Not so easy to photograph the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church near Taos

<p>On a trip to Taos last week, I found it harder to get a decent shot of this famous church (painted by Georgia O'Keeffe, photographed by Ansel Adams and many others) than I thought it would be. This is the rear of the church, and the parking lot for the surrounding galleries and restaurant goes to within maybe 10 feet of the building.<br>

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Seems they value parking over visual enjoyment.<br>

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The truck was there for at least an hour, while we were eating lunch. Actually, a second Ray's truck pulled up alongside, and left after the driver had lunch. The first truck stayed. I thought of calling in a bogus emergency septic backup, but chickened out.<br>

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Anyway, the church is only a few miles from Taos, so if you go and want to get your own clichéd shot, make sure you give yourself a couple of chances.</p><div></div>

<p>Frustrating, isn't it? I've had the same experience at Mission Santa Barbara (CA) and Mission Xavier Del Bac (Tucson AZ). Like you, I included the cars/trucks/tourists as part of the image... but never was very happy with that solution. Maybe in 30 years it will help the image acquire a "timely" value as the vehicles and clothing/hair styles change.</p>

<p>One thing I have noticed... if trying to "wait them out" then don't let them see you. If they know you are waiting they will take longer doing whatever they are doing. It is a scientifically proven fact!</p>

<p>I spent time in this area in fall 2010 and have quite a lot of photographs of this church, none of which have trucks, cars, or people. The only secret is to go very early in the morning, before sunrise . I visited this location maybe six times over about three days , and |I never had an issue early in the day and always had a problem later on, especially late afternoon when the shadow of trees behind where you're standing gets thrown over the surrounding rooftops onto the church. An early start also means less harsh shadows. </p><div></div>

<p><img src="http://riwong.smugmug.com/Travel/New-Mexico/i-RsMfVBm/0/L/DSC_2289-L.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="532" /><br>

had no problem around sunset found out that most people know nothing about the church and had know idea where it is.</p>

<p>My previous post probably contains fewer words than necessary. I went to this church about six times whilst staying in Taos in October 2010. Whenever we went in late morning or afternoon the area was being well used as a car park. Similarly when there were services at the church. Having vehicles around restricted the type of photographs we could take. It didn't necessarily mean no photographs or photographs with vehicles. It did mean positioning yourself pretty close with a wide lens and accepting that you couldn't always include the whole church. <br>

The thing that does stop photography- well it stopped me photographing anyway - was when the church was being struck by strong direct sunlight leaving dark shadows and high contrast. </p>

<p>The way to avoid both cars and shadows is to photograph very early in the morning. I can't say there would be no cars ( not least, there was mine) but your positioning options are much better. It is also good when the sun sinks behind buildings to the south-west of the plaza, but there are more cars and trucks than early in the day, but you get the benefit of soft light if you can find a good spot. The shot I included above was taken early evening</p>

 

<p>I think this is true of many places. Early mornings do work well at many, but somtimes you have to be patient and wait and/or go back and try another time. There were presumably fewer people at this particilar location when Ansel photographed it. But he also lived close to many of the subject he is famous for photographing, or at least traveled to them frequently, so he had the opportunity to go back if necessary.</p>

<p>I appreciate the irony that it's a vehicle from a septic service caught in your photo. </p>

<p>Brian S. "Maybe in 30 years it will help the image acquire a "timely" value as the vehicles and clothing/hair styles change."</p>

<p>We have some aged shots of buildings that now qualify for that statement, and I actually appreciate those that incorporate the cars and people as much as those without. They give a feeling of the era of the shot, and that has some value.</p>

<p>Dumb question for Marc... it doesn't look like the truck in question was working... did you ask him to move?</p>

<p>A contrarian view is that the Taos mission church is actually a cliché, so fate is telling you to take something else which might be more novel and interesting. You should try visiting Italy - you can guarantee all the sites you might want to photograph as a tourist will be festooned in scaffolding <em>in restauro. </em>We have it easy here in the US. But, seriously, all you have to do is to take a different shot or take something else. I gave up worrying about this sort of thing years ago as there is nothing you can do about it and you can always go back. Enjoy the moment!</p>

<p>There are always challenges.</p>

<p>La Purisima Mission Church near Lompoc, CA sits on its own pristine 500 acres. Never had a problem there.</p>

<p>I hate when that happens. I sit and wait and wait and wait and still nothing. It's not usually all bad though because it makes me look for different angles.</p>