Submitter's name:	Andrew Gaskin
Title:	Abbey Church of St Albans
Gear used:	OM-4Ti + 50/1.8 + tripod + self-timer.
Diaphragm:	f4
Shutter speed:	Auto 1-2 seconds
Film used:	Kodakcolor Gold Royal 100 ASA.
Technical information:	Spot metered on the front of the Abbey to get the detail at the expense of the side detail.
Subject information:	The film was free on the cover of Amateur Photographer - normally I use Kodachrome 64. I found the quality pretty impressive. I have another shot of just the Abbey tower taken on my 75-150 f4 at about the 120 mark and you can count the bricks. Taken on 20th May in the pouring rain and me with no hat or umbrella.
Here you can leave some comments about this picture. Please fill out all the fields before submitting the form. Once you're done filling out the form, click the "Leave comments" button, after which you can see your comments down below.
Your name:
Your e-mail:
Comments:

Comment left by: Olaf Greve (olaf_greve@hotmail.com)

A lovely church, and a very nice exposure. Only small point for improvement I see is that you could have framed it slightly differently, so it would have contained a bit less grass at the bottom, and a bit more tower at the top. Otherwise a very nice shot, indeed!

Comment left by: Barry Bean (bbbean@beancotton.com)

Great sky. I too would have liked to see the entire front. I don't see the rain, though.

Comment left by: Siddiq (siddim01@student.ucr.edu)

VERY nice! Perhaps you could use PhotoShop and using the density mask or layers get back highlight detail in the side. Would have loved to have seen the top part at the expense of a little of the black stuff at the bottom clipped out. Time for a 35/shift, eh?

Comment left by: Siddiq (same)

Oh, btw, you said it was raining...skies aren't overcast?

Comment left by: Wiliam Wagenaar (wiliam2@wish.net)

An impressive picture of an impressing building. I have to agrre however on the missig tower and washed out highlights.

Comment left by: Norm (no e-mail specified)

I've only seen this church on an overcast and grey day. Never knew it looked like this at night. The highlight in the porch is a nice touch.

Comment left by: Andrew Gaskin (no e-mail specified)

I whole-heartedly agree that the composition is not all it might be. The ground slopes away quite sharply in front of the Abbey so it was difficult to avoid either losing some of the building or having an amount of distortion. For anyone interested in the others I took that night, I've posted them at http://www.btinternet.com/~maitani/TOPE2.html

Comment left by: Emily (emily.g@btinternet.com)

Hello Dad! Good picture!

Comment left by: laurence (laurence@xim.co.uk)

I know this scene very well, as we live at the bottom of it -- in St Albans!! You've captured the warm colour of the illuminated Abbey very well, and the dark blue night sky just shows through nicely. But like the other comments, I wish you could've caught more of the top... maybe I'll try this shot with a wide angle sometime!!

[Previous]

[Return to index]

[Next]