In my previous post I mentioned about my inspiration into architectural photography born at Concordia Seminary in St.Louis. I also wrote about my new project which began in late 2013 called “Churches Under God” where I began a series of photographic shoots capturing historic churches in St.Louis, Missouri beginning with Trinity Lutheran Church in Soulard. Here are a few more photographs I captured during this visit.
No visit would be complete without a strong exterior photograph of the front of the church. If you have not read my previous post on Trinity Lutheran Church where I mention the extensive storm damage in 1896, I invite you to check that out here.
Here is a photograph of the alter of the church captured from the balcony.
Next is a close-up of the handcrafted artwork of the pulpit on the left, and the choir’s balcony on the right.
For those of you who are photographers, you might be able to appreciate this one. In these days I was working on perfecting the method of producing what are called HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. The process is like this.
You take a number of photographs at slightly different shutter speeds so you can capture into detail even the shadowy parts of a photograph. Usually this is just a series of maybe 4-6 photographs. However, since I was granted the great privilege of going inside the bell tower, my goal was to capture both the details of the stained glass windows, as well as the details of the inside of the bell tower itself. Because it was such a large contrast in light levels between the details of the stained glass windows and the inside room of the bell tower, to accomplish this task it took a series of 10 individual photographs. With each one captured from a tripod, I blended the photographs together with this photograph “Behind the Glass” being the result.
The follow is an excerpt from my article about the history of Trinity Lutheran Church found in its entirety at ChurchesUnderGod.com:
The ringing of the 4 bells in the Bell Tower was no small or simple task in 1866, when the Boys’ Youth Group raised the money for them. Because of the Civil War, all metal was confiscated so the creation and installation of the bells were delayed until 1866 even though they were purchased 2 years earlier. As tour guide Dennis Rathert at Trinity Lutheran Church describes; ringing the bells required 7-8 teen-aged boys, 5 alone just to ring the big bell. To ring the big bell 2 boys would be positioned on a landing above while 3 boys were positioned below. When the bell was set to be rung, the 3 at the bottom would grab the rope and pull with all their might, while the 2 boys up above would leap off the landing and ride the rope up and down as the bell rung. Sometimes the 3 boys at the bottom would feel left out so they would hang on when they were told to let go and then bump their heads on the stairs above. To this day you can still see names, initials, and years from some of the more long term bell ringers. Some of the years still visible are from; 1905, 1909, 1913, and so on. Up until the 1950’s a pair of loud speakers could be heard playing Christmas music out toward the neighborhood.
Again, I would like to give many thanks to Rev. King Schoenfeld, Dennis Rathert, and Dave Perry of Trinity Lutheran Church for granting me the high privilege to visit and photograph their beautiful church.
—
To be notified of new postings, events, promotions, and to register for a chance to win a FREE fine art print of my photography, Subscribe on my newsletter and you won’t miss all that’s planned for 2024.