Although I had photographed the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Taos on several occasions, I recently learned that there is an interesting feature to consider when thinking about visiting this beautiful structure. There are  light-sensitive floodlights which turn on at dusk illuminating the statue of Francis and the frontal exterior of the building. Constructed between 1772-1815, no less a luminary than Georgia O’Keeffe described it as “one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards.” In the gloaming, the marble statue of the good saint, as well as the adobe walls of the church, seem to glow with an inner light that makes the scene, for me, all the more poignant and special. A focal length of 20mm allowed me the angle-of-view I wanted in a visual field that had to be carefully constructed so as to include essential elements and exclude non-essential ones without mergers or other distractions. An aperture of f/13 and a shutter speed of 30.0 seconds at ISO 100 provided depth-of-field and noise control with an overall very slightly-darker-than-medium exposure. It just barely allowed me to avoid having to use the “bulb” setting on my camera. The scene was a gift to my spirit.