Country Church Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is a renovted monastery church in the Balkan mountains region. The church is dedicated to St Theodore Tyro, or St Theodore of Amasea. This St Theodore is one of the Greek warrior saints, who lived in the 4th century AD. He is the earlier patron saint of Venice, now outshone by Saint Mark, but still represented atop one of the two Byzantine columns standing in the Piazzetta of the Piazza San Marco, treading upon the sacred crocodile of Egypt. This church has a unique decoration (for an Orthodox church) of two gargoyle-like crocodile heads projecting from the wall. I can explane these gargoyles with the fact, that Saxon metallurgy craftsmen settled in these lands in the Middle ages. The church has been rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century, but some details have been preserved from an earlier building. The inscriptions on the built in wall plates mention several church-donors names of Wolko, which is a direct Bulgarian correspondence to the German name Wolf...

I shot this photo in RAW (Oly's ORF format) and the result made great difference for the better as compared to my previous JPG captures. Most of color noice disappeared - obviously being result of JPG compression. My advice is: buy an 8-16G flash card and shoot only in RAW! This may give a second life to your old camera.

gildasjan, jlbrthnn, shevchenko, axiotea, Didi, pablominto, skippy007 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

rodgerg (23699) 2009-02-02 2:46

Hello Anton,

A superb composition very well balanced for show this simple but very nice church which arise very well in the image. good framing with the three on tle side and a great prospect to the mountain's landscape in the BG.
Best regards,
Roger

gildasjan (23637) 2009-02-02 2:46

Bonjour Anton
Très mignone cette petite église blanche de campagne et son environnement la met très bien en valeur.Un beau ciel était présent pour accompagner cettte composition.
bonne journée
Cordialement
gildas

Buin (37374) 2009-02-02 2:49

Hallo Anton!
You show us a somehow touching little church. One can see that winter there is taking a break - or perhaps it's over!?The photo really has an outstanding quality but unfortunately I do not know much about RAW and especially about it's (post)processing. Which program do you use for this?
Greetings from still cold and icy Germany - and have a good week!
Frank

jlbrthnn (37559) 2009-02-03 3:17

Hello Anton,
It is completely enthralling to discover such a building, very comprehensible thanks to your precise note. The photograph of course is well designed, with a point of view which of described two faces, of which the very interesting frontage. The optimal and well controlled light enabled you to reveal very natural colors, which I prefer. Cheer.
Have a nice day
Cordially
Joël

parbo (10966) 2009-02-03 13:08

Hello Anton,

You captured very nice view of renovated monastery church. Low angled lights are splendid and created amazing long shadows on white facade. I like green, snowy surround under beautiful sky too in your well taken photo. Difference is easily recognizable between RAW and JPEG shoots. Congratulations.

Friendly Regards,

Ertugrul

shevchenko (9858) 2009-02-03 18:15

Hi Anton,
I like the design of this church with nice border tiles' works and some yellow blank add patterns to the white wall, nice to see soft sunlight shinning and shadows of trees fall on the wall, still able to see some snow on the roof tops, I see the religious painting in your next post too, lovely local church, thanks for sharing.
Ally

axiotea (16027) 2009-02-04 9:17

Bonjour Anton
Since I've got my Canon 400D, I shot only in RAW which gives much better results ;)
You had a pleasant light which emphasized well the architecture lines...I like to see the mountains fading in the far and the snow patches here and there. I might have cut off the tree trunk on the right side, but that's a minor detail ;) thanks for the interesting note!
Cheers
Marilyn

Didi (35928) 2009-02-07 7:58

Hi Anton
Very nice church you were right to use RAW system file.
Your point of view is very good but I note a little optic perspective distortion, that's why I have done a WS.
Best regards.

[workshop] [compare]

pablominto (40390) 2009-03-02 3:42

Hello Anton,

I can see a fine and well maintained countryside church, nicely located and overlooking the valley below!
Good point of view and the classical composition works well with fine details in the special architecture...

Greetings,
Pablo -

skippy007 (6957) 2009-04-01 15:01

Hello Anton, Today you are the featured artist in TE, it reminded me that for one reason or another I have not visited your gallery lately so here I am once more looking at you very lovely pics.
What I noticed with this image was the beautiful colour, excellent light, clarity & that little bit of snow on the ground & roof that when all put together makes for a very beautiful & impressive image.
A very lovely Church, surrounded by the countryside & well captured, all enhanced by a well written informative note.
Regards
Santo