Altar at Mission San Jose Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is the altar of the Mission San Jose Church in California. I believe it was built by the native Americans. The lighting is challanging since they had to minimize windows for structural reasons and depend on candlelight for illumination. flash shots aren't allowed in order to avoid degredation to the artifacts, such as statues and paintings, that are hundreds of years old. The altar clearly conveys these peoples dedication to God. i thought it an appropriate upload for Lent.

i used a Sigma 28-300mm lens for this shot.

snunney, claire526, jwmunro, asajernigan has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

snunney (34146) 2007-03-05 10:08

Hello Tom,
A good composition of this interesting and very beautiful altar piece. Taking pictures inside churches is always difficult due to the mixed and often poor lighting conditions. I think you have done very well here. The way the light falls away as you pan over to the left hand side adds much to the atmosphere. Very good colours and definition. Nice picture.

claire526 (1261) 2007-03-05 10:09

Hi Tom,
Nice details and colors. very appropriate for Lent indeed. We need more of this.
Cheers,
Claire

jwmunro (6561) 2007-03-05 15:27

Hello Tom -

A very nice image considering the lighting conditions.

This I believe is St. Joseph's, a mission reconstruction. A late 1850's earthquake destroyed the mission church and a wooden Victorian styled church was built in it's place. In the 1970's the wooden church needed so much work to make it safe it was decided to removed structure and build a new church. Preservationist got into the mix because the old church had some very nice architectural history so it was moved north on Mission Blvd to a new location. Once the site was free of the structure reconstruction began on a mission style church which you see today. The altar piece I believe is from the old wood church and could not have been constructed by the Ohlone Indians.

Thank you for sharing

John

asajernigan (13921) 2007-04-20 5:58

Tom,
This is a good shot for the light conditions. The colors and details are great.
TFS,
Asa

Photo Information

Copyright: tom trinko (trinko) (2940)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-03-03
Categories: Architecture
Camera: Canon 20D
Exposure: f/4, 1/50 seconds
More Photo Info: view
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Churches, Spanish / Mexican Missions, California Missions [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2007-03-05 9:53