Loretto Chapel Crucifix Tree (click to enlarge)
I arrived at the Loretto Chapel about 15 minutes before opening time. While wandering around the area I noticed a tree to the left of the entrance with numerous crucifixes hanging from the branches. I spent the time before opening working various compositions.
The tree is in a shaded area, and there was a slight breeze blowing. I used a higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed to reduce blurring. I also sed a larger aperture to reduce depth of field to keep everything but the center crucifix with the red, white, and blue beads out of focus.
This turned out to be a nice little image captured during some dead time waiting for another photography location to open.
Loretto Chapel: N35 41 08.23 W105 56 15.06
Loretto Chapel Votif Candles (click to enlarge)
Here is a detail image of the motif candles near the alter of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, NM. The big draw for this chapel is the Miraculous Staircase which you can read about here and here. Here is my image of the staircase. The stair case is very impressive!
There is a recording playing in the chapel telling the history of the chapel itself and the staircase. It is worth the time to sit and listen to this recording several times.
Photographically, it is pretty dark in the chapel so bring a tripod for long exposures. There are lots of little details like this throughout the chapel. Trying to get a good image of the staircase itself will be a good exercise in HDR imaging.
Loretto Chapel: N35 41 08.23 W105 56 15.06
The Miraculous Staircase (click to enlarge)
Here is the inside of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, NM. I took this image from the front, near the alter, looking towards the Miraculous Staircase. This is an HDR image composed of four separate exposures. These were long exposures (up to 30 seconds) so it took a while to capture the images without people. It seems there was always someone walking into the chapel, sitting listening to the recording, and then leaving.
To capture the images I sat in a pew behind my camera with a cable release. When the church was empty I would take an image. More often than not, someone would walk into the image while the shutter was open. It took 12 attempts to capture the four images I needed to create the HDR image.
Loretto Chapel: N35 41 08.23 W105 56 15.06
