Cathedrale Sainte Croix, Orleans (Loiret)

Dedicated to Photis Santamouris, with my respects and with the most humble thanks.

So beautiful, Dennis. This particular photo is very rich. I like these deep shades of b/w. It's dramatic and serious, as churches are! Once again, you've got very fine detail throughout. Well done.

 

I'm curious: how long does it take to produce a shot like this? It would be nice to have reality on what work like this entails, if you don't mind.

great shot, perfectly edited. What more needs to be said?

Hi Dennis, Orleans' Cathedral of the Holy Cross is far to be the famous one in France, except maybe due to its association with Joan of Arc (May 2nd 1429), and its external architecture which is somehow original (especially the 2 towers). But this cathedral is a beautiful one and your B&W photo pictures it perfectly. My best regards, Loic

... Maria, I suppose you mean post-processing time. Most of the work is the shot itself, but that takes little time once it has been set up of course. Taking readings, working on bracketing, composition, levelling (which can be a terrific problem because many of the verticals are out of plumb to begin with - I have actually had to use the tilt-shift to de-correct verticals so that the image captured was the same as the eye sees :) As far as the post-processing and conversion, I'd say this one was about two hours, perhaps more than normal because I wanted to get it perfect since it was for presentation! Thanks Maria, hope this answered your question, if not, ask again!

 

Ton, thanks. For my black and white to get that response from you makes me feel I've done something good here.

 

Loic, amazing, isn't it. Orleans has this superb cathedral and it is seldom mentioned in any book on the Gothic cathedral in France. This, by the way, is the first cathedral I ever experienced. When I was very small, ages 3-5, we lived in Orleans, and I remember going here. It was the most gigantic, impressive, monumental thing that I had ever seen. When I was told that this was the house of God, I had no doubt at all! Thanks for the kind words on the photograph.

Hi Dennis,

 

I saw your striking shot and took another quick look. I've got you this time I thought, the verticals are wider at the top. After checking, there was no key stoning except in my hallucinations. It was I who had cathedral on my face.

 

I guess technicality along with perfection are your specialty Dennis.

 

You would have have fun with a 5x4 camera!

 

Cheers Peter

Wonderful and excellent shot, I like the tones of gray and light, well done. Felicidades and regards amigo // Salvador

So You have been Gothicized after all. And here I thought Dennis was a Roman only kind of guy. Gothic being too metropolized and unaturalized! This is the house of God. I agree and I think I understand what you mean. All of earth is the house of him but only when humans make a big effort altogether to conjure the best essence of what they believe is God, does GOD truly appears out of of stones and glass (and he even does so to the simpler minded people we now have become that have the luck to actually cross the door of churches of old). Gothic comes as close to it as you can get on this earth and Dennis has been converted before...otherwise he would not post this picture with these comments. I did not know you grew up close to Orleans (or I forgot, I guess). In those days of Roman architecture, being a man had a different meaning than today...few people, if any, truly understand that. Gothic is the start of real engineering and starts a totally different mind set even if today we see them as very close...Transitioning from Roman to Gothic took centuries. It's like moving from AM radio to I-Max but taking 10 times longer. This picture brings this to mind in a sudden way.

Thank you all.

 

Peter, I have so often thought about a 4x5, in fact have done lots of work in the distant past with one. My problem, of course, is that in addition to the cost of the camera, the cost of the digital back. I've resigned myself to the Canon full-frame digital and then you come back with this comment and destroy my conviction :)

 

I recently had a friend print my Saint Remi and Vezelay black and whites and couldn't believe the difference a great printer (as in person, not machine) makes in the result. I have a fine printer (machine) and get decent results, but his were astonishing, couldn't believe that my shots would ever look so beautiful. However, there was a definite fall-off after 10x15 inch images. I know what it would be like to have the same quality at poster size and these images won't support that. Thank you for your generous comments, and I'm sure you've gotten that cathedral off your face by now :)

 

Salvador, thanks for stopping by ... amazed that you have the time at the rate that you are posting! I can't keep up. I'm glad you liked the shot, my compadre in shooting churches!

