Places of Worship 04

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This is the altar inside San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey, Californias oldest brick building. You can read the history of the church at http://www.sancarloscathedral.net/. I only used natural light to photograph the altar and included the wsindow on the left in the overall composition. The church is rather small for being called a “cathedral” but it has a very nice feeling to it.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Places of Worship 03

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This is the altar of the Dome of Hildesheim, a city in northern Germany. the feeling in this church is again totally different. You have to look up and walk up to it. The large round light fixture reminds me of a crown or as a group of people that congregate around the altar perhaps referring to the last supper of Christ or a group of people that sits around a Germanic noble. Interesting is also the model of a church that is built underneath the altar table.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Places of Worship 02

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There are many beautiful buildings in Munich’s City Center.  Right besides the “New City Hall” (Neues Rathaus) and the attached “Glockenspiel” is the St. Peters Church, probably the oldest church in Munich. The inside is beautiful decorated. I decided to mount my camera on a tripod and shoot straight up. The ceiling is just beautiful. I wonder how people felt over the centuries when they entered this church.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Places of Worship 01

It is relatively easy to photographs subjects you can see like apples or cars. It is a lot harder to capture expressions like joy, fear or pain. IT is one of my ongoing projects to photograph places of worship. Of course these are buildings but somehow they are more than “brick and mortar.” I remember my visits to Jerusalem where holy sites from Judaism, Christianity and Islam almost stand side by side. There are a lot of feelings and faith involved and it is quite a challenge to capture them. This week I challenge you to photograph places of worship and capture a glimpse of beyond what you can see.

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I photographed the altar of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. You can read about the church by clicking on http://www.sacred-destinations.com/spain/barcelona-sagrada-familia. When I entered the church I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that were inside and the rich symbolism. Antoni Goudi, the architect, was a master in creating visual impressions.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Time of Day 04

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I photographed this image at 5:00 PM. The tree is covered in shade by a tree. I used the same setting than in the previous setting except the exposure time changed to 1/6osec. When you compare this image with the previous image you see that this one is by far the darkest of them.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Time of Day 03

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I shot the third image at 12:29 PM according to my camera. Again, I used f8 and ISO 100. The exposure time was 1/160sec. What happened? Normally you would expect an exposure time of at least 1/250 which I had at 9:00 AM. The answer is pretty simple. There were a few clouds around blocking the direct sunlight and acting like a large softbox. If you compare the first three images you will find that this one is the softest of all images.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Time of Day 02

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I shot this image around 9:00 AM on the same day. I used the same f-stop and ISO setting than in the first image. The exposure time changed to 1/250sec. The light is much more intense and the shadows are much harsher. Imagine you would have photographed a face under the same light condition! Tho hours difference in time, especially in the early morning and late afternoon hours make a world of difference!

 Enjoy and happy photographing!

Time of Day 01

Pick a simple outside object as your subject and photograph it at different times of the day from the same position using the same lens and f stop. This may sound like a tedious exercise but you can learn a lot from it by closely observing the differences in your image. The light at sunrise has a very different quality than the noon light and it is absolutely essential for every serious photographer to do this exercise and experience first hand the difference the light makes on any given subject.

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I went out and photographed this landscape rock this morning at around 7:00 AM. I picked f8 for this exercise. Using ISO 100 my exposure time was 1/25sec. The sun was barely out and you see the warm light in the rock. There are hardly any shadows in this image.

As always, enjoy and study the light!