Sacred Spaces Exhibit Opening - Taliesin

Romeo & Juliet Windmill (1897), Taliesin. Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Yahooooooo…my SACRED SPACES photography exhibit opens in three weeks at @taliesinwi in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

I will also be doing a presentation on the exhibit with some “how I got the shot” on August 7th and it’s FREE to attend. More info/registration below.

This image of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Romeo and Juliet windmill (1897) is one of over 30 images in the exhibit and is one of my favorite mainly because it was done purely through experimentation…meaning I had know idea how to pull it off or what the final image would look like when I arrived to photograph it that night.

All I knew was I wanted the 60 foot windmill lit up at night with stars behind it.

So my process was this…

First the composition, that was based solely on the “whirling arrow” tail up top. It’s an iconic part of Wright and needed to be seen straight on.

Next, I didn’t want star trails, so my exposure had to be 30 seconds or less, so I started with 30 seconds and then had a portable LED light panel that I “painted” on the windmill in an attempt to illuminate it. I tried 30 seconds, it was way to bright, I tried 25 seconds, still to bright. I continued this light painting process a few times until I got it just right. A few hours in total.

Whether or not it came out was really not the goal, it was more about the fun process of experimentation and learning (on the fly) all the ways it didn’t work until it did.

If you want to hear more stories like this on my images make sure to sign up for the presentation Aug 7th. Let me know if you have any questions. See you there Aug 7th!