M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Through the Camera Lens
The Dawning of a New Day in Nauvoo
by Scot Facer Proctor

I never tire of Nauvoo. Something about the very name seems to excite the DNA. Capturing Nauvoo on film and digital images has been easy because long ago Nauvoo captured my heart.

May I bring you with me on a 'fast stroll' through Nauvoo on the morning of Thursday, June 27, 2002? I say 'fast' because when I shoot morning light I know that I only have a few minutes when the light is just the way I want it for taking images. The clock on the temple will help us see the changes in light. Let's go down to 'the flats' as well and show you some charming views of the Nauvoo we have come to know and love.

This is the first picture I took on the morning of the dedication: 5:57AM. It was during the first three minutes of light and I thought, "If no one captures the light as it first touches the temple spire, who will ever know what it was like that sacred day?"

We published this as the cover of "A Compensation for Their Tears." I love the texture in this photo; it's almost edible. People have asked me over and over again, "how do we know those star windows were made of colored glass?" We can look at the gray scales of those early Daguerreotypes and see that they were colored (the same basic process is used in the colorization of old black and white movies).

Here you can see the light beginning to move down the east façade of the temple. The color temperature of the light changes very rapidly in those first few minutes of sunshine. I figure I have about five minutes at this temperature.

I call this shot "The sun, the moon and the stars." This beautiful, enormous window that lets light into the celestial room represents the sun. The moon represents herself. The star stones grace the soffit of the temple throughout.

I can stare at this picture of the temple for hours. There is something so pleasing about these beautiful sunstones at the top of the thirty pilasters. They just ring "Nauvoo" in my ears and heart and make me want to look even longer.

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