church | alan frost photography

Posts from the ‘church’ category

In times of darkness – let there be light

In times of darkness

So many churches are closed these days for security purposes. but venture out into the countryside away from the big towns and cities and the chances are you will find a small village church with its doors open, ready to accept those who seek a liitle peace for quiet contemplation and prayer.

One such church is in the tiny hamlet of South Stoke to the north of Arundel in West Sussex. One road in and one road out, this beautifully situated church lies close to the River Arun, as it weaves its way south through Arundel and on towards Littlehampton, where its waters meet the English Channel.

Inside the church it has the appearance that very little has changed for hundreds of years. The pulpit is lit during daylight hours by a stained glass window, but in times of darkness the flame of a candle would shine its light on the The Bible which already open for the next reading.

This shot was taken with a Leica M Monochrom and 50mm Summilux lens, then processed in Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro. Being a rangefinder and given the main subject of the picture was quiet close to the camera, I encountered the parallax issue, which means that what you see through the viewfinder is not what you get, because the viewfinder is not centred on the same plane as the lens. It was important for me to make sure that the candle was in front of the dark background and not the light coming through the window on the left. I had to adjust my position on a few occasions to get the composition I was looking for.

An Easter display – Mono where there should be colour

Easter display

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would take some photographs for publication in our parish magazine of the truly beautiful flowers which were on display in my local church over the Easter period. I did not need to ask if they wanted colour or black or white images. Of course they had to be in colour and that was absolutely right.

The dominant colour of the flowers was yellow, a sign of Spring, and new life and growth. Irrespective of your own personal religious beliefs this time of year is always a joy; as Winter turns to Spring, the trees turn green and the dawn chorus can be heard each and every morning as night turns into day.

I was pleased with the images I took but as my first photographic love is monochrome and not colour, I could not resist the temptation to convert one of the pictures into black and white. It works for me but it would never have been selected for the colour centre page spread in the parish magazine! Nevertheless it’s one to share on my blog and I hope you agree.

Last light on Salthouse Church

St Nicholas, Salthouse
Taken late in the afternoon as the sun was setting. This must be one of the finest locations of any church in the UK.

In my last post, I wrote about the wonderful light to be found inside churches. One of the churches I mentioned was St Nicholas in Salthouse on the North Norfolk coast. A large church for such a small parish, records state that it was completed in 1503. It occupies a wonderful position on rising ground at the top of the village, overlooking the salt marshes and the sea.

The photograph was taken at the end of the day just as the sun was setting. My wife and I had been walking our dog that afternoon and as we drove back towards Weybourne, I took a detour in the hope that we might find a good viewpoint of the church. We found the right road, pulled over, and I grabbed my camera. The light on the church could not have been better, with a glorious cloudscape to match. The opportunity to take this shot lasted just a few minutes as the sun soon disappeared behind low clouds in the West. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

This view would not have changed for five centuries, but now wind turbines can be seen on the far horizon.

The wonderful light of Church interiors

Pews of Light
The interior of Weybourne Church. The low morning light shined through the tall leaded light windows on the far wall and illuminated the church pews and cushions.

There is something rather special, well at least for me anyway, about the light which can be found inside a church. This is particularly true when the sun is shining brightly and it comes through the leaded light windows, making shadows and highlighting certain features inside a place of prayer and contemplation.

This post features three photographs taken recently in Norfolk, which I think capture something of the magical light to be found inside these religious buildings. They are centuries old, yet in many respects are no different to when they were first constructed. The idea that this special light has been witnessed by so many generations is rather humbling.

A charitable concert was staged at our local church in Fishbourne last week, featuring Budd and Saunders who are a very talented musical duet. Kenton Budd sang the vocals and Nic Saunders accompanied him on the electric piano, whilst also performing some solo keyboard works for the first time, all inspired by the Weald and Downland Museum which lies in the small village of Singleton, just north of Chichester.

They principally performed well known songs from famous stage Musicals both past and present. The acoustics in the church were superb and the late evening summer sun shone through the leaded light windows. It acted like a floodlight on Kenton as he sang with passion and feeling for the story being told by the lyrics.

I was using my trusted Olympus EM1 and 75mm f1.8 lens. Shooting mainly at f2 at ISO 2000, this gave me enough speed to freeze the action and capture some sharp images. I used Lightroom for some basic processing before converting to black and white in Silver Efx Pro2 starting with the Fine Art preset.