A few weeks ago I was visiting Salisbury Cathedral. The font they have is also a beautiful reflecting pool. I created this image from the photos that I took:
ISO 160 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35 sec
The font was created by William Pye and installed in the Cathedral in 2008. This link will take you to the website of the Cathedral which has a photo that shows how the font is situated in the Cathedral. It’s a beautiful work of art that I think has an interesting way of interacting with its surroundings, something that the link will give you a feel for. The image I created is more of a close up and so is missing that perspective.
My take is more on the font as reflecting pool. For a few moments, there was sun and the reflections of the nearby windows in the font were beautiful. The original photo was taken on my iPhone. There were a lot of people around that through cropping and Photoshop have been removed. I removed the people for two reasons. One was that I was trying to still the image a bit, there is a lot going on and I wanted to remove some of the “busyness”. The other was that some of those people were children. I am not a huge fan of images posted online of children where they or their guardians have not been informed.
But back to the scene itself. I created a black and white version, but was not completely happy with it because ultimately I thought the color of the windows was an important part of the image. This final image gave me a muted color, but one that left enough in it to show the beauty of the reflection.
I’ll be honest, I love religious art, how do you feel about it? if you are not religious, do you still appreciate it for the sake of art, or is that too off-putting for you? How do you feel about removing people from a photo? It can change the story of a photo pretty dramatically, what is your take on that? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
Great shot. 🙂
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Thanks!
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I like this image and your reflections on reflecting. The font is certainly unusual and does provide a wonderfully reflective surface.
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Thank you very much, I thought it was beautiful.
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Lovely reflection, beautifully done. Very sharp too. I’m not religious but don’t mind religious art and architecture. Stained windows in cathedrals can be so amazing to look at 🙂
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I agree, I loved stained glass, religious or not, I think I love it because it incorporates light and therefore nature into it.
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Beautiful reflection. I wonder if sepia would work?
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In my opinion it didn’t in this case. It turns out, I was really attached to keeping the color of the windows in the photo. It was that color that made the moment powerful in person and so I was reluctant to take it out of the photo.
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People certainly can make a photo but not all of us (me) are photogenic. lol
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I hear you, I’m not particularly photogenic either 🙂
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Amy! This reflection is amazing. I love that the photo just drops into the colored windows. Something very unique about it. I also appreciate your note about not wanting to post photos of children. Very thoughtful decision. An aside: the reflection reminds me of my piano – I have a black Yamaha grand that reflects (when it’s not dusty), and the shape of the font/reflection reminded me of it. Thanks!
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Yes, that shape was very similar to that sort of liquid curve you can find on a piano.
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Great job on the photo. I too work to remove unnecessary objects and people from photos if it makes them uncluttered and pleasing. Photography is an art… so it helps in certain situations and in your photo it makes sense. People would be a distraction.
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Yes, it’s interesting how sometimes people make a photo and in other cases are just a distraction.
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I had to look twice at this photograph. It really is a great shot!
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Thank you very much and thanks for your visit!
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I really like that you didn’t show the entire window in the upper part of the photo, rather saved it for the reflection, which is beautiful!
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Thank you Tina. It was interesting that in that moment the reflection was really more beautiful than the window.
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Fantastic entry and photograph …
Isadora 😎
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Thank you.
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I like religious art and have mixed feelings about photographing it. I’ve done it many times but even when I felt compelled to use photography to bring attention to the artwork, I still also felt like I was robbing the credit from the original artists.
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Thank you for your thoughtful response. Personally, I often think of photographing religious art as a work of admiration. I am thinking this way only when I am photographing something that has been done in a different medium though. I think entirely differently when photographing a photograph.
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I’m not religious but I am drawn to the art, especially the stained glass.
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Stained glass is often my favorite as well, but I think that is because it uses nature, the sun, as part of the art.
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That is a remarkable creative photo work!
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Thank you!
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I studied abroad for my architecture degree which of course we visited what seemed like hundreds of small chapels and cathedrals. Out of all this church was my favorite. I’m glad I stumbled upon this picture it is beautiful.
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Interesting, I’m just wondering if they all started to blend together, or does that not happen to you because you understand and are more sensitive to the differences in architecture?
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They definitely start to blend together! But that was the fun part also paying attention to the details of each which made it unique. 🙂
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Yes, I find it a challenge to keep them from running together.
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