Tag: church

Travel Photography – Istanbul Series 4:- Chora Church

A visit to Istanbul

This is the fourth blog derived from a three-day visit to Istanbul in February 2012.  We flew from Gatwick in England to Istanbul on Turkish Airways and it was great.  Spanking new planes, good food, pleasant crew.  Much better than the bucket airlines and not too expensive.  No extras such as checked in luggage costs etc.

The Chora Church

The Chora Church was initially constructed very early – The original church on this site was built in the early 5th century, and stood outside of the 4th century walls. The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081.  It is a smaller building than many of the other examples of Byzantine architecture in Istanbul.  Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque and the art work was plastered over.  In 1948 the building ceased to be a mosque and in 1958 it opened as a museum.

The impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between 1315 and 1321. The mosaic-work is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance. The artists remain unknown.  There are some 45 different frescoes and paintings.

 

Series of Four #13 – Winchester Cathedral – with muted HDR

Series of Four

This is the thirteenth Blog in the “Series of Four” series. Each blog focuses on a different aspect of photography, either technical or creative.  To see the full set of “Series of Four” blogs, click here.

Winchester Cathedral – with muted HDR

Here is a set of four images taken recently of Winchester Cathedral in England.   This is my second visit to Winchester Cathedral – my first visit was at the beginning of my project to photograph the Cathedrals of the Church of England and I have learned a lot since then.

For these images I have used a technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range) which uses a series of bracketed images taken at different exposures (+1, 0, -1 in these images) to achieve a greater range than is possible with the sensitivity of a normal digital sensor.  Using software it is possible to integrate the images (usually 3 or 5) to achieve a very sharp image with details across the full range of the available light.  I have been intrigued recently how HDR can enhance images.  Taking bracketed exposures in low lighting situations like cathedrals adds considerably to the time a shoot takes as each exposure is usually between 20 to 30 seconds.

 

 

Event photography – The Annual Pet Service

The Pet Service

          The annual Pet Service at St Mary’s parish church in Caterham, Surrey, England is a little bit of chaos at the edge of heaven. 

          Each year families bring their pets for a blessing and a reminder of what important companions pets are with their unjudgemental and unconditional love and affection.  Pets which Rev. Duncan Swan has blessed over the years have included fish and a stick insect.  This year they included hamsters, a horse, cats, a rabbit and lots of dogs – (and a few soft toy pets for good measure).

          An event like a pet service is relatively easy to photograph because there is so much chaos that you just blend right in.  I only use available light (which can be a bit of a challenge) so as not to be too intrusive with flash and not to alarm the animals.  It is all about catching the moment and on an occasion such as this there are lots of moments with animals and children.  However it is all totally unrehearsed and things happen quickly so you need full concentration.

 

 

Event Photography – The Ordination

The day

     2nd October will be the anniversary of Stephanie Nadarajah’s Ordination to the Priesthood for all the years to come.  Here are a selection of images from the day including a band of supporters travelling to Southwark Cathedral in South London from St Mary’s Caterham, a few shots in the Cathedral (though not of the actual Ordination Service because we were all involved in that as worshippers and not as photographers) and then during Steph’s first communion celebrated in the evening at St Mary’s parish church, Caterham. 

If you would like copies of these images, please contact me (Len Abrams) at info@seasonimages.com. 

 

Photographic points

     Event photography is a particular avenue of professional photography with its own demands and rewards.  This is the first ordination service of Anglican (Episcopalian) priests which I have photographed, which I did at the request of the parish.  Photographing church services is a specific challenge as it needs to be done with sensitivity to the people and the ceremony being conducted.  I therefore do not use flash or other special lighting which requires high ISO settings, slow shutter speeds and wide open apertures, all of which calls for a steady hand.  On the occasion of this ordination I was intent on capturing the involvement of parishioners, friends and family as it is very much a community event as well as being a very important milestone in the life of those being ordained.  I wanted to capture both symbolic images and intimate moments, together with some of the activities around the event.

 

 

Photo trip to Norway

A spectacular place

Last week (5-11 September 2011) I was very privileged to travel to Norway with my daughter and son for 5 days of exploring the fjords and taking a few pictures.  We stayed in the village of Fresvik on the Sognefjord.  As the summer season had ended, there were very few people around and those that were, were taking time out before the cold dark months. 

Norway is a spectacular country, well worth a visit – especially if you can get there from London for the grand total of £18 return fare!

Images

Here is a selection of the images.  One of the striking things about Norway is the colour, especially the greens and the glacier blues.  The colours in the images are real (apart from the black and white images)!  The images have been processed in Lightroom with minimal enhancement, especially of colour saturation.