Stained Glass in Chicago

I was intrigued when I walked past The First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple and saw a series of stained glass windows at eye level.  This one in particular caught my eye, so I thought I would share it:

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/3.2 1/320

The story here is that the third building this church had that was at this location burned down in the Chicago Fire of 1871.  The other windows told of other parts of the church’s history.  I think this was the first time I have ever seen a fire like this in stained glass.

This post was written in response to Thursday Lingering Look at Windows.

Cheers!

Looking through the Incubator Window

For the last few weeks I have been taking pictures of chickens as they developed.  Today’s first picture was taken while the eggs were on lock down.  That means that they are in this incubator until they hatch.  It is nice and warm in there:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/5 1/60

These eggs were put in the incubator on a Saturday and by Monday they had started to hatch.  Here is one just out of it’s egg for a few minutes:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/40

In this photo you can see that they don’t all hatch at once:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/5 1/60

It takes a few days for all the eggs to hatch, and not all of them do.  Being born is a tough process for a chicken, if for whatever reason something goes wrong the chicken will not make it.  This particular group of chickens did well overall.  I will be updating you as they grow, and they do grow fast!

As the photographer, the biggest challenge in getting these pictures is the glare of the window.  I just had to move around and get the best angle I could.

This post was written as a response to the challenge, Thursday Lingering Look Through Windows.  Check it out, and feel free to participate.

Cheers!

Thursday Lingering Look at Windows, From Inside

I took a tour of the Budweiser Brewery in St. Louis and when I saw this window, I knew that I would add it to the Thursday Lingering Look at Windows.  I took the original shot with my point and shoot camera but then made an HDR image out of it in Photomatix.

ISO 800 17mm 0ev f/5.6 1/100

More Dramatic in HDR

Cheers!

Using HDR to look through a window

Recently I have enjoyed looking at the blog, Lingering Visions, and one of the things the author, Dawn, is doing is a weekly look at windows.  I have found it interesting to look through the various posts and this week I have a photo that fits so I thought I would join in.

This photo was taken at Bellfontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.  The cemetery is a beautiful spot.  Be sure to stop at their front offices on the way in because they offer a complementary map of the grounds.  I took a bunch of pictures but for this particular post, here is my window shot:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/10 1/100

As I approached this mausoleum, I could see there was a lot going on in this potential photo.  I decided then that I would bracket the exposure to try and capture as much of the detail as possible.  First I wanted the peeling frame of the exterior.  Then in the window itself you can see several things.  The bottom and top you can see the interior, but in the bottom you can also see a reflection of what is outside behind me.  The middle of the window is dominated by the stain glass window that was on the far side of the mausoleum through which you can see back out to the rear.  So, that is a lot to look at.  There is also a lot of contrast here between bright color and more muted color.

So, this is a very busy window.  What do you think?  Would you have shot it differently or processed it differently?  Your comments are most welcome below.

Cheers!