Poetic Edda at yule, I might formally dedicate myself to heathenism. I’m hoping that I’m finally maturing in my faith, and wavering from it is no longer an option.

Blessings, Skye

Soft-focus HDR

The results were… shall we say… interesting.  I’m not sure I’ll do any more soft-focus HDR, but it was worth the experiment.

After work, Elizabethe and Stephanie help me do some cleaning in the studio.  We’re getting it ready so I can actually start using it.  We got a big pizza from Nima’s and then after dinner, started removing the tools and putting them away. 

Tomorrow, we plan on getting things organized in the studio.   It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.

Happy Family at Happiness Garden

I spent a good portion of the day in Spencerport at a “workshop” about New York State grants available for small-town businesses.  It was informative, but there are some real issues I have with government and these programs.

First of all, they claim they are for economic development.  However, to qualify, the majority of people in the area have to be living below poverty level.   To me, that goes contrary to what they are trying to accomplish.

The other thing that really bothers me about these programs are they come from the Federal Government to the state.  The state takes their administration fee.  From there, it goes to the local municipality that takes its cut.  From there, the individual has to apply to the local entity to get the funding.  Although this is good that it is driven down to the local level, you’ve got all this red tape before it gets to the individual applying.

I’m sure a better way exists.

More Grandin Tours

I made my rounds through the village.  Things seemed a little light today.  No protesters were out there when I came through.  But, they may have already headed to the Hill for the evening.

If you go to http://dbwalton.smugmug.com there are some pictures.  You can see them with the password of today’s date (july10).

Here’s a few I’ll share here…

Dave

Dave has become my friend.  He saw me coming and wanted me to take his picture.  He’s a sweet man who looks after people the best he can.

Sarah and her dad, Matt

Matt’s one of the first people I met here in Palmyra.  He works for the Church Educational System (CES) and is a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to L.D.S. Church History.  Sarah, his daughter, is a sweet young lady and it is always a joy to see her visiting her grandparents (my friends, the Hippens.)

Latter-day Harvest Bookstore (mgr. Jeffery)

Latter-day Harvest is carrying my book.  Its up at the counter near the front corner.  It is a high-quality coffee-table (hmmm… do Mormon’s have ”coffee tables”?  LOL) book that features much of my work in and around Palmyra.  It is a good missionary tool too.  Oh, and it also has non-church stuff in there too, which makes it all the more worth having.

Two Sister Missionaries

When people come to the Grandin Building to tour it, they are greeted by sister missionaries like these young ladies. 

You're probably wondering...

These young people were trying to drum up business for their high school choir fund-raising BBQ.  Who could resist?  I couldn’t.  I bought two dinners and that’s what Elizabethe and I had for dinner.  (They also had cookies and brownies for sale.  I won’t miss this in the future.  Worth the $8/plate.)

Opposition

Lehi taught that there must be opposition in all things.  This man helps prove that point.  More non-members each year ask the missionaries about “What is this guy talking about?” than you would believe.  So, before you say, “I wish they’d chase these “antis” away”, remember this… every year, the Palmyra Stake gets baptisms all because people want to learn the truth…. which they learn through the spirit while being taught by the missionaries.

Garden At the End of the Day

I’ll leave you with this last shot… Elizabethe’s garden.  I must say, having a garden in NY is a delight.  Having one in California was a pain-in-the-keister.  I think I’ll go pick some sugar peas and have a healthy snack before going to bed.

Our poor guests.  I hope they don’t think this is normal.  Last year around this time, our guests were asking about a heater for the night.   Now, they wish we had air conditioning.

We had choir practice tonight.  First time I practiced the organ part for Sunday.  I had to re-write much of it as my copy was so hard to see.  (It was a scan someone sent me, and it was very grainy and light.)  I stayed after and practiced until I got it.  It’s not difficult… just hard to see. 

