OCA People and Place Photography

"This is a good image to open your sequence because it deals with the administrative preparations before the event. The impact of the image is much enhanced by the expression of the clerk of the event as he appears to greet one of the participants with his hand outstretched giving the impression of a friendly greeting. I experimented on the image using Photoshop Image>Adjustments> Highlights and Shadows to reduce the highlights by 50% to put more detail n the clerk’s face."

I have made a slight curve adjustment edit (in Lightroom) to selectively reduce the exposure on the clerk's face and here is the slightly modified version:

3. Starting lights

"In my opinion the figure of the course marshal and the starting lights is the essence of this image and I do not consider that the curb makes a positive contribution."

At the time I was taking close ups behind the start line and so only had the 24-105 lens to hand when this opportunity presented itself at some distance. As a result I had already needed to make a significant crop to this image and wanted to ensure I had enough pixels for a qood quality print when making my assessment submission. The original was 5616x3744, the crop submitted was 3308x2646 and here is a revised version with an even tighter crop at 2649x2119:

9. Poised to record

"In my opinion this image would have been improved if the two photographers were not looking into camera but more involved in their task. It seems to give a rather static impression."

I agree, however the position required to take this shot meant being on the track and so had to be done at a safe moment hence the togs are less engaged at that moment, though the public have cameras up for some reason. I was able to get a view of some other togs in action on a different part of the track by shooting from the opposite side, here is one of the alternative shots that were considered:

10. Motorbike and sidecar in action

"The attitude of the figures of the driver and his passenger create a great impression of intense concentration on a right-hand bend. There is a trace of motion blur but I think that the shutter speed was too short."

Yes, agreed that the shutter speed was too short, see further comments under Conclusions below. I was tempted to go with a completely different shot of the motorbike and sidecar, without pan and very close:

14. Back to the paddock

"Is the driver’s tongue really that size?"

I can only say yes. He stuck his tongue out and I clicked the shutter, that bit of the images has not had any special editing.

Conclusions

Areas for improvement:

"I have examined your learning log and find it to be well-arranged and complete with evidence of your studies and the essay which accompanies your gives a good account of your on site problems and how you arranged to deal with them. Your conclusions are very frank show that you have picked up on those aspects of your technique which need to be addressed."

I had a couple of further thoughts on reducing shutter speed to improve the pans. Firstly I could have dropped from ISO100 to ISO50. ISO50 is not a true native ISO for the camera and not a setting I usually use but in this case it would have been a very simple option to apply. Secondly I could have stopped down the shutter as the depth of field effect ceases to matter much for backgrounds that are blurred by motion anyway.

From the tutor on a positive note:

"Your images are all of high quality both in composition, exposure and focusing. The latter of that group can often prove difficult to maintain consistently accurate results at motor sport events."

Assignment 5: People and place, on assignment

2010-10-09T11:25:00.000+01:00

For this final assignment I have chosen to cover the Bo'ness Hill Climb Revival, a local motor sport event held annually, so my notional client is the BHCR committee.

The idea with a hill climb is that single vehicles (cars or motorbikes) make a timed run up a hill based course with the fastest time in each of a given series of vehicle classes winning. The photography is strictly “performed to order” in the sense that the event is run to a specific schedule and if a shot of a car on track is missed then there is no opportunity to recreate or direct that shot.

The event has been running for three years in its current guise. In 2008 I first photographed the event and used some of the photos for my OCA Art of Photography course. In 2009 I was in fact commissioned for real by BHCR as a local photographer to provide photographs as the council (Falkirk) had specifically insisted that they needed images of the track opening (by the Provost) that could be used in the media. In 2010 I photographed the event again.

In order not to be trying to get photos through a large crowd and with various peoples heads in the way the key is to have track side access and this means having a press pass. Having covered the event from the outset I now know the press officer and was able to get one of the press passes (they only issue about a dozen).

Even with a press pass certain restrictions are still placed on photographers, mainly for health and safety reasons, for example limiting track access at race times, requirement to wear a hi-vis vest and forbidding flash photography. In 2009 a car hit a straw bale that I was standing behind, I escaped unharmed but it was more than enough to convince me how dangerous track side photography can be.

