St. Johns Lutheran Church

St. John's Lutheran Church is a classic white chapel standing all along at the corner of Highway 81 and Richland County Road 8. Locals call it South Wild Rice Church too, after the congregation that built it in 1883. It's one of the oldest church buildings still standing in this part of North Dakota. The wood frame building sits on its original fieldstone foundation. It is perfect to shoot from the roadside with the fields stretching out endlessly behind it. Aim to capture the church at sunset if you can, when the whole sky opens up behind the steeple. A small cemetery sits right beside the church where the headstones have been worn soft by more than a century of prairie weather. It makes a quiet foreground if you want the church itself further back in the frame. Storm light is amazing to experiment with out here too. The sky over the valley can turn dramatic fast, and a dark bank of cloud behind that white steeple makes for a strong, simple picture. While it is no longer a working church with a regular Sunday congregation, the building and grounds are still well cared for. The grounds are open to explore anytime. (Galchutt, North Dakota, USA)