Oct. 2, 2011

The Flying Veil

On Dec 31, 2005 Marie and I were asked to photograph a wedding for the Clifton family. Their daughter Carmen, was getting married in the morning and then we were invited to come and do the pictures after they had had a special brunch in the Kirtland room of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We arrived just before noon and it became obvious to me that we could have been there a few minutes earlier and been a little better off.
This was to prove to be a very interesting day but not for the reasons that they usually were in the past. In fact this day of the flying veil would prove to be a singular event in our lives I am sure.
They had finished the dinner and were basically waiting for us as we walked into the room. We took our umbrella lights but had left them in the car until we knew that we needed them. When we looked at the room I knew I would so we hurried down and took them back up to the room full of waiting guests. It didn’t take long to pull the tables out of the road and clear a corner of the room facing the windows where we could see the spires of the Salt Lake Temple in the cold winter air. The Canon 10-D camera that I usually used had been in repair for the last couple of weeks so we picked it up on the way to Salt Lake City. However since I hadn’t had a chance to use it I had taken Ed’s camera with me as well. I was glad that I did since his camera had a wide-angle lens on it that easily was able to capture the large crowd that we had to photograph. We took pictures of the entire group and then the Groom’s friends and family followed by the bride’s friends and family. I was glad we were doing it in the room since there were a number of young children and older couples and the weather outside was frightful to say the least. It wasn’t raining too hard like it had been in Mapleton as we left for the day but it had started to sprinkle just as we arrived at the Memorial Building and the clouds held the promise of more bad weather. We took pictures similar to what we normally would do at a reception since there was not going to be a reception that evening due to it being New Year’s Eve. Finally we were almost finished and the bride decided we needed to go get the pictures around the temple done since the gates were going to be closed at any time for the New Year events.
We left the room around 1 pm and started to go outside. It took nearly 15 minutes just to get the bride and groom down to the main level. Marie had gone ahead and taken the light s back to the car and then was waiting for us outside. I started by taking a few pictures with the temple in the background just outside of the Memorial Building entrance. Then we moved over to the East stairs and did several shots of just the bride and groom and then a few of the groom’s family on the steps. We were finally able to bid goodbye to all of the guests and started around to the west side of the temple where we photographed in our usual spots by the old tree and then to the northwest lawn so we could get some with the temple in the background there as well. We did some under the trees on the north side and then went out through the gates to the crossing bridge that leads to the east side of the temple and the east side of the reflecting pond. I took some pictures on the bridge and then we did some by the lawn to the north side of the pool. Carmen’s family had come from the Memorial Building and were on the south side of the pool as I started to the east side and Marie and Carmen and Sam started to the west side in front of the temple. I stepped into place and took a picture of the pool and the temple. I had never been before able to do since my lens on my camera cannot do a wide-angle shot well enough to get both in the same photo. Just then I felt a huge gust of very cold wind rush past me and an audible gasp come from the crowd around the temple and looked over to see Carmen’s veil being lifted by the wind up toward the temple. It had been cold already but at least there hadn’t been very much wind and no rain so we had basically been able to do all of the pictures that Carmen had requested. However now as I watched the veil float up on the wind I thought that our picture taking with it at least was finished. I expected it to be carried away by the wind into the next county at least since it was such a heavy blast. I watched in amazement though as it floated up toward the spires of the temple and became so involved that I forgot to take picture. Suddenly I came to my sense though and realized what it would mean to the couple to have pictures of this event for their children and grandchildren since no one would ever believe it happened. I had my own camera with a longer lens already mounted on it so I quickly fired off three pictures as the veil climbed steadily up toward the top of the temple. Carmen’s parents later stated that they thought it would end up on Moroni’s trumpet. However the wind currents then shifted and the veil floated back over the air above Carmen, Sam and Marie. I thought for a moment it would float right back down onto Carmen’s head from where it had been taken and then wondered if it would land in the pool instead but about that time the currents shifted again and it was carried over the temple fence and landed softly on the grass of the temple grounds. A few young children inside the temple grounds had also been watching just as everyone else and they quickly retrieved the veil and handed it through the fence to Marie. I was totally astonished that we hadn’t lost it to the next county or at least to the top of the roof of the temple.
We took the rest of the pictures around the pool and then up to the pedestal in front of the Church Office Building and then decided it was time to go inside since the shift of the wind had brought in a very cold winter’s blast of air as well.
We went back into the Memorial Building and did some more pictures around the marble columns and were very glad, although still amazed, to be able to use the veil.
Photography is fun and it is events like this that continue to amaze me and yet also help me to always remember there is a Father in Heaven that loves to help us (and amaze us as well).