Morning light at Stockerston

click photo to enlarge
The Leicestershire village of Stockerston is no more than a few houses clustered around the junction of a road and a lane, with, a little higher up the hillside, a medieval church and a large house, Stockerston Hall.

My first visit to the village was made last year to see the church of St Peter, the tower of which can be glimpsed through the trees in the top centre of today's photograph. This building is noted for its stained glass of the 1400s and for a selection of good memorials. However, the photograph that I posted from that earlier visit wasn't of anything architecturally significant or historically interesting: rather, it was the morning light slanting down through the old church windows. And, as I post my second image from Stockerston it is, once again, the morning light that is the main feature of the shot.

This view was taken from King's Hill, on the other side of the Eye Brook valley, in Rutland. The small stream that flows into the Eyebrook Reservoir marks the county boundary in this area, so here I was photographing Leicestershire from Rutland. On this October morning the air seemed thick, and the hillside, buildings and autumnal trees were suffused with a faint pink tinge. But, since it wasn't strong enough to affect the nearer grass and trees, the resulting image has a feeling of depth and distance that I find pleasing.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 73mm (146mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

New light through old windows

click photo to enlarge
The other day, as I pedalled my way around the lanes that criss-cross the rolling landscape where the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland meet, I kept glancing skyward. The morning sun that had appeared with a sharp frost and dense mist had given way to thick, grey cloud that rolled in from the west. And, though the weather man had said there would be intermittent sun, it looked quite unlikely. But, as my wife, ever the optimist, reminded me - it wasn't raining, so we were enjoying the ride.

Our route was taking in a succession of villages with medieval churches. In that part of the country a cycle ride is a sequence of fast freewheels interspersed with hard climbs either standing up on the pedals or on foot, pushing the bike. As we dismounted at Stockerston to ascend the short, sharp hill on the which the church of St Peter stands, I reflected that I needed some strong, directional light to replace the flat stratus above. My wife went to borrow the church key, and I took a couple of shots of the exterior of the building just as some brightness began to appear - how often doesn't that happen! Unfortunately the filtered sun was coming over my shoulder from the south-east, so was too much of the floodlight and not enough of the spot to model the contours of the ancient building.

However, whilst we were inside the church the gods of photography smiled on me, and for a couple of minutes strong sunlight pierced the leaded lights of the Gothic windows. The medieval glass for which the building is renowned glowed like rubies and sapphires, and I took some photographs of the kneeling nobles and church dignitaries. However, it was these two quite plain windows that caught my photographer's eye because of the shadows that the spring sun was throwing across the old, water-stained stone. The composition suggested itself, but it took a few shots to get the exposure right.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.0
Shutter Speed: 1/250 seconds
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -2.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On