Friday 30th December 2011

While travelling between our hotel in Schlitters and the resort at Kaltenbach on the train, we noticed that every town had a church of very similar design. Up close, they were more individual, this one (in Schlitters) sporting a full height mural. This web page gives some more information, saying it's "the parish church of Schlitters, dedicated to St. Martinus. Constructed in 1740 AD in Baroque style, the interior primarily strikes due to wall and ceiling paintings by Josef Anton Mayr". I like this photo because of the angles, and because I got all the settings and composition as I wanted it first go, just the one snap. Which is a good thing too, as it was snowing on the lens!

18mm, 30s, f/13, ISO 200

Our reason for being in the town was to enjoy some local fireworks. Apparently Austrians quite often celebrate the New Year locally on the 30th before their big celebration on the 31st, and the fireworks were pretty spectacular.

18mm, 10s, f/22, ISO 100

Thursday 29th December 2011

Please excuse the poor quality - unfortunately the settings for this photo were completely wrong - a small depth of field and a massively fast shutter speed - but I had the camera on settings ready for quick snaps out of the window. I didn't expect this super array of sun beams (a moment of two later they had been firing upwards through a gap in the clouds). This is the sunrise, over a church in Switzerland or France (not quite sure where we were at this point), taken out of the window of a moving coach.

270mm, 1/1600s, f/6.3, ISO 800

Sunday 11th December 2011

Stained glass in Penkhull.

119mm, 1/4s, f/5.6, ISO 400

Wednesday 16th November 2011

This is Saint Werburgh's Parish Church on High Lane, Burslem. It was built in 1953 to replace a smaller church in Hamil Road as the congregation was growing larger. I've been meaning to try this photo for a while. I noticed the statue of Jesus but it's fairly hidden away to the side and under a tree. I had an idea that if I took a photo of the church at night and illuminated the statue more than the natural light illuminated the church, it would create a nicely balanced scene. I think it mostly worked.

18mm, 25s, f/11, ISO 200

Thursday 8th September 2011

Another church, this is Parish Church of St. Mark in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I like the mixture of colours and interesting lighting.

10mm, 20s, f/11, ISO 200

Tuesday 6th September 2011

Unfortunately I haven't quite got used to the Fujifilm SLR yet and for a couple of days I didn't realise it was on manual focus. So as a result this photo is blurred, although I've corrected it a little in photoshop. This is the Minster Church of St Peter ad Vincula, in Stoke, Stoke-onTrent. I'm not religious but I do find churches appealing.

14mm, 13s, f/11, ISO 250

Wednesday 4th May 2011

Holy Trinity Catholic Church. There's a short story behind this photo: 4 years ago I was in Newcastle-under-Lyme having a drink with some climbing friends, and we walked from a pub on the edge of town into the centre. We passed this most amazing church, towering above me with stacked black recesses as far as the eye could see, and when I started this photo project I made a note of it as something to return to. I was passing this evening and hadn't taken a photo yet, so I went to find it. What I found was nothing like what I saw remembered, not black for starters and from across the road the perspective was less dramatic (the cider may have had something to do with the aspect too). Still, it made a satisfying photo anyway, and I haven't taken a night photo for a while.

70mm, 5s, f/6.3, ISO 800

Wednesday 27th April 2011

I love this composite. I love it because I didn't have a tripod with me as I was travelling light, but it's still straight, although things aren't aligned or even, but they work because there's more bench on the right which is offset by the lady right of centre which is offset by the dark archway to the right which is offset by the darker strut top left. I think it balances and is nicely higgeldy piggeldy despite the order and symmetry of the Kirk in reality. And I love the vivid colour and tone. I wanted a nice cathedral shot since being inspired by this one that I saw in Y Caban cafe in Snowdonia, and I got it!

18mm, 0.4s, f/8, ISO 200

Wednesday 26th January 2011

At lunchtime today I headed to a park that I know has various features such as a lake and a bandstand, along with a whole load of different angles and curves and mounds, as I wanted to practise my landscape photography since my skills there are somewhat lacking. I learnt a few things from my efforts, but didn't come up with anything presentable from this trip. So fortunately I had a back-up plan - photographing a church that I drive past fairly regularly that's always very nicely lit. This wasn't the photo I envisaged, but it appealed once I started exploring possibilities, and I took the shot on fully manual which I pleased about.

18mm, 30s, f/22, ISO 400

Monday 17th January 2011

I don't find it very easy to look at the world in terms of light and shade in order to capture the contrast on film (yet), but since I have my camera glued to my side of late, some things just happen accidentally. I took a picture of a church and then was drawn by the reflection of the gate on the steps, offset against the shadow of the pillars painted against the beautifully ornate door.

129mm, 1/60 (auto from aperture priority), f/11, ISO 100