Eckley Miners' Village -- Episcopal church

[Dennis Bishop]

At one time, there were three churches in Eckley, but only this Episcopal church built in 1859 and a Catholic church remain. The styles of the two churches are quite different. The exterior of the Catholic church, which is on the far east end of the street, is quite simple and painted white. The Episcopal church is about as far west as I had time to venture, unfortunately. The colors and trim are pretty much as you see them, but the shape of the building was substantially different. The width of the front is actually about the same as the distance from the top of the foundation to the peak of the upper roof. Instead of correcting the relatively small amount of distortion I got with the wide angle lens, I opted to exaggerate it to make the entire building -- rather than just the steeple -- look like it was reaching toward Heaven.

You might be able to make out the evergreen garland along the railings. I took the series of shots during a brief interruption on December 15 during a trip to spend the holidays with family in Connecticut.





Nikon D3s, ISO 400, f/11, seven-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, zoom lens at 22mm

processing highlights

• The distortion was achieved via the Warp mode in Photoshop's Free Transform.
• The nearly cloudless sky was replaced with Flypaper Texture's Serafina Sky.
• I'd photographed the hands (mine) a few years ago for a church publication. They'd been processed with a black & white pencil sketch effect (Alien Skin Snap Art???). I applied them in Luminosity blend mode and adjusted the opacity until they looked right with the existing clouds.
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 85 to tone down the blue of the sky but applied to the whole image
• Fractalius -- three saved black & white presets; Multiply, Divide, Multiply; some masked, various opacities
• Snap Art -- saved black & white Line Art, Multiply, masked off sky
• Simplify -- saved black & white edges preset in both Multiply and Divide with inverse masks
• Knoll Light Factory for the sun rays

[Nancy Bell]

Excellent image with the composite of your hands added! Very creative with lots of symbolism associated with religion; the church, the hands, the rays of the sun! All the vertical lines of the church, as well as its extended upwards distortion, take your eyes up, to your hands and the heavens! Would make a stunning cover for a weekly church bulletin. I like the addition of the pale pinks. As I have said before, your workflow produces super images!

[Diane Miller]

Great treatment for perspective distortion! Don't fight it -- embrace it!

Excellent addition of the hands and rays. I might wish for a little more room at the top, though.

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks for your comments.

Diane, I debated about adding more room at the top and will probably give it a try.

Nancy, that pink was already there and was a surprise to me. I just googled "pink episcopal church" to see if anything showed up. Most of the hits reference pink in some other context, including a Pink Floyd mass at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, last year. Coincidentally, this church in Eckley is also St. James Episcopal. But back to the possibly relevant hit . . . During Advent, one of the four candles surrounding the white center one in a horizontal wreath is lit each Sunday. Three of the candles are purple, representing royalty, repentance, and suffering. The other candle is pink; it's the candle of joy. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the pink trim on this church.

Here's one of the unedited shots in the HDR series showing the colors.

[Nancy Bell]

Great to see the "before" and "after" versions. This way we can see artistic additions.

[Arthur Morris]

Amazingly creative and perfectly executed. A bit more sky above is in order. I'd love to see a version without the hands. a

[Anita Bower]

This church seems to be reaching for the heavens with all its might! (I wrote this before reading your description--it was my first impression.) Marvelous work. Love the colors, the sky, the light rays. I'm not as fond of the hands, but they fit the theme perfectly. Did you consider removing the trees on the right? The pink door is a bonus. Love your processing, as always.