One of my Photos in New Church Temple Magazine

Click to enlarge (Copyright 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Back in early Spring, someone from the Church contacted me expressing interest in using some of my pictures in an upcoming Church publication on temples. They asked me to submit all of my "best" temple pictures (which, for me, ended up being about 250) and they would inform me if there were any that they wanted to use.

After about two months of waiting on pins and needles, they contacted me and told me that they were interested in using...one of my pictures. One?! But I have some awesome pictures! Well, just to soothe my bruised ego, I asked how many pictures of mine they were considering using but didn't make the final cut. Then the number rose to seven. That made me feel a bit better.

As most of you know by now, the Church just published a new Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints magazine that arrived with the October 2010 issue of the Ensign. Now that I have had a chance to see the final product, it makes more sense why they only chose one of my pictures: There really aren't that many pictures in the magazine. More specifically, there aren't that many pictures that are not: 1) interior photos (which are likely all owned by the Church), 2) photos featuring people/models (which are likely all commissioned/owned by the Church), or 3) photos that do not feature temples at all. In all, I count only 29 photos that show only temple exteriors without people/models. That also makes me feel a little bit better, knowing that my picture was 1 out of only 29 chosen of this type.

But then, if you look at the photo credits page opposite the table of contents, then the plot gets yet thicker. If I read it correctly, I'm not just one of 29 chosen, but actually one of only seven: Only nine temple photos were used that were not already owned by the church, and those photos came from only seven photographers. Now I feel much better about having "only" one of my pictures chosen, and very grateful that I made what appears to have been a very narrow cut.