Light shining through a modern stained glass window
Lens-Artists,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries,  Travel in general

Gallery: how the light gets in

October 27, 2024 / 63 Comments

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, in everything

That’s how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen

This weekend in Europe our clocks are being turned back. The already dark evenings will be darker as days are starting to shorten and nights lengthen. Finding light where we can becomes ever more precious.

Ever since early man first lit a fire in his cave, people have chosen light over darkness. We open doors or windows to let in the daylight, and light lamps at night.

And as Ritva reminds us in her post for this week’s Lens Artists challenge, light isn’t just a practical necessity in our lives, it also symbolises all that is good in the world, just as darkness symbolises all that is bad. How many of the world’s great stories feature a battle between light and dark forces? And the world’s major religions are all founded on a belief that light can conquer darkness.

For us as photographers, light is everything, although it isn’t always easy to capture, let alone to make the subject of our images. But in response to Ritva’s challenge I’ve pulled together a selection of photos from my archives that I hope will let the light in. Some have had a bit of ‘help’ in editing to emphasise the effect, using a mix of Nik Color Efex Pro and Luminar Neo. But in all of them the light was present from the start, I only had to let it shine through!

My feature photo was taken in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Joseph in Sofia  

White flowers with light catching some petals

Light through a stained glass window touches the petals of a plant in St Paul’s RC Cathedral, Tirana, Albania

Crucifixion scene in relief

Light through the stained glass of the central lantern strikes one of the Stations of the Cross in the RC Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool

Stone relief carving of an angel
Stone relief carving of an angel

In the Sacré Coeur, Paris

Sun appearing through carved bars on a window

Just after sunrise at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Stone Buddha with gold shawl and sunlight

A shaft of sunlight catches a Buddha at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

A crack in the wall of Bibi Khanum mosque, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Imposing stone wall with a large crack
Candlestick and wreath lit by light from a narrow window

In the chapel of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, New Mexico

In the Itmad-ud-Daulah, Agra, sometimes dubbed the ‘Baby Taj’

Dimly lit building with tiled walls and a shaft of light
Ornate wall decorations with bright line of light

A shaft of light hits a wall in the Musee Tiskiwin, Marrakesh

Our guide caught in the light from a window at Telouet Kasbah, Morocco

Man in a turban by a window in a colourfully tiled wall
Man looking out through a small window

Looking out of a window at the Amber Fort, Jaipur

A dhoby wallah takes a break to read the paper at Dhoby Khana, a traditional laundry in Fort Cochin, Kerala

Man reading a newspaper by a window
Sunlight in a wood picking out a small deer

The early morning sunlight catches a young deer in Bardia National Park, Nepal

Looking up at sunlight through trees

Shafts of sunlight in Bardia National Park, Nepal

Sheer mountain side touched by sunlight at the top

I have to finish with a shot from our recent trip to California where, as we enjoyed a breakfast picnic in Yosemite Valley, the first light of the morning struck the top of El Capitan

63 Comments

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