The Artful Engineer

This week’s post continues last week’s topic of ecclesiastical buildings, but using examples from London. The image above, from St. Paul’s Cathedral, takes the same zenithal approach as last week’s opening image of the York Minster Chapter House dome. Domes obviously lend themselves to this maximal-symmetry composition, so images like this have a lot more to do with execution than creativity (of the photographer, anyway). Even so, they are very satisfying to look at. Perhaps one of the reasons is that it is difficult to do this in person—it is easy to study the image above for as long as you want, but gets uncomfortable in a hurry when you tilt your head back to enjoy it live.

This next image of a rather curvaceous pillar—also inside St. Paul’s Cathedral—benefits from wonderful soft, directional light, much as a portrait would. The golden color palette is warm and peaceful, and the verticals on either side of the frame contrast nicely with the elaborate leaves coiled around the pillar itself.

Shooting straight up isn’t the only way to portray a domed ceiling. This next image—from inside Temple Church— presents the vaulted dome as a supporting cast member rather than the prima donna herself. A big part of what I like in this image is the warm-cool color contrasts: the warm artificial lights in the lower half as opposed to the cooler window light in the upper half. This contrast also emphasizes the tall central window at the bottom.

These churches are filled with so many fascinating and beautiful structural elements that the photographic possibilities are endless. This arcade, below, with the repeating curving supports almost bursting from the tops of the columns, is just one example.

The Temple Church is beautiful, but the level of ornamentation definitely cannot compare to Westminster Abbey:

Probably the most remarkable thing about the image above is that, somehow, it doesn’t feel gaudy to me. Maybe the ornateness is just so over-the-top that it works. One thing that I like about this image is that while everything visually does point you to that small central illuminated arch, there is so much else to explore. This is most decidedly not a minimalist image! Just to point out one of my favorite little details, I love the way the gray organ pipes on the sides contrast with the predominant gold.

I made several images that featured the flags and the knights visible in the lower right hand corner of this image, but decided to share this one where they largely provide context to main subject: the bright blue and white stained glass windows.

This final image is of a spectacular sculpture, Nightingale’s Tomb, which depicts Joseph Nightingale’s futile attempt to fend off Death from taking his wife, Elizabeth, in childbirth. I really should have used a wider aperture for this image; a narrower depth of field would have helped separate the three characters from the background. I had to do a lot of lightening and darkening and color grading to separate them from the background: it’s an amazing sculpture, but it is poorly lit. I’m not going to lie, trying to do this justice was very difficult and I don’t think I succeeded. But if nothing else, it was good post-processing practice. If you are ever in Westminster Abbey, don’t leave before you find this.

I hope you enjoyed this little series of church interiors. Next week I’ll share images from out on the streets of London. So much to see and photograph there!