 

Pascal, I was weaned on Gothic and turned in my old age to Romanesque. Does that description work for you? Yes, we lived in a tiny village called Herbilly, about four kilometers east of Mer and west of Beaugency. We lived in the house of the Marechal Michel Joseph Maunoury, who was the commander at the Battle of the Ourq in World War I. This was the battle of the famous taxi cab army organized by Galleini in defense of Paris that stopped the German advance at what has subsequently been called the Battle of the Marne. We subsequently moved to a house in Saint Jean de la Ruelle and lived there for two years. Most of my memories of my early life begin in those two places, which certainly created my deep love for France and things French.

Merece mucho la pena el tiempo que le hayas dedicado. El resultados es asombroso. Felicidades. Nacho

Dennis, I should have been more specific. Yes, I meant post-processing. Thanks for the detailed explanation. That does give me more understanding of what it takes to make such a handsome shot. :)

It looks a bit different as construction and still have similarities. The upper arced part is very different from the others you have uploaded, but the way you post processed all of them is very similar in its high level of photogtraphy and angles chosen. The LIGHT from the windows, entering into the dim inside, and the majesty sight of it, the high roof, for the real faitful belivers in the different era the feeling of closeness to God and holiness is the same,I think.

The B/W here is very well done, the light and details are spot on.

... Gracias, Nacho, your words are very kind. Please don't think that my pains in doing this work are something that I regret. I enjoy it as much as anything in my life!

 

Maria, I figured as much, but thought I'd give you a bit on both. Sometimes the shots are just there, ready to go. But most of the time, I have multiple versions, and it is necessary to investigate several to find out what yields the best results. The guide is usually what the church looked like and how it felt when we saw it. Am glad you liked the shot.

 

Pnina, this is Gothic, as you have noticed, and I usually shoot the Romanesque; the chief difference is that Gothic is higher, has lighter walls, more windows, and these wonderful segmented ribbed vaults. As you observed, this was a different architecture for a different group of people, believing in the same God. Most people prefer it greatly to the more humble and (some believe) primitive Romanesque. I love the Romanesque for the spirit and faith that nurtured the people and the churches both.

The arches and vertical lines are truly mesmerizing. You created a composition that is glorious, rapturous and imposing.

Compliments for this beautifulst Shot.

this is a incredible job.

Ciao Bevip

... I was just looking at this picture and thinking (after an amazing comment from your friend Emmanuel on my portfolio page). But I was looking this and thinking of what it took to build it, and then come back and see your note. How perfect, especially after you give me credit for the composition :) Too generous, my friend. But can you image being a mason and building this structure by hand. Stone by stone, each one cut to shape, and mounted higher and higher and higher into the open sky, with the walls actually swaying in the wind, until one day ... you could build that vault over the structure and tie it all together. Enclose it, give it final shape, and then, fill it. I can imagine you being one of those men, Adan, for some reason. I can see you spend your entire life building something like this, knowing that one day it will be finished and you would have done it. I can see you on that swaying wall, carefully aligning the stones, applying the mortar, noticing everything just the way you notice everything now. It's almost like I see it in front of me, and it makes me smile.

 