Sunday will be the Sacrament meeting we’re singing in.  I’ll be playing the organ on the last choir number.  Then, the Sunday after, it is Geri’s turn to play so I’ll just be singing in the choir.  They are expecting about 1200 people in sacrament meeting.

It is HOT today.  We’ve been hit with a record heat wave.  They say it is going to last all week.  Thank goodness I put A/C in my office.

My walk in the grove was nice this morning.  I got there just as the sun was coming through the trees, and it was still that golden color.

Morning Sunrise in the Sacred Grove

It’s quite a wonderful place to go in the morning.  If I get there early enough, I have the place to myself.  Okay, except for the wildlife.  But, it is a nice way to start the morning.

After work Elizabethe and I hit Wegman’s for their $6 dinner deal.  Pretty good for $6.   You get one main dish, and two sides.  It was more than either one of us could finish.  Wegman’s reminds me a little of Raley’s in California, but of a higher quality and BIGGER.  (I love Wegman’s olive bar.  Mmmmmm…)

So, this morning in the Sacred Grove I ran in to a Brother Richards from Sandy, Utah.  While we were talking, the three kits, now grown, came over to check us out!  They came real close and looked at us as if to say, “What are you guys doing?”

The three kits have become a Sacred Grove & Smith Farm attraction.  And, I must say, they are quite cute to watch.

So, to be a little different this morning, I put my shutter on a few seconds, opened it, and just walked through the Sacred Grove.  The results might surprise you.

Walking with Shutter Open

It’s all in the walk.

Speaking of walking…

Please join me on July 15th at 8am for a 3 hour photo walk.  The cost is $20 which includes a signed print (worth $20 right there!)  Pick up photo tips, as well as historic tidbits about Palmyra.

Here’s another walking shot…

Untitled

Walking in the Grove

I love walking in the Sacred Grove.  I get there about the time the sun is starting to break through the trees.  I love hearing the birds sing and the quiet solitude I find there.  

Often, I take time to ponder what happened here.  

Pondering

I find myself wondering why the world doesn’t recognize the importance of that single event.  Whether one believes or not, I wonder why people who do not believe do not find it important to take the time to find out if it is true.  And, for those who do believe, I often ask why it does not motivate them to action.  

I marvel at trees that may have stood on that glorious day.  They stand as quiet witnesses to the greatest event since the resurrected Lord appeared in the meridian of time.  

A Silent Witness

There are those who may never have the opportunity to visit the Sacred Grove.  For them, I hope my images bring them some taste of what it is like.  Others have been there, but may never get to return.  I hope my images bring back memories for them.  Then there are those who hope to come visit.  May my images whet your appetite.  Finally, there are those who are not sure they want to visit.  For you, my friends, I hope you can feel what I feel as I walk the grove as you look at my images.

"Suddenly a Light Descended"

Note:  You can purchase many of my images (and 11x14s are on sale for the remainder of this year!) at http://dbwalton.smugmug.com/Photography/2010-in-2010 .  You may also visit my web site at www.FineArtbyDB.com .

We had three children at the farm – the Sorensen children.  They were just wonderful.

Later, we photographed the E.B. Grandin Building with just the oldest Sorensen boy.  It too was fun.  I got to meet Elder and Sister Watt.  I had never met them before.  Elder Watt was quite helpful and informative.

Recreation of the Harmony Smith Home in the Grandin Building

Another early morning tomorrow (again, before work).  This time, the Whitmer Farm. 

After that, I’m taking Friday off, because when I finish work tomorrow, Elizabethe and I are driving to Kirtland, Ohio, for the final portion of the Friend Magazine work.  It will be fun.

The Gathering Place at Sunset

Behind where I was standing when I took this picture are several wood benches.  The missionaries often have meetings there.

The sacred anthill at Puthupet

Gold and red cloths are draped around the sacred anthill, with a blue one near the top.  Posters stand on thin stakes.  Nearby colored cloths hang from the branches of a sacred tree, some enclosing written prayers.  A trident stands in front of the anthill, where village people have placed their offerings of incense and flowers.

