It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we were descending down Ogden canyon with hopes of catching some great light to photograph the Ogden Utah Temple.
This adventure posed some excitement for me as I had memories as a kid of the Ogden Temple. Having grown up in the Midvale, Utah area, Ogden seemed like forever away and my family rarely went North of Bountiful. There was however, one day when at the age of nine, my Grandmother took me to the Ogden Temple open house. It was an exciting adventure that I have not since forgotten and this would actually be the first time back since that day.
This trip, would be a new experience as the Ogden Temple that I knew was a thing of the past. A major makeover was completed in 2014 making the temple appear as a brand new temple. Capturing beautiful photographs of this new temple is something I have wanted to do for a while.
As we exited the mouth of the canyon, we were greeted with fast approaching storm clouds. The word ominous would fit the description and I began to think that this opportunity was about to get rained out. We continued to drive into town as the sky darkened, it seemed as though our windshield was wincing from the thought of getting wet.
As I got out of the vehicle it seemed as if the clouds were sealed. They had the appearance of wanting to drop torrents of water, but for some reason they were holding back. I grabbed my gear and rushed up the sidewalk towards the beautiful structure.
Besides the impending weather, I had one more challenge to overcome. This experience was in early June of 2020, 4 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. The temples were now officially closed for a while. This means that all the gates would be shut and locked tight. Any hopes of photographs would have to be through the fence.
I staked out my first composition, which was dead center right through the west gate. As I set up my tripod and fine tuned the camera, something miraculous happened. The clouds parted and the late afternoon sun lit up the temple making it pop against the dark turbulent clouds in the background. It was amazing! and I rushed to get the pictures that I had envisioned before the clouds closed back up and the rain came falling down.
