Ely Cathedral

click photo to enlarge

The exterior of Ely Cathedral looks its best, in my opinion, from a distance of several miles as it rises above the small city on a low eminence in the flat Fenland landscape. To someone who is familiar with English cathedrals the exterior of Ely is a decided oddity, and the closer you get to it the odder it looks. A prominent west tower is common in a parish church but rare in a great church such as a cathedral, minster or abbey where the crossing tower usually dominates. The emphasis on embattled turrets rather than pinnacles is even rarer, suggesting a secular castle rather than a religious building. Ely didn't always look like it does today however. It too, like cathedrals across the land, once had a central crossing tower. But, in February 1322, the great Norman structure collapsed, probably due to the inadequacy of its foundations. In its place an octagonal lantern was erected, supported on stone, but constructed of oak, the whole structure making a bristling tower lower than the west tower and very different from the soaring culminations found elsewhere.

You may gather from this that I find the exterior of Ely lacking compared with say,York, Lincoln, Durham, Salisbury or, in fact, most other cathedrals. I do. That's not to say that it lacks interest, but for me the overall form of the building doesn't match the beauty of other major cathedrals. However, the collapse that led to the construction of the octagon produced on the interior one of the finest sights that any English cathedral can offer, one that brings distinction to the building and makes it a place worth going out of your way to see.

Today's main photograph and one of the secondary images show what your eyes behold when you pause below Ely's crossing and look up. At the top left is the painted roof of the very long Norman nave. Opposite, at the bottom right is the elaborate Gothic vaulting of the nave. The other two roofs cover the transepts. Windows fill the spaces between the eight stone piers and from the top of each of the latter spreads a fan of ribs that reach to each of the bottom edges of the octagon itself. This is painted with a ring of angels, has stellar vaulting with Christ on the centre, and the whole is ringed with stained glass that lights the space.

We made the journey to Ely on the back of a weather forecast that promised sun and cloud. The drab photograph of the west tower shows how accurate that was!

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

Main Photo
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 2500
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation:N/A

A signpost in the sky

click photo to enlarge
A couple of weeks ago I was Christmas shopping with my wife in Boston, Lincolnshire. I'd taken my camera along on the off chance of a suitable subject presenting itself. I frequently do this when shopping, but only occasionally do I snap something that I like. The fact is that securing good images requires more concentration than is possible when shopping is the main activity. That's not to say that I readily give my attention to scouring the shops. Quite the opposite in fact: I glaze over and sink into a trance-like state for much of the time.

On this particular expedition I was waiting outside a store in the market place, looking around, optimistically framing subjects then rejecting them. I pointed my camera at the lantern at the top of the 272 feet (83m) tall tower of St Botolph's church, and as I did so a flurry of pigeons flew out and around before settling again on the battlements and pinnacles. They did this a couple of times and I fired off a few shots trying to make them a visual counterweight to the architecture placed to one side of the frame. As I was waiting for the pigeons' next circuit I heard the distinctive sound of geese. Looking away to the right I saw two chevrons of pink-footed geese that appeared to be flying towards the tower but were some way beyond it.

The possibility of a shot with the geese and tower occurred to me, but the track of the geese was too low. Then something happened that never seems to happen in these situations - they changed course slightly, passed the top of the tower at just the right position, and gave me the opportunity to make a few shots. This is the best of the bunch, the first, with the leading "V" acting as a signpost that seems designed to draw the attention of the shoppers below to the beautiful Gothic open-work carving and tracery of the summit of this marvellous church. Not a great shot, but one that isn't going to be available too often.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 1o6mm (212mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On