Frelighsburgh Treasure

As I've already mentioned, I have family who live in the region of Quebec known as the Eastern Townships.  I head down there every once in a while to visit, and sometimes I stumble upon something really cool to photograph.  This isn't really one of those times as I knew that I was going to be invited to take pictures inside of the Bishop Stewart Memorial Church of the Holy Trinity.  I came upon this good fortune thanks to my father's cousin, Geraldine, who was also nice enough to purchase one of my photos during my recent exposition.  She and her husband, Norman, have the keys to this wonderful building.  Originally built in 1808 and then reconstructed in 1884, this church is decorated by several wonderful stained glass windows, which when the sun shines onto them, give off unique reflections all over the interior of the church.  It was a great honour to walk inside of the building as it also holds much significance to my own family as my Grandfather had been baptized there.  It was quite dark inside of the building as the only light inside came from the sun coming through the stained glass windows as I had asked that all of the interior lights be closed. I didn't want to have the interior lights get in the way of the reflections.  As a result, that meant we'd be using low f-stops and a higher ISO.  Ofcourse, having mentioned that I now get to say that the first photograph was shot at ISO 100, but also at f/2.8 for 1/60 sec while at 24mm.  There was still enough light coming into the church to allow me to keep the ISO at 100.  I wanted to capture how sharp the light being reflected from the stained glass windows was against the brick walls of the building.  I got up real close, focused on a nice pattern and then backed up just enough to catch the reflection.  The second shot presented here was also shot at ISO 100, though I assure you that I did use ISO 400 and all the way up to ISO 1600 over the course of the afternoon.  To complete the necessary information, the second photograph was shot at f/2.8, 1/50 sec at ISO 100 while at 24mm.  For this one, I really liked the image of the stained glass window behind the cross which was on the ceremonial table.  By focusing on the cross, but exposing for the window, the cross becomes a darkened silhouette while the window becomes very soft due to the focus being on the cross and my chosen aperture.  I was kind of taking a chance because it is not recommended to shoot handheld at anything past 1/80 sec. as there is the good chance to camera shake causing problems for your photos, but I guess the Big Guy above approved of my being there.  The third photo was taken at f/20 with an exposure time of 1sec. at ISO 100.  The sun was still kind of bright at that point and I wanted to capture not only the stained glass window, but the reflection it was casting on the old wooden roof.  I took no chances with camera shake on this one, I made sure to use my tripod.  I'm going to continue working on some of the shots I took while there on Friday and you'll probably be seeing more shots over the coming weeks.  I'm starting to build up a good stock of fresh photos which should help me to keep things fresh here over the coming winter months when I head out less often.  I also hope to have the good fortune to visit this church again in the future.  Thanks, Norman & Geraldine.

***UPDATE 1/13/2013

I recently learned of the failing health of a family member who found this site and my work through the above pictures I had taken of the Bishop Stewart Memorial Church of the Holy Trinity in Frelighsburgh, QC.  In her honour, I'd like to post another picture from my day at the church as she continues her fight against a terrible disease.  Through family connections, I learned that we may have actually met while I was younger, but that was many years ago.  This shot was taken at f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  My thoughts are with her and her family.