'After Vespers'

The sun has long since fallen behind brooding, cloudy skies, 'Vespers'

(the last, evening, service of the day has long concluded, and these

young seminarians (priests in training) are freed from their daily job at

the gift and administration shop of a gold-domed Ukrainian

church/cathedral. Your ratings, critiques and remarks for this evening

photo are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically,

or with to make an observation, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; thank you in advance for sharing your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography, especially

this difficult to photograph 'night shot' Enjoy! John

The 'Evening Prayer' (Vespers) in the nearby Eastern Orthodox, gold-domed church was beautiful.

I attended as a visitor, and it  was eerily beautiful, even though the service participants (monks perhaps?) were walled off in their part of the church from the part I was in, yet young Seminarians near me and in an open corner sang and chanted -- from far across the church part where the walled off 'main' section was -- all singing beautifully.

The main priest came out of an ornate door in the walled off section and swung with metallic clinks from its chain the gilt-ball incensoir (incense burner) as he swung it rapidly and rhythmically back and forth towards the few assembled, and then went to each corner of the church's front and swung the incensoir (incense burner with wispy clouds of aromatic incense smoke) at all.

After a what seemed like  along time, accompanied by beautiful chanting and/or singing from the very young seminarians (or so I supposed since they had seminary garb), the priest finished his incense swinging tour of the inner church front nearby, then disappeared through an elaborately ornate door to the 'main service', becoming invisible to us behind a gilt and painted wall, where the rest of the service could be heard with its eery, almost ghostly, and very angelic male sounds.

Long afterward, after evening was well under way, but with some dim twilight, the gift shop/administration area (I suppose) across the way emptied of young seminarians, apparently, judging from their demeanor here, freed from their day of devotional work.

That's when I took this photo (under very harsh lighting).

john

John (Crosley)

Quite by accident and mainly because he was curious because of my equipment, famous Ukrainian fashion photographer Mihaylov Demyan, his women Victoriya, and their infant were on church grounds for a chilly fall stroll with their stroller, and after we met, we talked, then walked for some time, as he returned to his home/studio.

Here is a link to his site which has highest-quality work. I recommend a visit: 

http://www.demyan.com.ua/

Notice, he shoots among others for CosmoLady (Ukraine I believe) is heavyweight boxer Klichko's personal photographer, and does other yeoman tasks (a pro of pros) with magazine cover worthy, highest quality fashion and portrait work.

Victoriya, momma and model, is very beautiful indeed, and most helpful, since she speaks English, which Mihaylov (Mikhaylov) does not well (just as I don't speak good Russian or Ukrainian).

John (Crosley)

and in English

I grew up in the Episcopal Church now known to be in the Anglican Communion, and the words were somewhat different at the start, as I recall (it's been a long time).

But the words at the end are very familiar.

I can see this photo made you recall something that probably was deep inside of you; for that I measure it a success, even if blurry because of lack of light and slow shutter speed.  (It is clear if there had been more light, this might have been truly 'world class' -- at least clear to me).

Thanks,  Anders.

john

John (Crosley)

Some viewers rated 'lowest' based I think on that.

Others rated '6' (extremely high) based on the composition and movement, I think.

Either way is correct, even splitting the difference.

I post to share, not to exhibit this particular photo in a museum or a gallery.  I just happen to like the composition, and I thought I'd share it, not endorse it. 

If this had happened an hour earlier, however . . . . .

john

John (Crosley)

When there's not enough light, there's not much you can do.  One forty-fifth of a second was not 'fast' enough. 

There's just too little light for my equipment, though it's pretty 'professional' and late model.

After all, this is well after Vespers (or Evensong).

It's supposed to be dark; these young seminarians work until Sunset, and in summers I think they work so much longer. . . . . This was taken nearly an hour after Vespers (service).

No matter; I like the composition and movement.

That's why it's here.

john

John (Crosley)

John, I don't know where your doubts have their origin, but in my eyes the quality of this photo is it's "just in time". The moment where the movements of the three to the right and their positioning (separated)  come to the fore. The blur is quality in photography that provide the indice of movements and you have succeeded perfectly. The second group to the left are sharper and again positioned perfectly to indicate a more intense dialogue. All together a very telling scene with lots of things going on - and blur is part of the story.

If there are raters out there that have not understood that, my advice is to ignore them ! - unless they explain themselves.

very good, john.

You explain the composition exceedingly well, and the reason this is posted is because of the composition, which I like very, very much.

Some viewers will not accept subject blur as in parts here, or the quality that comes from an end of twilight shot when there is almost no light at all, and sky is black from darkness.

I am aware of such limits, and do not pretend this photo is going to go into my next book, unless some Photoshop expert has a go at it to bring it into conformity with public expectations. I may be the only veteran member of Photo.net who even has the temerity to post such a photo, blurs and all from subject motion just on the strength of its composition.

While OK for me, I know for some raters, who believe tack sharpness = quality, this is not their cup of tea.

For me, however, it is, but even I would have liked more sharpness and less blur.

In 'street' you take what you can get, but you show what you can only with some courage when it's not perfect  but nevertheless pleasing.

I'm glad this pleased you; to a great extent it did to me also, and very much so to over come its lacunae.

Thanks Anders,

john

John (Crosley)+

On my viewfinder this looked 'world class'.  In thumbnail somewhat less.

Blown up with good quality, it looks quite a bit better, not blown up from a thumbnail, as here.

This is my best argument for having a 'fast' lens and a highest-quality, lowest possible noise camera with you at all times, especially as darkness approaches.

Thanks Andrea.  You're always welcome here.

john

John (Crosley)

Hello John,

It's been a while, since I have made the time to come to Photo.net - but I came your folders 1st to see what I have been missing.

 - Behold a photo with some motion blur -

It has been a busy summer with weddings and senior pics and such. I have been struggling with the acceptibilty of motion blur in my images...I come from the school of tack sharp stop action (my own school of course) - but I shot several weddings in dark churches (not unsual) - but I usually cull those images out that have any motion blur so I don't have to explain the actual reasons for taking them or the artistic merit. So to get to the short of it - I left some in that I really liked what the image presented and I'll be damned if the client didn't just love them.  

So lessoned learned I think - to some level - not all people will like or even understand why there is motion blur.

So onto your image - It captures the moment perfectly I think. A bit of story is told (or imagined) Man to the right just finished a conversation with middleman(sharp guy) and the man to left is walikng up to have a conversation.  The other 2 peeps are walking and having a conversation.

It is Crystal Clear :)

Thanks for Sharing

-Ken

Your comment is one of those rare ones that really does not invite a comment in return, except perhaps further to illustrate your point.

I think now that you've just returned, you may have missed one image with blur (not motion blur, but exceeds manuf's specs on the ISO by a very wide margin resulting in substantial blur.  It got 27 comments, including favorable ones by some Photo.net's most esteemed measures, ended up in some of the 'most highly rated' folders of members and is totally blurry -- which goes to illustrate your point and also for me (who is willing to try most anything that 'looks good or interesting, not matter how out of character), that sometimes blur can be inviting and pleasurable.

Please take a look:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=11509850

It's after a party in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine taken with a Nikon D2X, which was not very good at low light sensitivity and taken at very high ISO (not even measured by the camera but designated H1 or H2 or something like that -- its ISO can be determined but it's not important.

When I saw it I thought 'this is wonderful' as I browsed old folders, and even though it broke all Photo.net conventions, I posted it with glee and got immediate kudos by highest-ranked members.

I think it well illustrates the point about blurriness, even if not illustrating subject motion blur.

Thanks for an enlightening and thoughtful comment.

john

John (Crosley)