Driving through chapparal and the dry forests of the region know as the Central coast of California, you come across this military training facility called Fort Hunter-Liggett, one of the many training facilities of the US Army. And within this fortified area, there is a little sign pointing to Mission San Antonio, which left me wondering what a little spanish outpost was doing amidst an elite army training facility.
Turns out that this was the third Spanish mission found even before the independence of USA. Yes, its that old.
And it has remained unchanged for the last two centuries. It even has the honor of having the first Christian marriage in California.
It is truly the oldest place I have seen in California.
A beautiful (perhaps in spring only) garden surrounded by well ornamented courtyard is dominated a really old church. Colorful wall art and statues adorn the walls and pillars in the courtyard and the church has preserved a lot of paintings as well.
All of this is nice to learn and enjoy, but rather difficult to find something to shoot, especially under midday sun which leaves no shadows anywhere. Thankfully a cross I found outside the church provided something interesting to compose with. Immediately, the above shot popped into my head – silhouetting the cross against the bright blue sky, while allowing a sliver of sunlight to create a starburst by placing the camera on a boundary line between shadow and light. And that resulted in the above shot, which, due to the low perspective meant that I did not know what I was shooting.
More scenes from the church and another silhouette of the cross are below
Mission San Antonio de Padua
CA USA
This will be the last update for about a week – I am disappearing into Alaska next week. Please pray for the weather to be good…..
Posted by A Camera Story on 2010-07-22 07:13:39
Tagged: , california , central coast , church , cross , fort hunter-liggett , mission , mission san antonio , silhouette , Jolon , Sony DSLR A700 , Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
