Mission Concepcion, San Antonio, Texas

Not realizing that the Mission did not open until 9am, we arrived well before sunrise at Mission Concepcion. A few years ago Janet and I went to Concepcion on a Monday morning and I feel certain that it opened at 7am. We had a full hour to ourselves, in the background there was chanting. It was an exceptional occasion. This trip was not as magical and my photographs reflect that. Not that I am not pleased with the photographs that I got this trip, they are just very different.

There is always a caveat to my photographs. What you will see should you go to Conception, or any of the missions, will not be what you see in my photographs. About the least of my concerns when I am photographing is reality, especially reality of color. I'll leave that for the travel brochures.  

On the previous trip, I shot at Concepcion, on three different occasions over a period of three days. This trip we spent a few hours of the first morning and then went back on the second day for some exterior shots with different lighting. Unfortunately it rained most of the second day and the light was relatively dull and uninteresting. I doubt that I will process any of the photographs from the second visit.

Originally I had intended to concentrate only on the interiors of the missions on this trip. Because of the early arrival I did spend a good deal of time photographing the exterior of Concepcion. I worked more on textures and details than I did on overall shots which call for getting the timing and the lighting to cooperate. We got a little cooperation on the second visit to San Jose but most of the time the light was not ideal for overall shots.