# Old West Church



## charlie76 (Aug 9, 2020)

The Old West Church was constructed in the 1820's.  Every Christmas we take our 5 kids here for a brief service.   By brother-in-law married in here.   The old box pews are always cold, heated only by two wood stoves shown in the photo.  Most of the town piles in here once each year for the one-hour service.  Local kids read passages from the Bible, then everyone sings Christmas songs.  It's a very local, very nice tradition I'm happy to adopt from my wife's family.

Yes, I know there is distortion from the ultra-wide angle lens, thanks.
Yes, I know I need to re-shoot the last photo with the stoves due to the blown-out windows.
The rope dangling is in the second floor hall and rings the bell!

Nikon D850; 14-24mm, tripod-mounted interior shots


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## Space Face (Aug 9, 2020)

Looks foreboding,  like some of the Free Kirk buildings we have here.  The conversion suits the austere feel.


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## Dean_Gretsch (Aug 9, 2020)

Yes, these definitely deserved the conversion. Old, historical subjects seem much better in a B&W look. Good lighting for the edit too. It helps with the mood.


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## jcdeboever (Aug 9, 2020)

Pretty cool old church. Well done.


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## smoke665 (Aug 9, 2020)

Perspective distortion can be a valuable part of a composition but can also go to far. IMO the first one of the church fits in the latter category.

Over all its a solid set of what looks to be an interesting building. The conversion works well, but I have to wonder what color might have revealed. There is a patina on old wood that can be quite beautiful.


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## smoke665 (Aug 9, 2020)

@charlie76 I just noticed the flue pipes on those stoves in the last shot. I grew up during a time when stoves like this were common, and was told by my elders that radius elbows were okay, but you wanted to minimize square corners for air flow. I also have to wonder about the arrangement of the two pipes into one. Typically you'd want a difference in height between the two on the horizontal run to prevent any backdraft, and the common run should have been a larger diameter. Strange setup.


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## charlie76 (Aug 9, 2020)

smoke665 said:


> Proportion distortion can be a valuable part of a composition but can also go to far. IMO the first one of the church fits in the latter category.
> 
> Over all its a solid set of what looks to be an interesting building. The conversion works well, but I have to wonder what color might have revealed. There is a patina on old wood that can be quite beautiful.



Yeah...I have this awesome new 14mm lens that opens up a world of perspectives (especially in close with my pack of kids) , but ya...have this distortion thing to figure work around.  I like the effect on most photos, but then again there's nothing you can really do about it...so....  I make minor corrections in PS, but anything more than a little feels like cheating.  I have my eye on a fisheye lens..pending the wife's approval of course  so there will be some serious distortion to play with then.
Here's a quick color example. All old wood tones.


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## stapo49 (Aug 9, 2020)

I can see the attraction of the B&W for this type of building but I really like the colour version. The way the light brings out the colour and grain of the wood and reflects off the lighter colour of the walls  and the window gives a lovely feel to the image.


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## smoke665 (Aug 10, 2020)

charlie76 said:


> have this distortion thing to figure work around.



Perspective distortion on buildings or other tall subjects happens with all lenses, and arises because of different scales of objects at varying distances from the lens. Even assuming your camera is level, front to back,  the top of a tall building will be farther away then the bottom. Alignment distortion occurs when the camera is not level horizontally, causing things to skew. 

That's a tough call on the color vs B&W as they each work well.


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## K9Kirk (Aug 11, 2020)

Nice set, although not technically perfect I still like them all, good job!


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## charlie76 (Aug 11, 2020)

K9Kirk said:


> Nice set, although not technically perfect I still like them all, good job!



Great, thanks!  I'd be happy to hear which aspects you are referring?   Thanks again.


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## K9Kirk (Aug 11, 2020)

charlie76 said:


> K9Kirk said:
> 
> 
> > Nice set, although not technically perfect I still like them all, good job!
> ...



Nothing other than what you had mentioned. I only had the stove and windows in mind.


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