Description:

What do almost all tourists do when they go to a foreign european city (especially in Italy)? Answer - take a look around its Cathederal or Church. I lost count of the number of churches I have been in, I don't even remember the location of this one, although I have a feeling that it might be the Cathederal at Pisa.

In this image I have captured exactly (well almost) what I was hoping to achieve. The shafts of light from the two windows, the two pillars stretching from the foreground to the roof, the structure in the gilt vaulting, the detail at the far end of the composition but mostly, someone walking through the pool of light from the windows.

No detail of the main figure can be seen other than he is studying something, probably a guide to the cathederal. Had I printed this myself I may have burnt in the areas around the two patches of light to get more information from the image. However, this image also works as it enhances the incongruity of the light intensity in this place.

I did have another shot from this position but I hand held at 1/8 sec which resulted in a bad case of camera shake. The composition was just right, it had one person standing in the nearest light, looking back and apparently talking to someone in the other light area. No other people were around. I realised that the image would be blurred so I stepped back to the next pillar to steady the camera against it. The perfect composition was lost so I waited for another one. I had to wait several minutes for this one and surmised that I was not going to get any better unless I was prepared to wait for hours. I was prepared to, but my family wouldn't have been.

I was using my 19mm wide angle slightly raised to get the pillars and vaults included. This resulted in the converging verticals. However, I don't beleive it detracts from this image because it gives an impression that space is converging in on the occupants of this dark and silent room.