GEFAELL

Transubstantiation

Whatever our beliefs are, religion is the component of any human culture that, jointly with knowledge, love, art and nature, can appease our desperate suffering...
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Whatever our beliefs are, religion is the component of any human culture that, jointly with knowledge, love, art and nature, can appease our desperate suffering to find the meaning of our lifes. So, any photographer interested in capturing human life and culture, has to learn how to capture the essence of the temples and the spirit of the religious rites.
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The consecration of the bread is the most important moment of the Catholic mass ceremony. It is the moment when the bread transubstantiates into the body of Christ. Transubstantiation is the change whereby, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bread and the wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become, not simbolically, but in actual reality the body and blood of Christ. Since nobody knows exactly what the matter is in the extreme, the intelectual humility that any of us with this Catholic Faith have to have in order to accept the mystery of the transubstantiation is, in some extent, analog to the intelectual humility that we have to have for accepting the world as it is, without understanding exactly what the matter, and the space, and the time, and the energy are in the extreme, with the hope that we will understand it in the future. In any event, this part of the Catholic ceremony is so important and sacred that a photographer can not 'take his time' for shooting photos during that moment... When I took this photo, I was kneeling in the second pew when I noticed that the eyes of the figure of Jesus Christ were exactly aligned with the sacred host, so I inmediately and very quickly took the camera and shot (I hope that also discretely!).
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(File#: 2014-08-21 19.18.50_DxO 3).
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Canon EOS 70D

settings

Aperture f/6.3 ISO 1250 Shutter 1/30

upload_date

Jan, 2015

Views

1355

Likes

+104

Awards

People's Choice in Daily Routines for our lives Photo Challenge

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

Peer Award

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

All Star

Magnificent Capture

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in a humble chapel in Vigo, Spain

Time

At 20:00 h.

Lighting

This chapel had a quite intense yellow-orange artificial lighting that I tried to capture, without using any flash. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But the earth was formless and empty. Then God said: Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good'. (The Bible, Genesis 1, 1). ................................................................................................................................................................................................. It is the light what gives consistency and form to the matter. The atoms are practically 100% empty space. The volume occupied by the nucleus plus the volume occupied by the electrons is only 0,0000000000001% (yes, thirteen decimals) of the total volume of any atom. But the photons, as bosons responsible of the electromagnetic interaction, connect internally and continuously the electrons with the nucleus, and also the atoms with other atoms in order to form molecules. The photons act as if they were the cement of the matter. Without light in its interior, there would not be 'solid' atoms and molecules. The matter, the whole universe would be an extremely loose soup of bosons and hadrons with c.0% density. That is, without light, the matter, the earth would be 'formless and empty', as surprisingly states the first sentence of the Bible. Light is not an outside phenomenon: photons are an essential 'internal' component of the matter. Without them it would not be possible any form. Neither the beauty, nor the photography. The matter is literally 'filled' with light. Also at night. To capture it, is all.

Equipment

I did the photo with my Canon 70D camera and with a Canon 70-300L IS USM lens.

Inspiration

The consecration of the bread is the most important moment of the Catholic mass ceremony. It is the moment when the bread transubstantiates into the body of Christ. Transubstantiation is the change whereby, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bread and the wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become, not simbolically, but in actual reality the body and blood of Christ. Since nobody knows exactly what the matter is in the extreme, the intelectual humility that any of us with this Catholic Faith have to have in order to accept the mystery of the transubstantiation is, in some extent, analog to the intelectual humility that we have to have for accepting the world as it is without understanding exactly what the matter, and the space, and the time, and the energy are in the extreme, with the hope that we will understand it in the future. In any event, this part of the Catholic ceremony is so important and sacred that a photographer can not 'take his time' for shooting photos during that moment... When I took this photo, I was kneeling in the second pew when I noticed that the eyes of the figure of Jesus Christ were exactly aligned with the sacred host, so I inmediately and very quickly took the camera and shot (I hope that also discretely!).

Editing

I did not post edited the photo. I just converted the RAW file into a JPEG with minor lighting adjustments with DXO Optics Pro software.

In my camera bag

Canon 70D camera, Canon 70-300L IS USM lens, Sigma 18-35 Art lens, Sigma 50 Art lems.

Feedback

In any religious ceremony, whatever is our Faith, above all we as a photographers must be respectful and discrete. Religion is the component of any human culture that, jointly with knowledge, love, art and nature, can appease our desperate suffering to find the meaning of our lifes (again, whatever are our beliefs), so temples, cathedrals and chapels are usually the most important architecture works in any human society, and also the religious ceremonies are one of the most important parts of any human culture. Thus, we have to learn how to capture the essence of the temples and the spirit of the religious rites if we are photographers interested in capturing human life and culture.

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GEFAELL

Transubstantiation

Whatever our beliefs are, religion is the component of any human culture that, jointly with knowledge, love, art and nature, can appease our desperate suffering... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow GEFAELL

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Whatever our beliefs are, religion is the component of any human culture that, jointly with knowledge, love, art and nature, can appease our desperate suffering...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.