Ansel Adams did a famous series of pictures of the Taos Pueblo back in the 1920s, and published a book entitled Taos Pueblo. Notably, he has a photo from outside the pueblo (and in fact, right on the edge of Taos) of the Rancho de Taos church. I've wondered about why he did this for some time, and it was enough to catch a glimpse from the road to understand why.
After I visited there, I found a great reference for Adams' feelings on the subject.
Even today, surrounded by the clutter of development, I felt a similar sentiment -- there is a quality of plain perfection to the geometry of this church that drew me in.
Notably, Adams chose to keep the sky light in his version of the church. All I could think of was the contrast between the light tones of the church with a dark, polarized sky converted to black & white.
He had this to say about his decision:
He described how he had used yellow and red filters before in many images in special high-altitude light of the Southwest. "But on this occasion some gentle angel whispered 'no filter' and I obeyed." Taking the shot with no filter allowed the blue sky to appear quite light, and the shadows were softened... A darker sky would have depreciated the feeling of light."
Needless to say, I had no such gentle angel.
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