And on its' Anniversary Too!!!

So ... next up on my low-light photo agenda was the next church I wanted to go visit and 'shoot up' the interior. St. Stephens Cathedral. I called them up and they said to check in with them when I got there so that when they got calls that someone was taking photos they could say it was me.

I dutifully checked in and asked if I could use a tripod ... no. OK - then on to plan B - 'low-light photography like the pros' - straight out of a book I had read. They gave me a pamphlet so I am MUCH more informed on what I was taking photos of than in St. Johns? James? I already forgot ... So thought I would share (there will be a test later ...)

She mentioned as I walked out that the original, small church with the cutest bell in a 'fake' tower was celebrating its 160 year anniversary ON THIS VERY DAY! May 12th 1850 - it celebrated its first mass. So ... how clever was I? (And yes, Mom, it is your birthday - I am fully intending on calling you tomorrow when it is no longer your birthday here ... but will be your birthday there ...)

So - for I believe the first time ever ... I stole a photo off the web an posted it to my blog:

I was too lazy to cross the street and take a shot with my wide-angle lens - so had to resort to stealing. It is sort of sad that this beautiful set of buildings is surrounded on 3 sides by skyscrapers - but makes it feel sort of scrappy - a survivor of sorts, if you will ...

It is the small one on the right that is celebrating a birthday the same day as my mother (my photos from here on out - only this one from a previous 'photo shoot'):

Started in on the stained glass, because I was worried I was not going to get anything workable. I had to up my ISO speed to 800 due to hand held, low-light photography. Another thing suggested was to shoot in 'continuous' mode and shoot a photo in a burst of 3 or 4 photos - the theory being one of them will be better than the others .... So set my camera to continuous shooting (but in camera raw & .jpg files being written for each photo - the bursts were about 5 big then my camera had to catch its breath):

I must admit that the detail on the ones I zoomed in on is rather good for hand holding:

The shots that zoomed out weren't great - but not big balls of blur like my St. Chappelle and Notre Dame ...

The stained glass windows, by the way, are from France, Germany, Ireland, England and Australia. They date from the 1880's to the 1920's ...

I'm a sucker for a cool 'arch' shot:

The Shrine of Mary was rather popular and I waited and waited until I was alone - annoyed that the couple in front of me were taking photos and using a flash, I am assuming had not asked - so righteous indignation on my part ...

And crucifixes just creep me out, but I dutifully take photos of them. I am assuming this is because I am not Catholic ... (liked the organ pipes behind the bronze statue):

I wondered what this was so it got me to pull out the pamphlet they gave me (for the first time - bad, bad Lori) and really wished that I had read it on the spot - this is the baptismal font. I know, I know - you can't see it, because it is not in the shot. I was shooting down a hallway that I did not wander down because there were a few people quietly sitting and I did not want to disturb their meditation. Didn't realize this was a 3 dimensional sculpture - just thought it was on the wall. It is depicting water and flows from the small font where babies are baptized to a bigger one for adults to this sculpture - dang - wish I had the entire thing - I think it is rather beautiful (you can see part of the 3 dimensional part - the white in the lower left corner) ....

An angel holding holy water on my way out the door:

All in all, I am pleased with my photos. Sort of - they are a bit grainy - but that is understandable at the higher ISO speed - at least I was able to take them!

But that burst method? I did find a few really blurry ones, but now I have 3 or 4 camera raw (HUGE files) and a .jpg file sets and that is a lot of space.

AND I CAN'T DECIDE WHICH ONES TO DELETE ...