On Tuesday the June 11, I pulled my car out of the driveway while listening to the song “Africa” recorded by the American rock band Toto. I don’t even remember how or when that song became my travelling song, but I always play it when I drive off on any long adventure from home.
This trip to my childhood home in Salt Lake City, Utah was a quick decision. I hadn’t been there in 24 years, so I thought I was long overdue for a visit to my family.
I wasn’t sure if I would have time for photographing the city, but I packed my camera bag anyway. I brought two cameras, my main DSLR and my Infrared camera. For lenses I had my favourite travelling lens, a 24-120mm, also a 16-35mmm and the 20-40mm that works so well on my IR camera. I included my kit with ND and polarizing filters, and of course my tripod.
My photo-pal Jo has been pushing me to make this trip to see my family for some time and, of course, take her with me. Jo’s camera bag included her DSLR with her 14-24mm and 28-300mm lenses and her tripod.
The trip included hours of driving and we spent one night on the way in Missoula, Montana before arriving in Salt Lake City in the late afternoon.
Jo and I had talked about walking around the city centre with a stop at the Mormon Temple. The Salt Lake City Temple was completed after some forty years of construction in1893. I remember many enjoyable occasions walking around the interesting temple grounds and my class of 1965 High School Graduation Ceremony was held in the tabernacle, an accompanying building originally built to house meetings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
So, one can understand that I was disappointed that the temple and temple grounds were closed for a massive remodelling and seismic renovations that are expected to take four more years. And to make matters worse for a visitor, the downtown city itself seems to be undergoing construction everywhere making it impossible, or at least, really hard to park a car and wander with a camera. Oh well, maybe I can start planning another trip in four years.
Fortunately, our second choice, the architecturally beautiful Utah State Capitol building located on Capitol Hill was an easy to get to with plenty of parking and a perfect place to take our cameras and tripods for night photography.
The capitol building overlooks downtown Salt Lake City and was built back in 1913 and I read that it took over eight hundred railroad carloads of a granite-like stone called quartz monzonite from a nearby canyon to build it.
I always liked that white stone place that is always lit up at night. We used to be able to see it from miles away, but now there are many tall buildings and large trees on State Street that block the view. State Street is a wide 17-mile-long street leading almost straight south from the steps of the Capitol Building through the city and out to neighbouring communities. Nevertheless, and in spite of the steady breeze that was welcome after the punishing 100 plus degrees we had to endure during the day, we were able to get great photographs as we walked around the Capitol building grounds at night.
Our serious photography was limited to that night on Capitol Hill and only a few shots of Utah Lake. The family photos were left to people wielding cellphones. I would have liked to drive south, but I was told that June has become one of the most people-packed times to visit the Utah canyon lands and the parks now all require permits that must be reserved. Gone are the days when a bunch of us would jam into our cars and go anywhere in southern Utah without worrying about camping fees or park entrance permits.
Oh well, I was really there to visit and spend time with my family, and after that happy reunion we gathered our gear said goodbye, and I pointed my car east toward Wyoming and began the five-hour drive to Yellowstone Park.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