Notional client briefing

“Cover the BHCR 2010 event over the weekend of 11/12 September, to include the official track opening and cars competing. Of particular interest are motorbikes as they are competing for the first time this year. Also of interest are any very old or unusual vehicles such as the GS1 Squanderbug. Provide a variety of still images that can be used on the BHCR web site and that may be also be used in conjunction with Falkirk Council for press releases and other media. Any images not specifically chosen by BHCR may be sold to the drivers or otherwise used.”

Planning

Planning is essential for this type of event. It is important to know the layout of the track, the likely action spots and the order of running plus timing for events such as the track opening. Walking the track in advance has proved helpful. In the first instance the BHCR web site provides a good resource for getting info.

http://www.bonesshillclimb.org.uk/index.html

Just prior to the event getting the camera gear prepared is important, ensuring batteries are charged and CF cards are formatted etc. There is little time to change lenses so I shoot with 2 bodies, each with a zoom lens. I use a full sensor body with a 24-105 for the closer work and then a crop sensor body with a 70-200 (effectively 110-320mm). In my bag I also carry a couple of fast primes, 50 1.4 & 85 1.8, and a X2 teleconverter and not forgetting the essential chamois leather for wiping the rain off. All this fits into a Kata Photoreporter bag keeping everything safe but allowing quick access.

When checking in as a press photographer you are then issued with an event Programme which gives a list of vehicles and drivers, very useful when fielding sales queries later.

Race control also provide a 'batch list', essentially a list of all the vehicles with numbers and driver names in the sequence they will run and including any late entries that may not be in the printed Programme. By checking the batch list I was able to pick out areas of interest, for example to see when the motorbikes, of which there were only a few, would be running. The BHCR will be keen to get photos of class winners in action but the winners will only be known at the end of the event so to some extent this requires a wide coverage of the entrants, having at least one shot of every entrant is desirable in the hopes of covering a subsequent winner.

The course has a lot of dense tree cover and this places large areas of track in very dark shade at certain times of day so sun position and time of day to some extent dictate location. For example Crawyett (see track layout) is almost always dark but the Courtyard provides good light mid morning to mid afternoon.

I am also looking for images that I can sell separately:

The paddock allows for direct access to the vehicles and provide potential for stock shots (I mostly sell via Alamy). I tend to cover this early for a first pass while waiting for the drivers briefing and then pop back later in the day for crash wreckage etc.
There is some potential for fine art images, especially with the vintage vehicles.
Drivers tend to like images of themselves in the car on the move. I have found that when the cars return to the paddock is a good opportunity as typically the cars are on the move but slowly and drivers will often have removed their helmets so can be seen.
Action shots are always popular, these are typically pan shots at slowish shutter speeds to give a sharp vehicle against a blurred background. This can be hard to get spot on but there is some tolerance as blur, within reason, tends to just add to the feeling of speed.

The Images

Please click on the individual images to see larger versions with the image notes as captions:

1. Drivers' briefing

2. Scene setter – Batch One

3. Starting lights

4. The start line

5. Lotus single seat racer

6. Alvis enters courtyard bend

7. Steering wheel

8. Track Opening by the Provost

9. Poised to record

10. Motorbike and sidecar in action

11. Ducati 749

12. Old Norton

13. GS1 Squanderbug

14. Back to the paddock

A larger set of photos from the event can be found on my main web site at:
http://www.astburyphotography.co.uk/photos/events/hillclimb10/index.htm

Conclusions

Having covered this event for three consecutive years it does get easier but always remains a challenge and a little bit of luck always helps as you can only be at one place on the track at any given moment in time. I have a better idea of what shots will prove of commercial worth now than when I first started out.
I have tried to get in close with the shots but suspect that in some cases I could have benefited from getting even closer, something to keep working at.

Technically:

I find I could still improve on my pan shots which sometimes suffered from too fast a shutter speed when the light was bright. At 100 ISO and around f4 to f5 for limited depth of field shutter speeds tended to be from 1/200 up to 1/5000th. For a good blur on the background not faster than about 1/200th is ideal. A smooth pan is required and with IS set off on my 24-105, set to mode 2 on my 70-200. An ND filter could help reduce shutter speeds during the brighter moments.
I have tried with and without a monopod but have tended to shoot more without, its more bulk when I have 2 cameras and a bag to carry and swapping cameras is then slower if I have to put them on and off the monopod (even with the quick release plates that I use).
Metering can be a problem as a combination of wind and cloud meant that the light levels changed quickly sometimes. For this reason I opted for Aperture priority rather than manual. I had used mainly centre weighted metering but there is typically not enough time to set any exposure compensation as a car pops into view around a bend so doesn't work so well if the car turns out to be very dark or very bright. The evaluative metering mode may have worked better though I find too much sky can then give a dark subject.

