* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #946 / Revived #166 on 2026 06 03 *

It's one of the world's great treasures and high on my list of the still to be visited.
Your photo shows something I've never seen before. Usually we see the big spaces, the fantabulous dome and arches.
This is a more intimate corner and the chairs are important in understanding the scale. Your use of the wa brings the chairs, arches and windows together. We get to explore the painted artwork, the carving and the stone. The light/shadows from the window create a spotlight ensuring the significance of the chairs is noted.
Thanks for this shot.

Very colourful spectacle.
You did what you could from the restrictions of your place in the audience to give us some good overall views.
A bit of telephoto would have been welcome.

It appears that those are real elephants being used in the performance?

That is a very pleasing scene to contrast the warm colours of busy city life against the cold blue hues of falling night.
I did notice the red glow of the train lights in motion, and they add to the dynamism of the foreground scene.

Those are very eloquent images of a sad event, handled compentently.

Here is a haiku for you:

tree had lived its life
the saws saw the sight of a
sister falling down

A little treasure trove of photographic techniques:
- different methods of lighting in the first
- receding DOF creating sense of depth in the one with the tips of the spears on a fence in another,
- etc.

The organ pipes are almost like an abstract because they lack the context of the organ in which they play their role.

My favourite one of these is the angel who got caught in the webs of human time.

I am pretty sure that when we visited Istanbul and the Hagia Sofia many years ago (must have been in 2010 or 2011), we also stumbled upon this quiet corner in the cavernous building, and Els enjoyed a moment in that sun on the wall. I think I may even have made a photo of that moment.
That is what Els does: wherever sun hits a wall, she goes and stands there for a moment (or two), eyes closed and enjoying. I've even coined a word/verb for that : Els is salamamandering.

Your image brings out quiet, light and texture.
Chairs are waiting patiently to be sat on.
Life goes on, but at the pace of light crawling over a wall.

EDIT: I haven't retrieved the image that I had in my mind's eye.
But I am pretty sure that this fisheye image shows the exact same location from a different angle:

(You can tell that I had not yet heard about "lifting the shadows" in that era of my photographic journey...)

Thank you Roel,
I have some telephoto pictures

Yes, these were real life elephants. They have a lot of life elephants. After this performance we went to the elephant performance. I'll show some pictures in the next edition.

Trying to take pictures of birds can be very difficult, but very rewarding when you succeed. The problem is that a technically excellent photo can still be just another bird to a viewer, unless you manage to capture something a bit different.
Here it is the bird’s pose, which is different. I don’t think I have ever seen a photo of a heron in exactly this pose before, so that makes it instantly interesting. Its sharpness and detail satisfy careful inspection too.
Nice one.

These have become real treasures as a window into the past, revealing views that are no longer possible. I empathise with you for your attack of vertigo, and am glad that it wasn’t me.
Each of the three offer something different to the story.
The first gives an idea of the style and gives a hint of what the finished building could look like. It whets the appetite and is a sort of title slide to the series. Actually it could also be moved to last place in the series and be sort of conclusion, explaining the previous two. Not a better sequence, just an alternative.
The second shows the work, with an interesting comparison between the ornate structure of the cathedral and the functional structure of the crane.
The third adds an exciting angle, and another interesting comparison with the buildings below.
Well worth digging through the negatives!

You are right, the photo does not illustrate the story by showing the storm, but that does not stop the story from giving an interesting twist and background to the photo. As you say, it is a calm scene and the cold blues and warm yellows complement each other and play their part in the calm feeling. Then noticing the railway, and a dash of red (literally!) and the blur of the moving train, provide an energetic contrast to the rest of the scene, which I think adds a great deal.

That really is a spectacular show. The first two photos are intriguing, but the live elephants in the third make it truly exceptional.
I am guessing that you have raised the shadows in post-processing, which gives the scene a strangely flat light, but surprisingly I quite like the effect.

Minnie makes some very good points here, and it is interesting to read her comments on things I didn’t notice, like the three nightingales on the shield! My preference for a pair of triptychs would have been the organ pipes in their three groups, so it goes to show there is no single correct answer.
A suggestion for the start of the series would be a general interior shot, which would link these photos as being details of the interior, rather than trying to to find a sequential story as you progress through the series.

This is a lovely combination of an ornate ceiling, mundane stacks of chairs and the great light throwing interesting shadows on the plain walls. All very well seen. As others have already said, you have managed to create interest in a quiet corner of a splendid building.

Actually it was quite an eventful week for you, and the event was nicely documented. I would love to have a final photo in the series taken from a similar position as photo 2, but showing the hole left by the missing tree, and, more importantly, the buildings all intact!