Technicolour Sunrise in Toft

With clear skies and minus 4 degrees, yesterday's sunrise was spectacular - bright yellow/orange skies contrasting with the heavily frosted foliage. I decided a walk across the Golf Course might give some atmospheric shots but got distracted en route to the Church Drift by the colours and light patterns in the village and some frosted fungi, berries and daisies!

Happy New Year to 'Old Friends' in Toft

These two Hawthorn trees in Toft's Great Meadow (yes there are two!) are old friends that I have known and watched grow together in perfect harmony for the nearly 60 years. Their branches make a perfect shape as if they are one. I do not know if they started as one very small sapling that split or two that germinated together. In the Churchyard the Snowdrops and Aconites are showing quite a few blooms. A bit sombre in monochrome but it has been very grey recently!!

Candlelit Carols

This year, the Toft community carol service was held in the church rather than outside and the church was full. I wanted to try and capture the atmosphere when all the candles were lit and the church lighting turned off, using either a longish exposure with wide-open aperture and high ISO or using Olympus Live Composite mode where the image is built up by repeated exposures (second image) and a smaller aperture can be used (first image). The congregation were relatively still in the first image and is my favourite.

The Painted Church Cambridge

As part of our Documenting Cambridge project ( Public Home Page), I spent a couple of hours at the 'Painted Church' in Cambridge yesterday morning lit by beautiful autumn sunlight. I only had a compact single focal length camera with me so these are planning shots for a later in depth visit. All Saints' was built by the architect George Frederick Bodley between 1863 and 1870 and is a notable example of English Gothic Revival style, both for its exceptional hand painted walls and for the spectacular stained glass.The wall and ceiling decorations were applied by F. R. Leach & Sons and form complex, bold stencilled patterns throughout the church. The east window was designed by Edward Burne-Jones. 

Comberton Church Full Spectrum Photography

Full-spectrum photography is great for dark church interiors without a tripod as it picks up all the available light. Here a few cameos from one of our local churches.