Special moment
Looking like a special moment for Pope John Paul II in the early morning in Jasna Gora, Czestochowa, Poland, at Christmas time 2015. Also a lovely winter sunris...
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Looking like a special moment for Pope John Paul II in the early morning in Jasna Gora, Czestochowa, Poland, at Christmas time 2015. Also a lovely winter sunrise!
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Jan, 2016Views
1883
Likes
Awards
People's Choice in Backlight with the sun in sight Photo Challenge
People's Choice in Amazing Sunrises Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
All Star
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 20 rank week 1
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 30 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Categories
PRO+
roelraadsen
December 12, 2017
Congetulations winning "peoples choise" in my challenge "backlight with the sun in sight".
PRO+
PhilC
December 12, 2017
Many thanks again! It is a real honour to have the image chosen as a challenge winner for the second time.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
In Jasna Gora, Czestochowa, Poland. This is a very big Roman Catholic religious centre, which has honoured Pope John Paul II, who came from Poland, with this special statue. There is a large expanse of open ground at a lower level between the statue and the trees in the background. So the statue has a tremendous place of prominence facing the often many thousands of people who congregate there for outdoor services on special occasions. (Services are run from a special balcony on the buildings that are to the right of the image.)Time
Early morning, but being at the time of the shortest days of the year, it did not have to be too early (about 08:15)! It was still dark when I arrived and I took the opportunity to walk around with my camera as the dawn light was appearing. When I visited the statue, I waited for the perfect timing for this image with the sun just having risen over the trees in the background.Lighting
With the sun in front of the statue, of course I accepted that the statue itself would be dark on its rear side, but I feel this actually contributes to the composition of the image. It is of course totally different from some others I took of the front of the statue in the early sun. It is always tricky getting a good image directly into the sun and I took a couple of shots at different ISOs and speeds from which I selected this one as the best.Equipment
Canon EOS 70D with standard 18-55mm lens. Taken hand-held.Inspiration
I found the effect of the statue of such a well-known and important recent Pope with his arm raised exactly facing the mid-winter sunrise (immediately after Christmas day) to be quite dramatic and profound, especially in such an important religious centre. So apart from inspiring me to take the image, this also led to my deciding to make it the very first image that I uploaded when I joined Viewbug, which in fact was only a couple of weeks after this image was taken.Editing
Minimal post-processing. A small amount of cropping and a very slight adjustment to the lighting to make the area around the statue a tiny bit more visible.In my camera bag
I still use this Canon EOS 70D with standard Canon 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.Feedback
It is not very often that you can spot what in this case, to me, is such a dramatic image that lasted just a few minutes. It stood out much more than the more usual shots of the statue from the front in the bright morning sunlight, however much those are also an important part of the collection from that day. I think that applies to whatever you are photographing - look for those occasions when an unusual and unexpected possibility presents itself to get a special image.
