ST MONICA’S CATHEDRAL
181 Abbott Street, Cairns AUSTRALIA
Stained-glass artists, Gerry Cummins and Jill Stehn spent six years designing and building the largest theme stained glass windows in the world depicting the creation according to the book of Genesis.
“Glass is the only medium that captures transmitted light, every other medium depends on light reflecting off the surface, so what you see in a painting or in a sculpture or in architecture is a second-hand image compared to the pure, joyous translucency of glass.”
Gerry Cummins
Quote Source ABC : http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2009/04/22/2549848.htm
Photography is rarely an end in itself; it is means by which one can document one’s passion. I enjoy documenting other people’s passion and creativity.
All photos by Mike Watt ©
Yesterday I had a chance to try some shifty movements (shift lens) to capture an interior panorama at St Monica’s. The shift movements enabled me to include the reflection in the marble floor. This beautiful cathedral is a magnet for architectural photography. I can’t think of a more appropriate subject for an HDR application. Today HDR (high dynamic range) has lost the WOW! factor and is now a standard application for many landscape / architectural studies. But even so, I still get surprised at the dynamic range that can be captured. To capture the stained-glass feature and interior is only possible in HDR unless you want to employ a bank of studio lights and balance the output slightly under the EXP. required for the stained glass. No 1 this is cost prohibitive, No2 time consuming, and No 3 unnecessary unless you’re a colour temp pixel peeper. Anyway, I find most technical considerations are there to service our subjective judgements. In hindsight, I think I’d prefer to make the interior slighter darker and …. light the candles. I like cathedrals.
I think I’d go berserk with my camera in a place like the (still under construction started.
in 1882) Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
Mike Watt Media 