The anthill is near the entrance of the ancient grove of Puthupet, not far from the coast of the Bay of Bengal, near Pondicherry, on the east coast of India.  Really, it’s a termite hill, but these are commonly called anthills, and the insects are called white ants.  The home they have built is elaborate, several yards (meters) across—and rising maybe five feet (one and a half meters) high; it is home not just to ants, but to many other creatures as well, notably cobras.  It is known that cobras do often live in the anthills.

The trees form strange shapes

Everything here appears to be sacred, and the respect accorded the grove is no doubt the reason that it all continues to exist.  The sacred grove of Puthupet is thousands of years old.  It used to be that all of India was dotted with sacred groves and forests.  Some of these do still exist, and some have been reconstructed, but many have, sadly, been neglected in this modern age when the old ways are followed less than they used to be, and the lure of more secular life beckons.

A botanist with the C.P.R. Environmental Education Center has done studies of these sacred groves all over south India, and it seems that Mr. Amirthalingam knows every plant and tree—not only both their common and scientific names, but also the traditional medicinal use that they may have. (Perhaps he knows them individually too—one wouldn’t be surprised!) Of the thick, turning vines that wind themselves into fantastic shapes, he says that they are a thousand years old at least.  Puthupet covers an area around 40 acres (16.2 hectares).

As we walk along a broad path, to the left lies a shrine made of concrete—perhaps twenty feet long  (six meters) by ten feet wide  (three meters).  Along the span of one wall are lined up many impressive, standing terra cotta figures. These are the spirit Ayyanaar and his band of brothers.  He reminds me a bit of Robin Hood, as a folk hero, though that may be a mistaken comparison.

Every night Ayyanaar rides around the perimeter of the village with his companions,  encircling the village and the grove to protect them.  Most often he rides on a horse, though sometimes on an elephant instead.  A family is there at the shrine, with three children, to leave offerings to honor Ayyanaar.

Children, with their family, making offerings

As is true of ravens everywhere, the black and gray ravens of India are garrulous; they are having a cheerful squabble over a bit of food.  Not far away, a statue of the mythical swan, Hamsa, looks on, detached.  The stone she is made of is black from the incense offered to her.  The flight of the Hamsa recalls the escape of the soul from the wheel of life and death.

Hamsa, the mythical swan

Ahead is an army of horses in a clearing beside some stalls where offerings are being sold. Hundreds of horses—big and small ones.

Ayyanaar, his little dog by his side, along with a lion, under one of the horses

They can be bought and given as offerings to Ayyanaar, I guess to help him with his nightly rounds.  Under one of the horses, Ayyanaar stands, along with a friendly-looking lion and a dog at his feet. On the ground in one of the stalls where a man is standing—(it’s not clear to me whether he is a village priest or an artisan who makes the terra cotta horses—or maybe he is both)—are standing off to the side three stone snake statues; each one is two snakes, entwined together.

Sacred snakes in stone

Dr. Nanditha Krishna, the Honorary Director of CPREEC, who is an authority on the iconography of Tamil Nadu, says that the snake is a symbol of fertility and of wealth that comes from the earth. “The snake knows the secrets of the earth.”  On the back of his head the cobra has markings that resemble eyes.

A Hindu god normally has a snake to exemplify power or knowledge; for example, Shiva wears a snake around his neck, and Vishnu reclines on a snake.  Ganesha, the elephant god, wears a snake as a belt—a living snake, of course.  Kartikeya has both a snake and a peacock.  A snake canopies the head of Shakti, the Mother Goddess.

From the nearby village and from farther away, people come every Tuesday and Friday to make offerings to the sacred beings of the grove.  They bring a rice dish called pongal and offer lighted lamps.  Animal sacrifices can still sometimes take place in India, but not here. At Puthupet all the offerings are vegetarian.

