Architecture addiction!

Well, after my poor attempt at the Sky category I was determined not to leave this months category of Architecture to the last minute.

I set myself a mission, not from God, to visit a few churches and interesting buildings in my home town of Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire in the UK. I figured that there was bound to be acres of architecture I’ve never encountered even though it’s right under my snout.

Magic Lantern

Taking the kids to the Lantern Library in Sundorne area led me to look at the building in a different way than I had ever done before. Atop the usual local government buildings, which contain offices, meeting rooms and a canteen etc, stands an unusual structure. Similar to a wide lighthouse top it’s this structure that gives the building it’s name. In the lobby I looked up and immediately saw the opportunity of a picture.

When I checked it out on the PC it reminded me of a scene from a sci-fi film such as 2001, the clean lines and interesting patterns of the barriers on the balcony hid the fact that this was taken by me lying flat on my back in the middle of the lobby, whilst the security guard/receptionist, looked on incredulously.

With the Lantern in the bag it was time to release the Genie! I planned a morning in town wondering around the churches and I wasn’t disappointed. There is some serious architecture in our town! For some reason I felt drawn into churches, I’m not a religious person and I respect everyone’s right to a faith so I entered these buildings with a respect for the worshippers and came out with a new found respect for the people in these organisations who care for these fantastic pieces of history.

Chicken Mange!

First stop was St Chad’s Church, one of a small number of round churches in the country. After not being in the graveyard since a Saturday KFC (Chicken Gravy anyone?) with my mates when I was 15 I checked out the marker for Ebeneezer Scrooge as seen in the film A Christmas Carol. It was still there and I snapped a photo of this but there was far too much light about so they were washed out.

Inside I went, taking care not to make too much noise on the stone floor with my size 12’s. Walking around for 15 minutes in this beautiful building showed that there were multiple shots I could make use of. The first was a photo of the Altar and the Reredo behind it. I had to move a stand with leaflets on it, to clear the little balustrade for this photo. Remember to put things back or people get annoyed.

Stained Stones

There were also some really well done stained glass windows and while they looked well made and brilliantly backlit I couldn’t get a decent picture out of any of them. That’s when I noticed one window with the sun shining straight through was throwing some great colours onto the stone flags of the floor.

These colours were lovely and with the texture of the stones and old wood in the background I felt sure that this would make a great picture. The f-stop settings were played about with on my Canon 500D and over exposing a a little brought the nice lights out but I just couldn’t get a decent competition winner. Even after Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) the shot and preparing it for HDR’ing on Photomatix I still couldn’t pull a shot out of it.

Moving around the building showed more angles such as this photo I managed of one of the stair cases that rise to the balcony area of the church. I did ask the person in charge of the building ( I assume it was a Vicar) if I could get up there and the organist had the key, he wouldn’t be in ’til later. This was a very close contender for my entry into the category and I feel it could have done well.

Mother Of God it’s HDR!

From here on in I started wandering around the rest of the town and came across St Mary’s Church which is kept in shape by Church Conservation Trust. Some fantastic internal structures in this building and an art and photography exhibition to boot! I’d never been in here in all of my 39 years as a Shrewsbury boy.

There were a few people in here all enjoying the views and the added attractions of some really outstanding work by local artists. Some huge stained glass windows, a spiral staircase and some nice looking arches but not one that I thought fitted into the category too clearly. Feeling a bit dejected I turned to leave and a shot jumped out at me, looking down the aisle of the church to the main entrance. Again I prepared for an HDR photo to get the most detail possible.

For the uninitiated and HDR Photo is a High Dynamic Range picture. It’s more akin to what your eye sees in the real world. Imagine a room such as a church with some really dark shady nooks and crannies, some parts such as entrance doors where the sun pours in and then the middle ground where there is just the right amount of light.

The human eye adjusts really well to these differences but a camera usually adjusts to suit one part of the the picture. For example you might get the people stood in light of the door way exposed properly but then the rest of the picture is too dark. Alternatively if you adjust exposure to get the really dark areas such as shadows, then the people in the door will be washed out completely.

HDR Imaging usually consists of taking a number of photos, one under-exposed, one averagely exposed and one over exposed. The Photomatix software that I use is designed to merge these three photos together taking the correct elements from each to get a more accurate picture.

AEB in the Abbey.

After this journey into the churches of Shrewsbury Town centre I strolled back through the town centre towards my car and thought of the week before when I’d snapped some photos in the Abbey Church in Shrewsbury. The Abbey is featured in the literature of Ellis Peters’ Cadfael Series of books.

I had been playing around in there the week before trying to get some decent photos and had also tried the AEB trick too. I got home from my latest trip and revisited these photos. There was a set of three photos, each exposed 2 stops apart that came nicely together in the HDR software to produce what was to become my entry for the Architecture category.

The photo came from setting up the tripod and using the remote shutter release to take the three photos. With this picture I’d managed to get some level of symmetry with the choir pews and the detail from the roof beams to the stained glass windows was visible. There was a really warm colour from the image too and while it was criticised at first for the man standing in the centre of the photo I think it adds a level of scale and humour too!

My summary for this rather blathering post then;

• Respect people, property and places properly.
• Go for a wander around familiar places, there’s loads you’ve never seen.
• Invest some time in learning about AEB and HDR Photography.
• Stick with an interesting part of the photo even if some people take some convincing.
• Get some crazy angles in, you’ll look a bit daft but it’s worth it.
• Donate for the upkeep of these brilliant buildings.

The next category is Transport, and I have my photo with a week to spare. I’ll post when the submissions have been made…