Basilique Saint Remi, Reims (Marne)

maybe one of your really more beautyfull and detailed photo, allways many softness, contrast, tones and serenity are magnified by your fantastic work.

is not a photo, is some great art !

... for your great compliment. To me, the builders were the artists, and I'm trying desperately to capture their amazing accomplishments. As you know, to sit inside these buildings, feeling the strength and power that they endowed these stones, it is a sensation that cannot be described. St. Remi is one of those buildings. Thank you again.

This is a magnificent capture. The light, details and colors are outstanding. The atmosphere is permeated with spiritual serenity. This is one more reason for me to visit Reims, the birthplace of Saint John Baptist De La Salle.

... the Cathedrale Notre Dame. I have not posted on that yet, but it is marvellous. Unfortunately, to me it still shows the damage done by German shelling in WWI and feels broken, ninety years later. Perhaps in my studies I've seen too many of the photos of the damage. But it is a magnificent sight as you come down the main boulevard of town! Saint Remi is just to the south, about a mile or so distant, and feels isolated, despite the fact that it is still within the town. But those pillars! I'll post another shot, just of them. The nave pillars are massive!

Great details and lightning. Probably one of your bests in theses series. I would suggest that you should try to add people to these magnificient views, it would add more interest. The one with the nuns is the best IMO.

... for this project, I tend to shoot without people unless they add something of significant interest to the shot (like the nuns, or the man standing in the light). In the shot of Fontevrault Abbey church, I left people in the shot because it shows the absolutely gigantic scale of the church. Appreciate your comments and thoughts on this. It is very interesting to see how people react to the shots.

Astonishing Romanesque nave with renovated vaulting to repair damage done in World War I.

But the lines and structure of the church are intact, with massive piers and beautiful three-

level nave. It is truly a stunning structure. This shot is from behind the chancel through the

nave to the west front.

Looks like HDR. How many exposures?

... three exposures, 1 stop apart. Didn't need to get too crazy about the windows because they were captured fairly well at the lower stop.

Dennis... Indeed a beautiful structure and capture on your part. Just a question of interest, not a photo critique at all; but the right side is a totally different temperature than the left. Is that a product of the lighting, or the repairs you mentioned? A grand place, that's for sure!

 

Edit: Just a word of thanks for bringing these wonderful places to our view.

... actually, Michael, it is really about the same except that there is no natural light on the upper parts of the pillars on the left side to counter the tungsten (you can see that clearly in the arch level of the nave pillars.) On the right, at the end of the nave where the clerestory windows from the south (the left side) is blocked, the color temperature changes. On the left side, where the clerestory windows don't shine at all, most of the light is from the tungsten instruments. The same happens at the opening the chancel, where the large pillar on the left (behind the gold ornament), but it also is a different stone than the nave. That particular element is most likely because it is a newer stone (much of the damage was to the apse) and hasn't had time to weather like the nave stones.

 

Thanks for commenting, Michael, always enjoy seeing your name attached to a comment on someone's work, especially my own. Am very glad you like these Romanesque churches as well. I had expected these to be pretty much ignored when I first joined PN in August of last year, but there is a wonderful community of people of all kinds who have shown interest in the project.

Its wonderful to find works like this. A very spetial 7/7. Best wishes.

Hello Dennis,

 

The detail and lighting in this photo are outstanding! Truly an inspiring subject beautifully captured!

amazing shot. very well done and a beautiful subject. mary

Excellent manage of entering light,HQ,angle of view and colour!

Nothing Less.

 

More to Come (in time)

 

Just to let you know I come by here more often then you may have guessed.

 

And I never forget kindnesses.

 

Besides, I like to pass on good things -- 'tis better to give' and so on, as you have shown me.

 

I like the repetition of the vaulting - it is stunning in thumbnail, and the full view does not disappoint.

 

The lighting here is stunning; the eye adjusts as it scans a scene in reality, and no eye can view a scene like this at once, though it may, as it scans, take in all these details, so to capture them in one stunning view as here is simply magnificent.

 

You know where I think such work belongs, and sooner (or later), I will e-mail you a list of major US and world galleries and invite you to look at every artist in every gallery (just as I have done as part of my exercises) and compare your work with theirs, and judge for yourself whether you should be a photographic 'beginner' (professionally) and start from the bottom -- at your level of expertise -- or try for lateral entry -- and probably not with a book, at least at first, unless you wish to have a beautiful, large coffee table book with your name on it, but such a thing surely is about assured, if you seek it.

 

And I have a name to give you of someone who is publishing photos of castles, though his photos are not so magnificent. He's in Spain and he may give you a reference or two that may be helpful. You may alreay know him.

 

As I am learning, there is a great market for 'art' these days, although 'representational' art has its own niche, and you know that as well -- being far better schooled in such things than I.

 

If your message is to convey the entirety of your work, then I'd go for a book -- a huge, coffee table book, that conveys the vastness, greatness and high quality of your work, but if you are very proud of your art and want it treasured and collected, and want it to end up in museums, perhaps, then there is another route about which we've written, and about which I'll have more to write as I uncover more of the occult secrets -- which are more simple than I would ever have guessed, but there are no markers on the pathways, so it is quite easy to go down the wrong pathway, fully thinking it's the correct one.

 

And for a man of your professional standing (present and past), it may matter only what your personal desires are regarding the 'message' of your photographs rather than any 'artistic' aspirations, if I read your bio and your messages well.

 

But then again, for me this is very worthy of being called 'art' -- true art.

 

And when I send you that list, I ask that you compare your work to each and every photographic artist you see represented, and ask yourself the inevitable question.

 

It may help guide you one way or another if you haven't made up your mind.

 

With admiration and thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

... your opinion counts a great deal for me, as you well know. And for the offer of help, it will be most gratefully accepted. I especially look forward to talking with you about this all, seeing the progress you are making on your own front, and trying to make decisions about my next steps. Am already writing the text for the book, but it is at the stage of design and sketching, as opposed to really writing it all out. PJ and I talk all the time about going back and shooting. It looks like we will be going for a month in September and shoot in the French Pyrenees/Catalonia area ... the dawn of Romanesque, as it were. Can't wait!

Extremely impressive photo ! congratulations.

I lived in Reims for about 20 years and often went to St Remi area for professional sake. I even lived a few meters far from the basilique for a few years. it's great pleasure seeing it so beautifully represented.

WOW!