Church of St James the Great - for interest and any comments

[davidedric]

I was looking through my local pictures, and found this one of the church of Saint James the Great in my home village of Gawsworth. I think the image is pleasant enough, if not a prize winner you could put it on a calendar, but I know some folks here are interested in old buildings, so here is a little background.

This church dates from about 1430, and is of local pink sandstone. It is very typical of churches in this area, with its square tower and peal of bells, which are still rung to welcome worshippers on Sundays, for weddings and for funerals. Inside the church are four ornate tombs of the local lords of the manor, the Fytton family (sadly, the tombs are now protected by security barriers), including Francis and Alice Fytton. One of their daughters, Mary, was a maid of honour to Elizabeth the First, and is thought by some to be the “dark lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

It is certain that there was an earlier church on the site, and the yew trees at the gates are thought to be in excess of a thousand years old (you can't see them, they are by the "lychgate" to the right - Lyc is Old English for corpse, and it is where the body rested.)

Here are a couple of other snippets. The last jester at the Hall, said to be the last court jester in England, Samuel “Maggoty” Johnson, is buried nearby, and the current rector of the church is also Bishop of the Solomon Islands, but that’s another story.

Cheers,

Dave

[Digital]

Dave, nice photograph.


Bruce

[Manfred M]

Nice shot Dave.

If it were my shot, I might want to try to crop out a bit of the sky and clouds. I don't think you need quite as much in the image as you have there.

[bnnrcn]

I like the image Dave

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[John 2]

Nice image Dave. I agree with Manfred on the crop.

[IzzieK]

Nice shot, Dave...Ditto with Manfred on the crop.

[PhotoRob]

Nice shot, and great story to go with it. Have you considered knocking down the saturation a bit?

[davidedric]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I agree about the crop, and I have also desaturated the grass a little - not too much: anyone who has been in England in May will know the greens can be so bright they hurt your eyes.

The crop is interesting. It was originally cropped to "A" proportions, or 1:1.414 if you prefer. I have actually mounted a version at that aspect ration, and with a matching mount and frame it looks just fine. In fact, I think the crop which gives a better image might look a bit squashed, perhaps because I am so used to seeing things in "A" proportions.

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

Nice image and related facts. I prefer the crop of the second version, saturation of the sky in the second version and the saturation of everything else in the first version.

[davidedric]

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. Yes I went a bit over the top with the sky at first

[cliffmccartney]

Hi Dave,

This image is excellent, as is the information to go with it. I really like the composition of the shot and the way you've captured the textures and detail. I agree about the cropping of the sky. The reworked image is very nice.

Well done - thanks for sharing!

Cliff