Hopewell

Melanie and I along with Rocky the aging Golden Retriever loaded up in the PT about dark and journeyed the 35 miles up to Hopewell Baptist Church Saturday evening. Seeing that we still had daylight to burn, as Roger would have said, we stopped at the Cone Bridge Landing on the Suwannee River. We let Rocky wade and swim in the water, I am sure bringing back happy memories for him of his youthful days. Once at Hopewell off Road 6, the sun was setting and it made for a lovely spot to be in. Quiet, except for the persistent Chuck-wills-widow and other creatures making their last calls of daylight. Melanie helped me set the three lanterns in the church and patiently waited with Rocky in the church on the wooden pews as I photographed the church. My goal was to try and capture the glow of the lanterns, but I could not achieve enough glow without making the exterior become over-exposed.
I tried a ND filter, then a ND and polarizer, slowing the exposure to several seconds, but it still did not work. I then asked Melanie to trip the shutter while I went inside with the Gary Fong Flash attachment Ron Pinner had recently given me, tripping them off inside while the twenty-five second exposure recorded it. We were at the end of our patience and hot, so I only took two shots. Had I more time, I would have flashed the Fong away from the windows, as you can see my image seven times in the windows. It did capture the look I was after. As I told Melanie, that gives us another excuse to return.
I am sure her and Rocky would think twice!