The Organ At The Cathedral of All Souls

A little while ago, I got the impulse to take a few pictures of the organ at my  Runtyun's church, the Cathedral of All Souls. So, I did a little research and found out a little about the instrument. I'll get into the details in another post when I have a more comprehensive background put together.

I reached out to the choir master and all around Awesome Canon of Music, (truly his title is; Canon Organist and Choirmaster) and asked if I could come by with my gear for a minute. To my surprise, he said, "Yes"!

I showed up a little after a service on Sunday afternoon and Kyle said I could stay as long as I wanted, until four anyhow. This worked fine for me, because I have learned that if a shoot lasted too long, the images get tired, or maybe it is the photographer.

I scoped out the environment, and lighting. At the outset, I saw that lighting was going to be an issue. The space is vast with lots of nooks and crannies. Luckily, I was just focussing on the organ console and pipes. I spent some time taking a few pictures, maybe some good ones, when my camera started telling me it was getting hungry for a new battery. 

No problem, I thought. I'll just use the back up. Silly me, I left the spare at home! I also saw that I left most of my flashes and controllers too. I had to deal with what I had.

The chandeliers would have caused challenges no matter what lighting I had brought along. They are placed directly in the middle of the main aisle, right where I might want my camera. No problem, it just meant that I needed to work with more creative angles. I tried shooting through the supporting lines holding the chandeliers and then to the side.

The day before I had spent some time at a friends rental Condo trying to get a few shots for Craigslist, that meant I had already packed most of my gear. Also, being the diligent photographer that I am, I recharged all of my batteries, but forgot to put the stuff into my carrying cases. Luckily, I did bring some studio lights to help with the shoot.

I dodged in and out of light and shadows and took a few real silly shots. But I think hidden amongst the “experiments," there are some gems. 

Oh the way, the battery seemed to find enough power to last the entire shoot. Hmm, I am not sure how that worked out. I should have only had enough battery power for 10 or 15 shots. I took almost 50.

Let me know what you think!

olc

Notes self, 

next time take the cover off the piano.

Organise organ top.

don't need such a wide angle lens, 17-35 should suffice

Definitely  use strobes, GF plastic is good at a distance not so much with organ consoles.

Maybe a step ladder to get better angles on the elevated pipes

This is a nice picture. If I can ever go back and redo this image, I'll block out the light from the center stained glass window and create my own for a more even and less over-exposed window. I know how to do it, but my inexperience did not pick up the problem til I looked at the image on the computer. 

 This is the left bank of the pipes. Note the slats, (Baffles?) they open and close to help control the volume.

This is the view from the choir section. If I can get back in I will take this shot a little differently. To the bottom left, out of the image, is a wonderful Grand Piano. It had a black velvet cover on it so I decided to take this image instead.

These are the main pipes. In there is an original 4 foot Flute from from the very first organ installed.

Again, I like this image. I think I framed it well and was able to smooth out the shadows cast by the pipes. The problem with this shot is the lighting. If you look closely, you will see the the light is brightest in the center of the image and fades closer to the edges. This is not good! The light should be even throughout. Yes, I know how to fix this, but this newbie to photography did not catch it until too late.