Sitting here in the shade under a cathedral that started out a thousand years ago, but where most of the work was done about 800 to 600 years ago, and where a woman named Eleanor was married to a king, becoming the Queen of France, who later became the Queen of England after getting her marriage annulled and marrying the King of England, I find my usual difficulties in photographing these extraordinary Gothic cathedrals.
Here’s the best of what I have managed so far.
The other day, in one of the most lovely cities I’ve ever been to, I had the not so common opportunity to spend an extended amount of time wandering at will, taking pictures, with every option before me.
Perhaps in line with my nature, I ended up in a small park next to a museum, spending a good deal of time photographing fish.
We take what comes our way.
I am still on the road in Western Europe, flinging about, slightly homeless, although with our regular home back on the Mediterranean there, and remaining a bit cagey about the location of everything, what with our being on the run from the law, who monitors Clerk Manifesto at all times.
Actually, no one seems to monitor Clerk Manifesto at all times.
Anyway, we are in a lovely city I adore, and here is the latest collection of pictures from it. They are kind of a scattering, applying a small effect that I like enough for this series, but don’t feel likely to pursue beyond this.
So enjoy these while they last.
One of my solutions to the problem of pictures of Gothic churches has been to lay down a layer of water reflecting on the floor as a way to improve and better convey the feeling of those soaring churches in my pictures. And of course, whenever I come up with a solution to one thing, I find it a little bit irresistible to try it out in other contexts, which I have done here. So, without much more comment, this from the fantastic city that we're in now, a collection of pictures that employ this effect as well.
In this incredibly agreeable city that we have found, which is perhaps not normally so hard to find but took us nearly a year, I have found a common problem in some of the beautiful Gothic and Neo-Gothic churches. Which is to say, so many of the pictures I take of them are unsatisfying, usually because of the pew benches and the floor of the church, whether it be littered with people or objects that take away from the soaring craftsmanship of the ceiling and the walls and the apses and the sense of distance.
My solution to this has been one that I have extended around to other places in the city and have used before, particularly in Villefranche-sur-Mer, which is to put water all over the floor. This involves a lot of hose work and permits from the city and hopefully causes no damage after we leave, so it can slowly dry away and return to normal.
But it’s all worth it for the reflections it engenders.
