Lincoln Cathedral Panorama
Photo of the Day
In the past few months, I’ve been through Lincoln twice now and this is one of the many shots I’ve taken of its towering cathedral. I kept gravitating towards this particular view of the great building from a spot between the cathedral and the castle.
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Beneath Meknes’ Koubbat as-Sufara
Photo of the Day
Koubbat as-Sufara is a hall that was once used for the reception of foreign ambassadors, but the creepy crypt below is an even better sight. Through it was only used for food storage, it has the atmosphere of somewhere more likely to be haunted than a simple granary.
There were very few visitors present during my time there, so it was relatively easy for me to run around popping off flash bursts to light this lengthy hall.
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Chesterton Windmill
Photo of the Day
Here’s another one of my experiments in using a single flash to light a scene in dozens of separate photos later combined. This one is of the Chesterton Windmill which stands by itself in a field not too far from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Click to see the image on a black background:
Ely Cathedral Window
Photo of the Day
This west-facing window on the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral caught the light of the descending sun in an extraordinary way. The whole window seemed to be set ablaze for a few moments as the sun neared the horizon. I’ve tried to capture just how bright the light looked, but I’m not sure a photograph can show just how brilliant it was.
Click to see the image on a black background:
Zadar’s Cathedral of St. Anastasia
Photo of the Day
Just around the corner from the St. Donatus Church, Zadar Cathedral, a.k.a. the St. Anastasia Cathedral, is another of the old town’s incredibly old and charming buildings. That massive blue sky in this image is making me pine for some of Croatia’s near-perfect weather…
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Zadar’s Church of St. Donatus
Photo of the Day
Moving away from the Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes, Zadar is one of the must-stop cities on the way down Croatia’s coast and one of the building’s to admire there is the over-1000-year-old, pre Romanesque Church of St. Donatus. Here it is in the evening, flanked by the tower of the nearby Cathedral of St. Anastasia.
POTD: St. Nicholas’ Church Interior
Even more grand than its exterior, the interior of St. Nicholas’ Church in Prague’s lesser town is designed to impress. An example of counter-reformation architecture, ever square inch of the interior is ornate and aimed at overwhelming your senses.
Photo of the Day: Ripon Cathedral Clock
This clock near the entrance of Ripon Cathedral caught my eye on my way out. This was one of those instances where the light worked perfectly in the setting. It highlighted all the right places and left enough shadow to create some mystery.
Photo of the Day: Ripon Cathedral Interior
A panoramic view of the choir of Ripon Cathedral.
Photo of the Day: Ripon Cathedral Exterior
In addition to being a sucker for massive buildings, I have a soft spot for ancient ones as well. Maybe it’s because, in my home city of Calgary, a building qualifies as old if it has a mere few decades under its belt. Maybe it’s because I grew up reading Tolkien and subconsciously romanticized every stone building I would ever see. Maybe it’s the echoes of a past life. Or maybe just simple nostalgia.
Whatever the reason, I can’t get enough of England’s centuries-old cathedrals. Ripon Cathedral has gone through a number of iterations, but it was begun in 672. I’d say that qualifies as sufficiently aged for me to get giddy at the sight of it.
Photo of the Day – La Perdrera
I’m currently going through images from my trip to Barcelona last year and just processed this one from La Pedrera, one of Antoni Gaudi’s brilliant Art Nouveau apartment buildings. Also known as Casa Mila, this UNESCO world heritage site is full of Gaudi’s signature organic shapes and whimsical design.
This photo shows the view up to the sky from one of the many oddly-shaped courtyards below. It’s composed of five shots combined to make an HDR image. As tripods aren’t allowed inside La Pedrera, I had to shoot handheld which is never ideal for combining images in this way. But, thanks to Photoshop CS4’s improved ability to align layers, it all worked out.
I rarely get the results I want from Photoshop’s automatic HDR tool. Instead, I tend to throw all the different exposures into separate layers and go to town with masking. It gives better control over the final image and I can generally prevent the nasty halo effects that come with some automated HDR procedures.
Click the image for a larger version on flickr:
Photo of the Day – Manchester Cathedral
Manchester Cathedral is one of my favourite buildings here in Manchester and I had already photographed it plenty of times (see my gallery of Manchester Cathedral images here). But with the opportunity to use new gear comes the opportunity to shoot old subjects in new ways.
Briefly armed with a Nikon D3 and a 14-24mm lens, I headed over to the Cathedral for a nighttime shot on a super-wide angle. Result!
Photo of the Day – Manchester Civil Justice Center (part 2)
To follow up on yesterday’s Photo of the Day post, I thought I would give you another view of the Manchester Civil Justice Centre.
This is one of the sides of the building in Spinningfields designed by Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall.
This photo and the previous one come from an all-too-brief weekend in which I had the chance to use a brand-new Nikon D3 and a wonderful 14-24mm lens to accompany it. Nikon loaned the gear to the studio where I work so that the photographers could take a test drive. Now if only we had had the budget to drive it off the lot – it’s great equipment and I’d love to be able to use it more. The D3 lives up to the hype on the high ISO front and that 14-24 lens is gorgeous.
This image comes to you from my architectural photography portfolio and it is also visible on flickr here.
Photo of the Day – Manchester Civil Justice Center
For today’s photo of the day, I bring you a bit of architectural photography.
The futuristic Manchester Civil Justice Centre is one of the many ambitious modern architectural projects that populate Manchester. This is but a glimpse of it – pull back and this pattern of squares and rectangles extends way beyond this frame and starts to resemble the armor-cladded side of a science fiction spaceship.
And that’s only one side of it. The opposite side’s massive glass front must badly confuse the area’s birds. And the ends of the building look like a massive glass and steel game of Jenga.
This image comes to you from my architectural photography portfolio and it is also visible on flickr here.
Photos of Bridgewater Hall
A little Christmas present I’ve given myself is some time to actually work on a few photos. This has given me the chance to put together this gallery of photos of Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. It’s a striking bundle of glass-and-steel angles and I imagine it’s a fine concert venue. I’ve never had the chance to take in a show there, but I look forward to getting the chance sometime. For now, I will content myself with gazing upon it’s fine exterior.
Photos of Manchester’s Beetham Tower
With the tiniest scrap of free time, I’ve had the chance to put together a gallery of images of Beetham Tower, Manchester’s tallest building and home to the Hilton hotel.
It’s one of those buildings that seems to polarize its viewers. Some enjoy its soaring form while others loathe its discord with the surrounding area. Add to that its height and you can’t escape a view of the tower. That, however, can be a boon when, like me, you live near it and are lost in Manchester – you can always orient yourself to it’s giant rectangular shape.
On the 23rd floor, the Hilton operates a bar/lounge that, apparently, affords some great views of the city. The cocktails cost as much as a meal anywhere else, so I haven’t yet made the trip up (though I could probably get away with not buying a thing…). I’ll have to make the trip sometime though – there are few tall buildings in Manchester with any public observation floors and I’d love to see this city from above.
Check out the photos here.
Barton Arcade Images
A semi-hidden gem here in downtown Manchester is the Barton Arcade shopping mall. Tucked in between Deansgate and St. Ann’s Square, the arcade doesn’t show much of itself from the outside, especially on the Deansgate side. But once you step inside, it reveals a beautiful glass and iron roof that fills the hall with light.
It’s always nice to cut through here even just for a glimpse when walking in the area.
See the photos here.
Darby Sawchuk is a Canadian-born photographer who currently resides in Manchester, England. He has travelled to over 40 countries and is always adding more to the list. He creates stock for multiple agencies and is available for assignments.
+44 0790 992 8932
