While I was waiting for a few of my students to take photographs of the amazing Cathedral of St. Paul, I stepped outside and took a few shots of the exterior. I had my 70-200 telephoto with me and so I focused on details.It occurs to me that what you see in this photo and how you see it are totally dependent on the photographer. And that's an interesting power to have. . .
St- Paul Cathedral
St. Paul Cathedral - Another View
St. Paul Cathedral
I wasn't planning to photograph the St. Paul Cathedral yesterday morning. Instead, I went off to photograph the capital building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding all over the dome. So I took photos of the nearby Cathedral.Some of you are wondering if this photo is "real" or whether I put in a fake sky (or a fake cathedral!)? This is real, though it is actually two photos - my camera doesn't have the ability to expose a bright sky and the north side of a building and make it look this this. In photography talk, it doesn't have the "dynamic range" to do this.Thus, I took two photos, exposing one for the sky and the other for the church and then combined them into one picture. This is called HDR photography. It's a neat trick that helps the camera see things closer to how the human eye does. The human eye has an incredible dynamic range.