Little Shasta Valley Church

Out past Montague, CA in an area called Little Shasta Valley there is a church that was built in 1877-1878 by the early pioneers to this area. It is in a most picturesque setting with surrounding ranches and a commanding view of majestic Mt. Shasta.

This church as you can see is a favorite setting for weddings and for wedding photography. On this afternoon I headed out looking for a great shot of this church and the surrounding landscapes.

I was using my trusty D7000 with my 24-120mm lens. As I looked at some of the pictures in post processing I realized that when I took off the UV filter and replaced it with the circular polarizing filter I forgot to attach the lens hood. Because of this and the low position of the sun this time of year I ended up with a few shots with glare off of the lens.

Because the 24-120mm f/4 has nano coated lenses it actually wasn’t two serious and I actually liked it in a couple of the shots.

Even looking at the sun in this picture gives me an after image. Definitely not one of those shots you spend a lot of time lining up and looking at through the view finder.

Around the perimeter of the church is an old fence with some great hardware on it.

With the sun low in the horizon it gave some great side light for these details.

There was also an old water pump in the yard between the church and the minister’s house.

After leaving the little church I drove northeast looking for a good shot of Mt. Shasta. There were a few golden eagles and hawks flying around, but none of them close enough to the road for me to get a good shot.

Off to the left of this view of Mt. Shasta is a view of a great ridgeline of lava rock.

It was an enjoyable few hours shooting in some great winter sunlight. This time of year the time that you can have good lighting is increased since the sun is so low in the sky for most of the day.