Bury Cathedral
Jul, 2015Views
514
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Awards
Zenith Award
Staff Winter Selection 2015
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chaplin25
August 20, 2015
nice to see a different angle of this cathedral, I live only a couple of minutes away but I've never photographed it!!
great phototure :)
great phototure :)
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in the market town of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. Originally called St James' Church, St Edmundsbury Cathedral is surrounded by abbey ruins and a park called the Abbey Gardens, a beautifully maintained English garden and popular place for locals and the peacocks who live there. A more traditional photo of the town would show the entrance arch to the Gardens. I went many times as a child to play on the swings and feed the ducks on the river Lark that flows alongside it. My family still go there and have had many wedding photos taken there. I was also in a production of Noye's Fludde by Benjamin Britton at the Cathedral so it holds a lot of happy memories. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Edmund, first king of the Angles, hence the area's name, East Anglia. The Abbey was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry V111 in the late 1530s.Time
The photo was taken on a visit to see family and friends. I met a school friend and previous neighbor for coffee late one afternoon when the cathedral was bathed in sunshine and long shadows were spreading over all the buildings as the sun moved to the west. I had taken other photos of the cathedral from the gardens but this was the only one taken from the side view and at a lower level.Lighting
The lighting was created by the setting sun that gave great shadows from the trees. It was just a natural effect that I barely noticed at the time as I was concentrating on getting a good shot of the illuminated tower.Equipment
Sony DSC-W7 that is a little camera I keep in my pocket for capturing mad moments. I was just taking random shots as I walked through the gardens and around the town that day.Inspiration
I have a great love for the Abbey Gardens and the cathedral. The cathedral has been undergoing extensive reservations for years and this was the first time in many years I had seen it without scaffolding on the tower. The long shadows somehow highlighted the unique brickwork all over the building. My friend is a beekeeper and he showed me some of his hives in part of the gardens not open to the public so this was a side of the church I wouldn't normally see. The angle was created by the limited ability I had to get a full on shot and worked to my advantage.Editing
I didn't do any cropping or post production work as far as I remember. It's much as I took it and came out far better than I thought it would, given the diminishing light and shadows caused by the trees.In my camera bag
I used to have a Nikon D7100 with three lenses 55/300, 18/140 for zoom and 35/1.8 for macro shots. I do a lot of nature photography using a tripod and this worked well but recently I changed it to a Sony Cyber Shot DSC-RX10 IV and I'm experimenting with the extra long zoom to 600mm. I've only had it for two weeks but already appreciate the small feel and benefit of an all in one. I have no regrets for making the switch so far. In addition I have a small Sony cyber shot, my iPhone 7 and a Nikon 1 AW1 mirrorless 11/27.5 for wet and underwater locations.Feedback
Think outside the box. I've taken a lot of photos of this same subject from traditional viewpoints, for example full on from the front or across the gardens showing the flower beds and parkland. I consider this to be my best, the way the sun captured all the molding, brickwork and windows and the closeness of the building gave a drama I'd not managed before. Someone wrote to me saying he lived very close to the cathedral and he'd never photographed it before, I like to think I inspired him to do so. I also won Staff Winter Selection 2015 so feel it was a great success. One of my best.
