Iowa Photo: Ridgeway Ruin

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“I’ve wanted to photograph this ruin, located west of Decorah for a really long time,” said The Gazette photo editor Jim Slosiarek.

“It’s a considerable time investment to drive from Cedar Rapids but northeast Iowa is suchh a beautiful drive. I was driving to Wisconsin anyway so what’s an extra two hours tacked on to the trip?”

“I finally pulled up to the old church after a wrong turn or two on dusty, gravel roads in rural Winneshiek County.”

“I wanted a broad expanse of sky surrounding the stone structure so I attached a 14mm ultra wide angle lens to my camera. I was kicking myself for not having an electronic cable release or another way of locking the shutter open for a longer than the 30-second time exposure my camera allows. I had to make that work. I settled on an exposure of 30 seconds, my camera’s longest, at an aperture of F4.0 just to get a little more depth of field. I floated the ISO upwards as the light level kept dropping.

“I made some initial frames of just the structure and the night sky. The church was just a dark blob in the frame, with no three-dimensionality. Disappointed, I ran back to my car and dug out a 200-watt second electronic flash.

“I tripped the self timer and ran into the building while counting down to zero: nine one thousand, eight one thousand, seven one thousand, etc. until the shutter clicked open.

“I aimed my flash at the wall that’s visible through the doorway and hit the test button a few times. I also fired the flash at the circular opening above the door.”

“The advantage of digital cameras is near instant feedback. I could see if I needed to fire the flash a few more times or re-aim it for better effect.”

“I’ll definitely be going back. But, I’ll have an electronic release.