Ever since I got my first taste of photographing a church with a meetup group in 2013, I was smitten. Then I came across Klaus Hermann’s HDR Vertorama book and my mind was set on pursuing this kind of photography. I have been dreaming of visiting various churches and cathedrals around the country for last 2 years and then eventually to go to Europe and visit as many cathedrals as I can. I am fortunate enough to be able to spend so much time to develop my processing skills and I finally began to feel confident in showing my work to others without flinching.
This series of photos are from the Cathedral of the Assumption, the cathedral mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. Built in 1841, this cathedral is known for it’s Gothic Revival architecture. This place is absolutely magnificent and when we walked in, there was not a soul to be seen. My heart did little jumps at this rare opportunity of the solitary experience without any disturbances. There was a little pedestal at the entrance with a bowl filled with holy water and you could see reflections of the ceiling and the alter in the water. There was no way to use the tripod so it had to be hand held shooting if I want to include the reflections in the image. Fortunately Canon 6d is very good with high ISO performance so I took the challenge of hand holding the camera, resting it on the edges of the bowl and I think I have some unique shots. Of course I had some inspiration from an image on 500px so it is not too unique after all.
At first I have taken the straight on shots, and then the series of shots to make a vertorama, then I switched the lenses to take some fisheye shots. I was ready to try out the reflections at this point. My friend was so helpful in turning on the lights and that was really special as the whole cathedral came to light in that instant and for that I am so happy. Now comes the fun part. I learned one thing over the course of 2 years of visiting the churches.. always ask to go to the 2nd or 3rd floor if they have it and allow people to go there. The perspective is so different from up there and here are some examples. Always take your time to experiment but first take the cursory shots as you might not have as much time as needed to experiment.
Here are some more with different perspective...
