[Leica] Lee England's PAW

[Engl6914 at cableone.net (Lee England)]

Bruce,

    The scene in the church is quite high in contrast because of the
windows.  I've tried it before on a sunny day, and there's just no hope.  So
I caught this one on a cloudy day, and even then the contrast is high.  When
I tried the #1 or #1/2 filter the scene looked so washed out it lost its
vitality.  If you look at the scene again you'll notice, with the exception
of the ceiling lamps at the very top, there's not a curved line at all.  So
I finally decided the high contrast suited the starkness of the scene and
used a #2 filter.  It was that light and contrast, after all, that attracted
me to the scene.
    The thought of cropping out the windows never occurred to me since I was
never distracted, just struck by the starkness of it all.  I'm catholic, and
there're so many curved lines at St. Mary in Natchez it seemed absurd
someone could pray here.  This is my 2nd PAW and each time someone has been
distracted by a blown highlight that hadn't bothered me.  So I appreciated
the comments and resolve to get better and start noticing such.  I learned
all my photography from a book and having a very large trash can.  This kind
of forum is a big help to me.

Lee England
Natchez, Mississippi
USA

On 26 JAN 06 Bruce wrote:

> Really like the stark black and white effect.
> 
> May I ask if you tried removing the door frame on the left and the
> window frame on the right? I think that crop would enhance the image.
> 
> Thanks for showing and detailing part of history,
> B.

On 24-jan-2006, at 16:07, Lee England wrote:

> This is my second PAW--a print I did this week.  It's the interior
> of the
> church at Rocky Springs, Mississippi, on the old Natchez Trace.  It
> was
> there when General Grant's army invaded Mississippi, passing by on
> the road
> just outside.  All of the yankee Army of Tennessee's infantry
> divisions
> bivouaced on various days around the church because of the water
> source of
> Rocky Springs.
>     The Army of Tennessee moved on to Jackson, then turned toward
> Vicksburg
> and beat us at Champion Hill near Edwards, Miss., then took the
> bridge over
> the Big Black River (near US highway 80 bridge).  Once they had
> that and
> then took Haynes Bluff, giving them access to supply boats on the
> Yazoo
> River, Vicksburg was doomed.  When Vicksburg fell it just killed us.
>     Taken with Leica M2, 35mm Summaron, Ilford HP5 developed in HC110.
>
> http://englandphotographic.com/paw.html
>
> Lee England
> Natchez, Mississippi