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Happy Monochrome Monday! - The setting Sun hides behind a large clouds producing some wonderful rays. Five exposure HDR processed with Nik HDR Efex Pro 2. Monochrome conversion with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2
Shide Chalk Pit, Newport.
6 shot, landscape mode vertorama aka vertical panorama, edit & stitch in Lightroom.
I like how the interior turned out but wish there was a better background. Another oldie from Sprague, Washington.
The last part of our visit of the Romanesque churches in Le Puy-en-Velay (central France) now takes us to the one that is possibly the most moving, and certainly the most spectacular of them all: the Saint Michael Chapel, perched on top of the Aiguilhe Rock, an enormous, 82 meters high geological dike made of hard basalt and left standing like a finger sticking out of the plain below by the erosion of all the sediment that once surrounded it.
There is only one way to get there: climb the hard, tall and uneven 268 steps carved out of the basalt, and in doing so, you will be following in the exact footsteps, not only of the millions of Compostela pilgrims that came here over the centuries, but also of innumerable historic figures, among which the Kings of France Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII, who ascended the rock to pray under the humble vaults of the chapel.
According to persistent legends, the first edifice built on top of the rock of Aiguilhe (notice how close the name is to the French word aiguille, i.e., needle) was a Roman temple dedicated to Mercury. No trace of such a sanctuary was ever found by archæologists. The chapel that one can see today was built in two successive phases. First, the initial and very small square chapel, probably with three apses but only two remain today. This was built soon after 950, either by bishop Godescalc (who had been the first French pilgrim of Compostela in 950–51), or more probably by Truannus, dean of the canons of the cathedral chapter, duly authorized by Godescalc. I have not been able to find any definitive evidence pointing to one rather than the other. What is documented, however, is that the finished chapel was consecrated by the said bishop in 961. It was a pre-Romanesque monument.
Secondly, during the late 1000s, the primitive oratory was “surrounded” and augmented by a Romanesque chapel built on the flattened top of the dike. In the process, the probable third apse of the oratory was destroyed to open a way of access between the newly built “nave” and the square space of the oratory, repurposed as “choir”. The best way to understand the layout if to have a look at the floor plan drawn by architect Mallay in the 19th century, here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_de_la_chapelle_Saint.... The imposing bell tower was also built at the same time.
One last majestic view of this unique and memorable chapel. If you are ever in Le Puy-en-Velay, I urge you to go visit it, even though the climb may be strenuous to some people —it was to me, to some extent, but there are benches and places to rest along the way, so the ascent really remains manageable, unless you have a serious heart condition, I suppose. Anyway, believer or non-believer, the place truly deserves the effort, especially if you like Mediæval frescoes.
The last part of our visit of the Romanesque churches in Le Puy-en-Velay (central France) now takes us to the one that is possibly the most moving, and certainly the most spectacular of them all: the Saint Michael Chapel, perched on top of the Aiguilhe Rock, an enormous, 82 meters high geological dike made of hard basalt and left standing like a finger sticking out of the plain below by the erosion of all the sediment that once surrounded it.
There is only one way to get there: climb the hard, tall and uneven 268 steps carved out of the basalt, and in doing so, you will be following in the exact footsteps, not only of the millions of Compostela pilgrims that came here over the centuries, but also of innumerable historic figures, among which the Kings of France Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII, who ascended the rock to pray under the humble vaults of the chapel.
According to persistent legends, the first edifice built on top of the rock of Aiguilhe (notice how close the name is to the French word aiguille, i.e., needle) was a Roman temple dedicated to Mercury. No trace of such a sanctuary was ever found by archæologists. The chapel that one can see today was built in two successive phases. First, the initial and very small square chapel, probably with three apses but only two remain today. This was built soon after 950, either by bishop Godescalc (who had been the first French pilgrim of Compostela in 950–51), or more probably by Truannus, dean of the canons of the cathedral chapter, duly authorized by Godescalc. I have not been able to find any definitive evidence pointing to one rather than the other. What is documented, however, is that the finished chapel was consecrated by the said bishop in 961. It was a pre-Romanesque monument.
Secondly, during the late 1000s, the primitive oratory was “surrounded” and augmented by a Romanesque chapel built on the flattened top of the dike. In the process, the probable third apse of the oratory was destroyed to open a way of access between the newly built “nave” and the square space of the oratory, repurposed as “choir”. The best way to understand the layout if to have a look at the floor plan drawn by architect Mallay in the 19th century, here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_de_la_chapelle_Saint.... The imposing bell tower was also built at the same time.
A telephoto shot of the chapel emphasizing its stunning and unique natural location. When you see this rock in real life, you understand why men, since the dawn of time, wanted to build something on top of that to honor their god(s)...
This shot was taken during one of my sunrise sessions in Rosolina Mare (see my What a meaningful world... for information about that peculiar location).
Session over: back home - or so I thought. The sun had already climbed some of his way above the horizon and the sky was enlivened by an everchanging play of light and shade as the clouds and the sun was struggling for supremacy in the heavens. A lone sailing boat was gently gliding through the gleaming waters - it looked so small and fragile under such a sky, yet so bold... I could not avoid recalling Ulysse's tale in Dante's Inferno, Canto xxvi, 124-125:
And having turned our stern unto the morning,
We of the oars made wings for our mad flight *
How many choices we have made and will make... Some of them were bold ones, leading to "mad flights". But a defining feature of being human is that we should point to better ourselves and to gain new knowledge of the world we live in - and of the world which lives inside ourselves. I think that these are just different sides of the very process of being human - something you can not attain once and for all, rather a continuing, neverending journey. After all, again quoting from Ulysses' tale, we
were not made to live like unto brutes,
But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.
(Inferno, xxvi, 119-120)
A lifelong journey worth to be undertaken. My journey. And yours, too, so... bon voyage, my friends!
* We should actually change "stern" to "bow", since while Ulysses' journey was westward, that depicted in this scene is eastward, heading for the rising sun. Oh, and presumably no oars here, just sails translucent in the golden light of a new day.
(I quoted from the renowned translation of the Divine Comedy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1st edition 1867)
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.3/0/+1.3 EV] (from a single RAW file) by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 plus a small trick of mine involving a bw version of the image generated with Nik Silver Efex pro 2).
UPDATE: I was out-of-town when this hit Flickr's Explored page (no. 446 out of 500). Thank you all for the love and comments!!
I decided to see if the grain I could get from software might look better than the D500's. So, I first reduced the noise of the shot then moved the image to DxO Filmpack 6. I didn't like the options there, so then moved the pic to Nik Color Efex. Using the modern film filter, the software automatically adds a bunch of other hue and saturation and curves changes. I minused those out except for a tiny bit of added contrast then lightened the pic a bit which made the grain more obvious.
Shot some time ago in Frankfurt and edited with Nik´s Silver Efex Pro. Somehow I lost the Exif´s, but I think is was shot with my Tokina 11-16mm.
20190518-DSC_5436; Rising waters along Irondequoit Bay as the levels of Lake Ontario rise. Trees along the back of the Bayside Restaurant are all standing water.
Leica M-P & Summilux-M 35mm
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.
© Toni_V. All rights reserved.
This is the same location as the Subway shot, but taken later after the mist had dissipated.
A bit of fun on the way back from dinner.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.
© Toni_V. All rights reserved.
A 9 shot stitched panorama with my 720nm converted Nikon D80, taken at the beautiful Bodiam Castle in East Sussex. Processed with Lightroom, Photoshop SC6 and converted to B&W with Nik Silver Efex.