Shaft of Light

This is an example of a photo that I saw had potential, but which I couldn’t quite realise on the camera.  I had decided to go to Coventry to specifically take photos for an hour, mainly because I decided that it would probably be my last chance this year as very soon the whole world will be going retail crazy.  It is a city I know quite well and have photographed a few times, this area behind the old cathedral(s) being one of my favourites.  I have taken numerous pictures from the other side of the window, but whilst wandering around looking for something different to shoot I noticed how the sun was illuminating the water droplets.  I also noticed that when viewed from another angle it appeared as though there was almost a replica of the opening on the wall – however, that didn’t work out at all.

I have taken to travelling lighter these days and so just had my 50mm lens with which I am obsessed (along with taking photos of steps) attached to the EOS 400D.  The light levels were quite variable, so I was mainly using ISO200, which at f/8.0 gave me a shutter speed of 1/640secs which allowed the water droplets to be frozen.  I converted it to black and white in Lightroom, and cropped a little off the top and a little off the bottom.  Out of all the shots I took around that feature I think this one works the best, possibly because it also has the highest level of contrast with the area of shadow beneath the window.