Church in Emo

I was in Mountmellick during the week to give Mountmellick Photographic Society a quick presentation on how to use their website (which I designed and built using WordPress, which also powers this blog).  It was approaching sunset when I was leaving and, with my camera on the passenger seat and a drive back to Dublin ahead of me, I took 5 minutes to attempt to get two photographs before I joined the motorway.  Bad timing resulted in me missing the first shot and only having limited success with the second, which you see here.

The first shot presented itself to me as I turned right onto the main street in Mountmellick and, while looking left, noticed lovely light from the setting sun falling on the buildings on the other side of the street to the west.  I had committed to turning right (heading east) so made the turn, but as soon as I could, pulled in and walked back with my camera to the junction.  When I got there, the light was no longer there, and although I walked further up the street, effectively chasing the light, it was in vain as the sun had dipped below the buildings further west, putting almost all of the main street in the shade.

This was a real example of how the light at sunset is so very transient, and how the space of a minute can change everything in relation to the light.  Indeed, had I been turning at the junction a minute earlier, I may not have seen anything in the light to warrant me parking and walking back to try to get a photo.

I did take a photo on main street, but it is nothing special, and the dynamic range between the sky and the shaded street is too much to do anything with even in post processing.

So disappointed to have missed my shot I headed towards Emo, which is a village between Mountmellick and the motorway.  There, across from some deserted market stalls, I saw this church and field, and behind it the semi circle of a half moon.  Again I stopped and crossed the road to frame the church using my 17-50mm lens, crouching low to keep the field in the foreground, and focusing a third of the way into the frame.

I aimed to expose to keep the sky about a stop and a half over mid-grey, but had to be careful to keep the moon in the shot while trying to retain detail in the shaded side of the church, and the trees alongside it.  Again this proved difficult as the sun was so far in the west that the front of the church got no light.  Where I had some success is in the side light that is illuminating the side of the steeple with that nice warm sunset colour.

In processing I did what I could to recover detail in the trees, but possibly at the expense of some fringing of the top of the church.   I was happy at least to keep the moon exposure clear in the shot, which, given the challenging range of exposures in the scene, was worthy of being happy about.

I drove back to Dublin knowing that at another time, this scene, and indeed Mountmellick itself, would offer better photo opportunities.   Another place to add to the list of potential photographic destinations.