I rarely will make a picture of a building by just putting it into my frame and squeezing the shutter button. The result would be literal description – what I call a “postcard” shot. If I wanted postcard pictures, I would buy postcards wherever I go and leave my camera at home. But for me, photography is an adventure in story telling. A postcard view is unacceptable. I must somehow alter or change the building’s appearance to make a point or express an idea capturing what I consider to be the essence of the structure. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the most familiar building in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven complex. Originally built more than 700 years ago during the Ming Dynasty, the 130 foot high, three-level wood structure was constructed without a single nail. Rebuilt in 1890, its central tower – a pagoda made up of three circular stories -- is its identifying feature. I emphasize that feature by stressing form over detail. Although I made this photograph in the middle of the afternoon, I give it a dawn or dusk effect by deliberately underexposing it. To do this, I trained my spot meter on the sun itself, which floats behind a layer of Beijing summer haze and pollution. The sun plays a major role in ancient Chinese theology – the emperor came here every year at the winter solstice to thank the gods for the last harvest. By exposing for the sun, I emphasize it, making the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests very dark, and challenging the imaginations of my viewers to fill in the details for themselves. (I take no credit for the tiny bird flying between the first and second story – it just happened to be passing at the moment of exposure.) This ancient structure becomes far more mysterious as a photograph than it actually looks. You can almost hear those imperial prayers to the sun coming from within.