17 varieties of vines grow in the grove, along with 12 different herbs, 20 species of shrubs and 42 different kinds of trees.  Dogs lie happily in the shade that falls from the plants.  A young girl is collecting fallen branches for firewood, along with her little brother.

The grove seems immensely peaceful, a place well-cared for and protected—thanks to Ayyanaar and his nightly rounds—and thanks to the respect and reverence that local people feel for that which is sacred in nature.

On the way north outside of Puthupet, we pass huge salt fields where men and women are collecting salt and drying it in large mounds.  There is a lot of salt available in these areas not far from the coast.

One of the ancient trees, with Mr. Selvapandian of the CPREEC

Puthupet is one of very few ancient sacred groves that have lasted intact through the centuries.  Next we will visit one that has been restored and brought back to life again.  Nenmeli, like so many others, had been neglected and forgotten and had become a wasteland, until it was restored by CPREEC, who have restored 50 sacred groves in south India.

To visit the website of the C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre, go to

http://cpreec.org <http://cpreec.org/>

To read the story of Nenmeli, scroll down to the one before the previous one.

Photos: Sharon St Joan

Today would be a day that Joseph Smith, Jr., described when he wrote, “It was a beautiful clear day, early in the spring of 1820.” 

Today was much like that.  So, I thought I would share with everyone what the grove may have looked like as Joseph Smith walked into it to pray. 

Sacred Grove Early Spring Just Before Sunrise

Please notice that there are still dried leaves on the ground, and the trees have not yet put forth their leaves.  It was about 60 degrees outside when I took this picture.  There was no wind, and you could hear the birds singing.  The site missionaries joked that you couldn’t hear any bees humming.  (The LDS Hymn states that “bees were humming”.  For all we know, that could have been poetic license.) 

I took this picture of the cabin to show what it may have looked like on such a morning just before sunrise. 

Joseph Smith’s Family’s Log Home

Stafford Road was probably rutted with wagon tracks from the frequent rains.  The family probably had a fire as the nights could still drop into the 40s.  And the now barren trees contrast with the spring’s green grass. 

Joseph may have exited the cabin through its backdoor as he made his way to the grove (seen in the background of this picture.)  It’s a short walk from the cabin to the grove.  But, once in the grove, you can easily see why he picked this location; it would be easy to find a quiet secluded place. 

 I had to rush off to work else I might have stayed the entire day in the grove.  But, before leaving, I ran in to Elder Hales.  He had his Nikon D3000 in hand and I teased about his choice of cameras, but then added that I used to shoot Nikon and they are great cameras. 

He asked about night shooting, so I suggested we get together tonight to take some shots. 

After work, Elizabethe and I ate at Chill-n-Grill.  Their burgers have more meat than bun, and their ice cream cones are stacked high.  But, the best thing they have are their onion rings.  They have onion rings down to perfection. 

I met Elder Hales at their home, and we called President Strassburg.  He came and set the lights at the temple so that we could get the effects we want.  (The temple is currently closed for spring cleaning.) 

Elder Hales and I took turns taking pictures in key locations, and had a wonderful time capturing these images.  Here are some samples… 

The Palmyra LDS Temple at Night

LDS Temple at Dusk, Palmyra, New York

Elder Hales taking a shot

If you look at the above picture, you can see a “sine wave” of light.  That’s me walking with my flashlight on.  Pretty funny.  I had my flashlight on so I could light Elder Hales while he was talking his shot.  (You can see him there right of center.)  By the way, I will be teaching such techniques in my Autumn in Upstate New York Workshop in October 2010.   You can get more information on my photography blog. 

Vision of Eternity

Of all the shots, the above was my favorite.  I had no idea this shot would turn out like this.  I was simply showing Elder Hales how to experiment when doing time exposures.  This was IN CAMERA, no Photoshop except to frame it, enhance the saturation and sign it.  The special effect is all camera work.