Thorncrown Chapel

Thorncrown Chapel is an amazing hidden gem tucked away in the Ozark woods just off the highway west of Eureka Springs. This tall glass and wood chapel rises up into the trees with its 425 windows and crisscrossing pine beams blending the walls into the surrounding forest. The light is amazing here, almost every frame comes down to the way it filters through the trees and the lattice of beams overhead with shifting patterns making each visit to the chapel a unique shooting experience. The lattice of beams is especially fun to experiment with, it gets more branch like as it climbs, and photographs best when you set the crisscrossing beams against the green or gold of the trees just beyond the glass. Soft, overcast days create the easiest light to work with, helping to calm the contrast between bright panes and dark timber. Low sun early in the day creates more interesting light, often throwing long shadows through the whole space. Autumn is the ideal season when it appears to bring the rich colours of the forest inside. A wide lens matters more than usual here, since the interior is only a few metres across but soars to roughly fifteen metres, and nothing else will hold both the floor and that peak. This is a working chapel, and a popular one, so you may want to try and time your shooting adventure either early in the morning or into the evening since an empty room is hard to get once the visitors start arriving for the day. Entry is free with donations welcome to help maintain the chapel. It is easy to reach with only a short walk up through the trees from the roadside parking. The chapel has seasonal hours, so it closes through the coldest winter months, and often shuts early on Saturday afternoons for weddings, so its best to check before you make the drive. (Eureka Springs, Arkansas, USA)