Three Sacred Places in the Land of Enchantment

San Geronimo Church

The Tiwa people had lived here for centuries before the Good News of the Gospel arrived.  The Franciscan friars were attracted by the permanent pueblo settlement and decided that it was lacking a church.  They used force to convert the natives and more force to encourage them to build a mission.  In 1680 the pueblo revolted, killed the friars and destroyed the church.

The Spanish were back a decade later and the pueblo was reconverted to Christianity.  The church was rebuilt.  In 1847 the United States Army occupied the area and sent a territorial governor to Taos.  With the Spanish gone, the Native People including some from the pueblo decided to govern themselves.  They assassinated the governor.  The United States Army attacked the pueblo.   The church walls were 4 feet thick.  Hundreds of women and children sought refuge there.  Many of them were killed when the army used artillery to destroy the church.  

The dead were buried in the cemetery next to the church.  The bell tower of the mission was rebuilt as a reminder of what had happed here.  A new church was built nearby and still stands.  The cemetery has been used for centuries.   It doesn't have clearly defined plots, bodies are buried among and on top of other bodies.  The simple wooden markers deteriorate and are removed.  The ground is considered holy ground and visitors are not allowed to enter.

The Sanctuario de Chimayó is known worldwide for its sacred dirt.  The church was built in 1871 following a series of miraculous events.  While the miracles are considerably different in several versions of the story they all agree on a divine presence at this spot. The church has been dubbed the “Lourdes of the United States".

Thousands pilgrims visit the church each year.  Many have reported miraculous healing during or after touching or eating the sacred dirt beneath the church.  Besides the hole containing the sacred soil, the church contains hundreds of crutches, casts, and other items that people discarded when they were cured. 

"The Ranchos de Taos Church," San Francisco de Asis, was completed in 1815 and provides one of the best examples of Franciscan Old World architectural ideals combined with New World building techniques.  It has walls that are four feet thick and enormous buttresses.  It is built of dried mud and needs to be recoated with mud on a regular basis. 

This church attracts artists and photographers as well as the church at Chimayo attracts pilgrims.  The front of the church is impressive, but artists are attracted to the back of the building and the way that light transforms the building.  It is the most photographed and most painted church in America.

Like the others before me, I wanted to show the building as more than a simple pile of mud.  I photographed the sun at the top corner of the building.  Since the range of light exceeded the capablity of my camera, I used a series of exposures to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image of the building.  The bright sun created a series of internal reflections within the lens.  The number of exposures multiplied the effect. A pair of birds dropped in to assist with the composition.  The resulting image combines form and fantasy, and clearly was taken in "the Land of Enchantment".

Signs of Improvement?

I made several refinements to my Bird in Flight technique today.  I used a shorter lens - 135mm, moved back for a larger target area and stopped down more to get more depth of focus. I placed the camera outdoors in the freezing temperatures of late December.  I moved the feeder in an attempt to make the flight path more predictable. 

Increased depth of focus increased the number of sharp images, but the news wasn't entirely good.  The 135mm lens increased the background area.  Stopping the lens down made the background sharper.  As a result, the bokeh on today's images isn't as good as the results from the 400mm lens. The image below is a good example, the backgrould is mottled and distrating. 

I used a remote to fire the camera today.  I was able to trigger the camera remotely.  As a result, I wasn't able to chimp and make adjustments to my camera position and focus as easily.  The flight path is still too short and random for consistent focus.

I awarded this image 6 points

10 Point Bird Photo Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?	1/2	Noise Reduction destroyed some detail
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp	1
Does lighting enhance the image?	1	Backlighted
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?	1/2	It's head is too high in the frame
Does color enhance the image?
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1/2	Cannot see eyes
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	1	Looks active

I awarded this image 6 1/2 points.

 

10 Point Bird Photo Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?	1
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp	1
Does lighting enhance the image?	1	Backlighted
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?
Does color enhance the image?
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?		I like the blue
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1/2	No catchlight
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	1	Looks active

 I definitely need to help the birds maintain a consistent flight path to the feeder.  I also need to fire the camera before the bird enters the target area to compensate for the birds speed and my slow reactions.

In a future session, I plan to put up a branch that is higher than the feeder.   If I can convice the birds to start there flight to the feeder from this perch, I should be able to increase the number of images that are in focus.

Window Glass and Bokeh

My bird feeders are set up so that I can enjoy them from my kitchen window.  As long as I don't make sudden movements, the birds ignore my presence.   I'm content to work there. I can leave my camera set up while I'm doing other things and return when the right birds are present.  The birds are undisturbed and I'm cozy in the warmth of the house.

If I were asked about photographing behind glass, I would have recommended against it.  The glass at the zoo is a problem because it is dirty and has reflections that are difficult to control. I would have been concerned that the glass would cause a slight color shift.  

My attempts to photograph birds in flight were bad enough that the window glass was the least of my problems.  Spraying and Praying didn't help much.  Half the time, I didn't even have a bird in the frame.  When the bird was present, it was usually out of focus.   When the bird was in focus, the wings were in the wrong position.  

If you read the photography forums,  you will find that sharpness can become an obsession.   Photographers will pay thousands of dollars for a difference in sharpness that can only be observed under heavy magnification.  Regardless of the lens sharpness, dozens of other things need to be correct before the expensive lens produces the sharpest possible image.

Digital photography actually forgives some problems that made cheap lenses inferior to the expensive ones.  Photoshop can correct color shifts.  It can remove lens distortions and vignetted corners.  Canon's DO technology was criticized for having less contrast - this is no problem with Photoshop. With this in mind, today's test is intended to show how little difference a window makes when Photoshop is used.

I used my 400mm lens in today's tests.  I used Live View to focus the lens.  My camera was on a tirpod and I used a 10 second delay to allow vibrations to settle before my exposure.  I used ISO 100 for less noise and f 8 to get the best possible resolution from the lens.  The only difference in the tests is that the window in front of the lens is open or closed.

 

In this highly magnified sample you can see that the shot taken through the window lacks contrast.  I found that when I used contrast and brightness controls in Photoshop, I could make them look very similar.  There was less color shift than I expected.  Resolution suffered, but it was close.

Much to my surprise, the unfocused portions of the image didn't fare as well.  Look at all the extra detail in the image on the left.  The bokeh is horrible compared to the image on the right.  The window added detail that didn't exist.

Even though the open window produced better results,  it isn't the complete answer.  As I watched live view as the camera counted down, I could sharpness come and go. Heat for the house was escaping and caused distortion.  My results would have been even better if I and the camera had been outside in the cold.