Now, imagine some of our buddies! Pascal, he would be the guy who built the hand cranes and the engines that lifted the stone and fitted out the scaffolding that you masons would depend on for survival. He would be muttering to himself and thinking, and scratching his head, and then running off to the corner to make some wonderous little device that would do exactly what he needed. Jeff? I think he would be working with the master carvers on the capitals, covered in fine white powder, not only designing and carving these wonderful sculptures, but painting them with abandon. Demons, and griffons, and two-headed monsters mixing with madonnas and apostles. That would be his domain, along with his routine chore of keeping the children out of the stone flakes and stop them from painting themselves. Photis? He wouldn't have the patience to stay and work on the site, he would be forced by that energy of his to walk ... when you needed a new source of stone, he would find it. Giant timbers for the crossing beams? ... Photis would walk deep into the forest and find them. Marble for the facing of the altar? Didn't he see a vein of marble the last time he walked into the gorge cut by the river 20 miles away? Pnina? Wait, wasn't that Pnina and her crew mixing pigment in the glass and seeing what it looked like when the sun came through. Wasn't she driving everybody crazy because she wanted to experiment with every possible combination before deciding what would be perfect? But we all know that she'll be ready and that it will be wonderful. There would be more; Rick, Marta, Tim (who would probably be hiding people's tools and singing the latest slightly risque song just to keep the workplace on an even keel), Mikel (carving wood and making glorious things from its rich, natural textures), Laurent (making his strange exotic geometric drawings that somehow translated into a ten-faced voussoir with no two sides parallel and four of them curved, all of which fit with the adjacent ones ... nobody ever understood the how, only that it worked), Demetrios and Marios discussing whether or not to risk a groin vault over the nave, a fruitless discussion because it will only be decided after everything else is finished and by then, probably the decision of a younger man, but they discuss it with a passion and all the accumulated knowledge of their years. Jack is high in the rafters, always looking down, seeing that the view the God gets is a good one. I see Alberto seated at a desk with his great model of the church, looking at it and touching it, and watching to make sure the building goes up correctly. Ned, Salvador, Manuel, Juan, Teresa, Marielou are here too, each creating some small perfection. In the rafters above the clerestory, an area that nobody will ever enter, I see Nicolo and Carlo finishing stone to perfection, even though nobody will ever see it, because it must be so. Fred is there, too, but he can't tear himself from the latest work by Thomas Aquinas. I see Chris working on the outdoor sculptures, high above the ground, because he always wants to be looking across the great expansive distances. I see Theo and Carsten as two master builders visiting to evaluate the work, noticing every little detail. I see the entire PN crew at work on this great structure ... carving, painting, building stone by stone, this grand edifice dedicated to making the world a better place. It's what I see at PhotoNet.

Hello Dennis. I like it. I think it's an attractive image that shows us the high roof in a smart way, with a light that makes the image beautiful and great. Regards. Eugenio.

... but you must hurry ... I think that Adan needs help on the high walls with his masonry. Pascal is trying to talk him into some crazy idea about cantilevered scaffolding!

That is quite a nirvanic description of our PN community my friend. Thanks for sharing that vision with all of us. And what will be your role in this world Dennis? ;)

... Dennis watches :)

You have truly captured the expansiveness of this holy ground!Your attention to deatil is obvious.

Are you writing a book? LOL... you realy have a vivid imagination, and I enjoyed the differences of US the builders....Thanks for bringing us back in time !....

Simply beautiful -- with wonderful light and tones. Bravo! Regards...

Hi, Dennis. I'm thinking that we have to invite Ken Follett to this forum. I don't know if he likes photography, but it does'nt matter (probably he likes coffee or tea) :-)The photo is fantastic...I have nothing else to say so is all already said. Cheers master builder.

 

Hello Dennis, I would be of the hours I make questions you on your wonderful job, but I have difficulty in writing in English and this limits me in the expression.

Riconosco nel tuo lavoro professionalita' tecnica ai massimi livelli, la dove le linee verticali inevitabilmente partirebbero per la diagonale tu le verticalizzi senza parlare della luce dove tu la sai cogliere anche al centro dell'ombra.Ti ammiro anche per la ragionevolezza della scelta dei tuoi scatti che raccolgono tutto c'io' che l'uomo ha creato nei secoli e dove tu riesci a restituire a chi guarda una delle tue immagini il sudore e la storia dell'uomo e della sua arte. In questa foto si ode il silenzio religioso e nulla e' fuori posto, tutto converge al centro, la dove la luce dovrebbe illuminare la nostra ragione e quella dei potenti.

Immagini con queste caratteristiche sono rare.Sembrano eseguite con un banco ottico di buon livello e con tanta pazienza .

Ciao Bevip