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Romanesque on Lake Como

After finishing a site meeting in Como, I had time to explore some Romanesque monuments on Lake Como. This is the first part.

The Twelfth Century "Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio", in Gravedona, at the North end of the lake is worth fighting through the horrific traffic on the narrow road to reach. It served as a Baptistry as well as a church. The walls of this building are over two metres thick at the base. It is in a lovely location by the lake.

I used a Laowa 15mm shift lens to make HDR sets when I photographed the massively imposing interior. The exterior was shot with my Nikon 24PC and a Laowa 15mm shift lens. Details were shot on a Z28-400, which is brilliant for this task.

It was a good day. I used my tripod for these shots and in this and the other places, nobody objected.

Nordic cathedrals

See, it's right there, almost in the middle. Yes, this shiny pipe, it's not heating or vent pipe, it's Northern Lights Cathedral in Alta.

See, it is cathedral. Consecrated 2013.

Cathedral view. Very modern, very arctic.

I.N.R.I. Like from sci-fi.

Christianity mixed with native art.

Candle holder, like small model of cathedral.

Another mix of different origins

Tromsø Arctic cathedral. I saw in its basement exhibition of history of this cathedral, some drawings dated to 1957 showing outlines of this cathedral, built 1965. It for sure looks very modern. Basement is among other things also blast shelter, with double metal doors and thick walls.

Cathedral viewed through Porten til Ishavet (Gateway to Arctic Ocean), art piece on island where Tromsø is situated.

Entrance to cathedral. As you can see, it's major tourist magnet.

Inner view. I like how the lighting is solved, with windows in narrow openings between sections.

View to entrance and organ.

This is really good, a case where you need people in the shot.

Maybe a little texture in the white area?

The Architecture is very nice, especially the second Cathedral.

I would love to photograph these two buildings, hopefully without the crowds! This modern stuff would make a change from 1000 year old places that I have at hand.

Stunning. And made even more so because it's next to Lake Como which has to be one of the most beautiful places on this planet.
A touch of tilt to the right mebbe?

I guess this architecture might divide opinion but I think it's amazing. Like a giant piece of wood shaving. Or a gear from a clock. And some decent light too although I suspect even better light would make that building sing.
The tower brings to mind the Burj Khalifa.

The white area is just plain blue sky with a lamp post so I'd have to substitute another sky to add any texture. TBH I quite like the mystery of the top part.

One Evening On The Moors...

A couple of weeks ago, I took an evening wander up to some of the local moorland to visit an old quarry where, in previous years, I've encountered nesting Kestrels. Not knowing what I'd find and feeling rather unfit, I just took the Z8, 24-70 f/2.8S and the 70-180 f/2.8 to keep the weight down, although all of the following images were taken with the 70-180.

When I arrived at the location there was no sign of activity so I just amused myself with some landscape shots while I loitered in the area...

The soft evening light and faint hint of emerging mist helped to give these a painterly quality.

Eventually, I found a nice flat rock overlooking the quarry to sit on and wait. After a while I head a familiar screech and saw not one, but two Kestrels dart towards me from the other side of the quarry. Or so I thought at the time...

On closer inspection later, there were actually three of them, usually I feel lucky to just see one, but three bickering over a meal was a real treat.

One bird broke off and veered towards the cliff face, heading into the quarry. If you examine the image closely you can see blood on its belly around its legs. At first glance I thought it had been injured, but on closer inspection, it appears its unfortunate victim (some small mammal, a mouse or vole perhaps?) has lost its head.

Tightly hugging the edge of the rock face, the bird flew deeper into the quarry as its competitors broke off.

Eventually, its path took it out of view, to a spot I couldn't see from my vantage point.

After a few minutes it emerged from the quarry, flying closely past my vantage point and I was lucky to catch it in flight as it glid past.

One last glimpse as it flashed by and flew off to join its squabbling siblings.

I would have liked a little more reach on these and was to some extent kicking myself for not bringing the 100-400 along instead, but the little 70-180 has coped admirably given its limited range and even the Z8's (in my experience) finicky bird detection has managed to lock on and track them rather well. I think having more light available with a constant f/2.8 lens really helps the tracking system when determining what it's looking at.