July 2012: Looking for swans
In: Architecture
Wells is a beautiful Cathedral City. We went on a day trip to view the Cathedral, the Bishops Palace and the swans...
There is currently a major public art event with 60 decorated swan sculptures to spot - one for each year of the Queen's reign. Swans have been part of Wells for centuries. I didn't know this until I read the tourist leaflet; the swans around the Bishop's Palace have a unique habit of ringing the bell by the Palace drawbridge to ask for food - this started 200 years ago!
I travelled light, just with the camera and one lens (the sigma 10-20mm). You don't need to take alot of kit to take photographs, even indoors.
Taking photographs of someone else's artwork isn't that original photographically, but they make for good record photographs. You can also be a bit creative and focus on 'bits' of the artwork. Four of the swans are below:
There is, of course, always something to see at the Cathedral.
The magnificant West Front contains one of the largest galleries of medieval sculpture in the world. I waited for a bit for all the people to move away before taking this, but the Cathedral worker in the red cloak appeared to sweep the leaves, so I kept him in to add a sense of scale.
(Sigma lens @10mm, leaning back is deliberate!)
I was watching the clouds go by. I felt this photograph was slightly different with the West Front at an angle and the clouds as a very dominant feature.
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, black and white conversion).
I don't have a problem with increasing the ISO to 1600 to grab an internal photograph where I don't have a tripod. This creates a little noise but I'd rather have a noisy photograph than an unsharp one (through camera shake). Pause for a moment and look around the two photographs below of the Lady Chapel, the sheer amount of geometric shapes contained in the stonework and the windows.
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, noise reduction applied)
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, noise reduction applied)
Wells always offers a great day out. See the link below for photographs taken during the "up high photographic workshop" for a view from the roof!
http://kjw.photium.com/october-2011-wells-cathedral
There is currently a major public art event with 60 decorated swan sculptures to spot - one for each year of the Queen's reign. Swans have been part of Wells for centuries. I didn't know this until I read the tourist leaflet; the swans around the Bishop's Palace have a unique habit of ringing the bell by the Palace drawbridge to ask for food - this started 200 years ago!
I travelled light, just with the camera and one lens (the sigma 10-20mm). You don't need to take alot of kit to take photographs, even indoors.
Taking photographs of someone else's artwork isn't that original photographically, but they make for good record photographs. You can also be a bit creative and focus on 'bits' of the artwork. Four of the swans are below:
There is, of course, always something to see at the Cathedral.
The magnificant West Front contains one of the largest galleries of medieval sculpture in the world. I waited for a bit for all the people to move away before taking this, but the Cathedral worker in the red cloak appeared to sweep the leaves, so I kept him in to add a sense of scale.
(Sigma lens @10mm, leaning back is deliberate!)
I was watching the clouds go by. I felt this photograph was slightly different with the West Front at an angle and the clouds as a very dominant feature.
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, black and white conversion).
I don't have a problem with increasing the ISO to 1600 to grab an internal photograph where I don't have a tripod. This creates a little noise but I'd rather have a noisy photograph than an unsharp one (through camera shake). Pause for a moment and look around the two photographs below of the Lady Chapel, the sheer amount of geometric shapes contained in the stonework and the windows.
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, noise reduction applied)
(handheld, sigma lens @ 10mm, noise reduction applied)
Wells always offers a great day out. See the link below for photographs taken during the "up high photographic workshop" for a view from the roof!
http://kjw.photium.com/october-2011-wells-cathedral