A Night at Peterborough Cathedral

Last month, Peterborough Cathedral held a competition evening for amateur photographers to come along and capture the Cathedral in candlelight.  This magnificent building is stunning during the day let alone the evening, so I went along to capture different angles that I don't usually have time to do.  To share time with other photographers (all very quiet and concentrating hard) was incredibly enjoyable.

The above shot would have been my entry!  Old Scarlett through the choir stalls and their candles.  The Tudor gravedigger who buried three queens, Queen Katharine of Aragon, Mary Queen of Scots and his wife.  However, with the problems I was having with my viewfinder eye at the time, I didn't realise there was another photographer looking my way.  A shame, but with a bit of editing he isn't as noticeable.

The shadows that the light cast were a delight to capture, even better with photographer shadows too.

The ceilings of the Cathedral, in fact any Cathedral, are captured thousands of times per day.  Their intricate designs created by steady hands on high scaffolding towers.  I love capturing closer objects that make you look beyond, like this exquisite gate leading into the High Altar and one of the ceilings of the Cathedral.

And then further along through a screen.

The High Altar floor has had some restorations lately and I stumbled across a photo I took in the past which Google very kindly edited for me.  It shows the experts working tirelessly on the tessarae floor. (Click on the image to enlarge this)

Of course, we can't come to this Cathedral without visiting King Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon's tomb.  Adorned with pomegranates and of course a candle to light the way.

Outside the quiet passageways by the side of the Cathedral.  Can you imagine all the centuries (nine of them so far) of people walking through here?  The fashions, the wars, the careful whispers (especially during Henry VIII and Elizabeth I's time).  My mind goes into overtime whenever I am alone in and around here.

Out into the Cloisters, the rain was falling (I love this saying... "that fine rain, you know the type that wets you through"), but weather never bothers me so I continued to try and capture something different.  For now, I just wanted to capture the building with the added bonus of a moving Miss Teen.

The rain was so fine that it danced around the chimney pots of a precinct building.

Back inside, it was heartwarming to see so many photographers with their different angles and equipment from smart phones, hand sized cameras, right up to the big boys.  

My camera is a bridge camera (Fujifilm Finepix HS50 EXR).  I'm proud of this fella and how it will pick things up (apart from that pesky photographer in my first shot!), and for now I see no need to change.  One day though, once photography courses have been conquered I may just have to make the decision between Canon or Nikon.

A beautiful and productive evening and the following day, a beautiful sunset on this wonderful building through the lens of my other camera... a Samsung S6.

Have a lovely week capturing moments both night and day.