The Mother Church

[invisible]

Christian Science, Boston

This needs to be viewed on a dark background so please click here and then click on the photo.

 

[ceeboy14]

Very nice exposure, composition, angle..etc. My only nig is the courve at the top but it is only a slight nig at that.

 

[oldhippy]

ditto

 

[Rick58]

I agree Federico, I would clone out the over hang on the upper right. Very nicely done!

 

[pgriz]

I'll go against the flow and say leave the upper right curve in. Because it corresponds to the rather prominent shadow at our feet.

Ouf. That's some careful processing there, friend. Not to mention pretty good timing so as not to get any pedestrians in the way. I thought perhaps you did the 10x ND trick, and made them vanish, but you did shoot at 1/200sec, so that wasn't it. Very nice.

 

[manaheim]

Very nice. Did they harass you at all? Stupid church officials will kick photographers off the property.

 

[mishele]

I'm going to vote to clone out the corner. Great shot either way!

 

[manaheim]

ooo, if we're voting to clone out things, can someone clone out my lack of hair?

Wait. Does that work?

Crap.

 

[Actinometro]

It a really nice shot, but:

- The main subject (and title) is mother church, however lines guide my eyes to the building in the background.
- Further, the church is overexposed. I guess you could fix that in pp.

 

[Rick58]

ooo, if we're voting to clone out things, can someone clone out my lack of hair?

Wait. Does that work?

Crap.

You do realize you're just asking for that bunny of yours to show up in a Beatles wig

 

[pgriz]

It a really nice shot, but:

- The main subject (and title) is mother church, however lines guide my eyes to the building in the background.
- Further, the church is overexposed. I guess you could fix that in pp.

Actinometro, I think both things you mention are intentional. The leading lines do point to the dark building, but it is both visually smaller and darker than the church, giving us the hint that the church is more important than the dark building. You could read into this image that the “Religion” trumps “commercialism”, although I do not know what Federico was thinking when he made the image.

As for the brightness of the church, I don’t think it is over-exposed – in fact the post-processing appears to be very careful to place the whites just inside the right edge on the histogram, where the detail is visible. The only place where there are true blacks is in the sky, and again this appears to be very deliberate. The rest of the image has a very good range of greys. There’a good reason why Federico directed us to his site which portrays the image surrounded by a dark background.

Part of what make this image so attractive to me, is the number of contrasts, in tone, in shape, and the framing. The church as a number of curved elements in it, echoed by the curve of the shadow and the little bit at the upper right (and I still think it should stay), constrasted with the sharp lines and rectilinear architecture of the more modern buildings. There is an echo of the church dome with the curved roof of the dark building. There is the deliberate contrast in tone between the church and its surroundings, especially between the sky and buildings that give the image an exhaltic feeling. There is the contrast between the visual lines leading us to the dark building, but our eyes are pulled back by the brightness of the church. The framing allows us to see that the church shares the space with the other buildings (it's not in dead center), but it's place in the frame makes it more prominent, while still allowing our eyes to wander along the lines of sight, and then back again.

This is a very deliberate image.

 

[RobN185]

I like this - it is a very surreal image, each building is in itself unique, and they almost look like they have each been cut and carefully pasted in their position to give this extremely pleasing composition.
Clearly, I know this is not the case, and kudos to you for seeing this POV - one of the best BW's it can remember seeing in a long time.
Well done sir!

EDIT : image nominated for Feb 2013 Photo of the Month (...in a heartbeat!)

 

[invisible]

Not to mention pretty good timing so as not to get any pedestrians in the way. I thought perhaps you did the 10x ND trick, and made them vanish, but you did shoot at 1/200sec, so that wasn't it.

I was just lucky. There was barely anybody around, which was surprising...

Did they harass you at all? Stupid church officials will kick photographers off the property.

I didn't give them the chance to harass me – took the camera out of the bag, snapped a couple quick shots, and put the camera away... all in less than a minute

It a really nice shot, but:

- The main subject (and title) is mother church, however lines guide my eyes to the building in the background.
- Further, the church is overexposed. I guess you could fix that in pp.

Actinometro, I think both things you mention are intentional. The leading lines do point to the dark building, but it is both visually smaller and darker than the church, giving us the hint that the church is more important than the dark building. You could read into this image that the “Religion” trumps “commercialism”, although I do not know what Federico was thinking when he made the image.

As for the brightness of the church, I don’t think it is over-exposed – in fact the post-processing appears to be very careful to place the whites just inside the right edge on the histogram, where the detail is visible. The only place where there are true blacks is in the sky, and again this appears to be very deliberate. The rest of the image has a very good range of greys. There’a good reason why Federico directed us to his site which portrays the image surrounded by a dark background.

Thanks, Paul. Spot-on analysis for the most part, the exception being the reason why I took this photo. I didn't really have in mind "religion versus commercialism". There is a bit of a story, though. I spent a year in Boston back in the early 90's as a student. Every time I would pass by this church I thought that the juxtaposition of old and new architecture was horrendous. I'm referring in particular to the use of tempered-glass doors between those old-style columns, a detail that can't be seen in my photo. So when I visited Boston again last year in a memory-lane kind of trip after two decades, I stopped by this place. It looks like my taste in architecture has evolved, because not only did I not find this horrendous anymore, but I almost liked it. The place looked somewhat different than 20 years earlier, so I decided to take a photo to show my old Boston friends (international students just like me, now back in their countries) how this corner of Boston had changed.

I like this - it is a very surreal image, each building is in itself unique, and they almost look like they have each been cut and carefully pasted in their position to give this extremely pleasing composition.
Clearly, I know this is not the case, and kudos to you for seeing this POV - one of the best BW's it can remember seeing in a long time.
Well done sir!

EDIT : image nominated for Feb 2013 Photo of the Month (...in a heartbeat!)

Much appreciated, Rob. I don't know if the image is that good, but I can say that I'm happy with it

Thanks all for the feedback and 'likes'!