Assignment 4: Revisited

2010-09-30T12:49:00.001+01:00

This post is to follow up on my original post for the fourth assignment, A Sense of Place, as a chance to reflect upon tutor feedback and start to explore some ideas that have been thrown up.

Individual Image Comments

I provided a total set of 12 images but refined them down to a preferred final 6. Tutor feedback was provided on the final 6, extracts from which are provided below:

Disused Shaft, Kinningars Park

"Some of the architectural detail of the tower is hidden from the viewer behind the structure in the foreground. A three-quarter front view taken further to the left of the camera position for this shot would have yielded a more interesting view, showing the form of the building and revealing the detail at its base."

It could be debated as to which structure is more significant, the tower which would have housed the winding gear or the pit head itself in the foreground, however a view taken further to the left may have proved better for both. My failure in this regard is due to the fact that I was somewhat rushed wanting to include the family engaged in dog walking who passed by in the background quite quickly.

Memorial to Mining

"You have captured a very good image for your sequence. It makes an excellent statement about the nature of the location and its historical involvement in mining. I think that it composes beautifully. The eye swings in an impressive curve from the bottom margin, round the seated figure and then across to the wheel."

I was pleased with the composition myself and even more pleased that my tutor liked this one.

Railway Footbridge

"I understand your point about the way in which railway locomotives can dominate an image, but I wonder what captures the attention of a visitor most. Would it be a railway engine or the station furniture? If the opportunity had presented itself you could have combined both in one shot."

It is very easy to show the locos but the danger is that you end up with a typical 'tourist' shot and the brief was not to do this, for example:

As mentioned I did attempt to include a loco with the bridge so here is an example:

I don't feel this quite works. Upon reflection I am wondering if it might be possible to take a position up on the bridge but behind the viewers and looking down to the trains. This means catching peoples backs but would show the loco better and nicely put the whole thing in context. I don't really have an example of this so as usual one to revisit.

The Hippodrome

"This is a good explicit image of the cinema although it would have had more impact from not so far away. The building on the right could have been cropped. Did you walk up to the building to experiment with some close up shots of the entrance to see if they would convey a more powerful impact?"

Mid distance is a problem as you would have to stand in the road so realistically this means standing far back or getting very close. The "building on the right" is in fact the cinema auditorium but it would have been possible to crop for the façade only.

I have certainly experimented with closer shots, for example:

I think I prefer my original shot because of the blue and white of the sky but will certainly be going back to experiment further.

Ballantine and Bo’ness Iron Company

"There is obviously something interesting happening on the other side of these doors. I would be curious to know what that activity is. Ballantine and Co. have put their sign over on the left side of the gate which means that if you go in close to get a better view through the doors you will lose the sign. Do you think that you would have had any success if you had asked them to open up so that you could see what they were up to?"

I have thought about contacting the company to get photographs from the inside but have been deterred by the anticipation of a raft of health and safety type issues. And in the case of this image I like the fact that you can't quite see what is happening, just getting a glimpse through the partly open gates, this is just how the works appear to the locals as they go past.

Pipe Band Practice on Fair E’en

"This is quite a nice formal arrangement of the band at practice with good sky detail but not many faces or instruments that can be clearly seen."

My idea was to show the band as a group and formed in a circle. It was shot at 17mm with me practically on top of the nearest pipers and positioned so that the drum with the band name could be seen, though admittedly a small detail in the overall image. I did try homing in on more detail, changing to 40mm, which shows the instruments in more detail but for me this immediately loses the sense of the group which is what had drawn me take the image in the first place:

"My preference is for the shot of the trombonist in the Bo’ness and Carriden Band. It has expression in the facial detail and some added interest in the instrument."

Conclusions

From the tutor on a positive note:

"I have studied your assignment and your blog quite thoroughly and am impressed by the obvious sincerity of your approach to your work. In my opinion you have selected the strongest images although I feel that you have left out one which could have been included. All you images are sharp and well exposed."

And areas for improvement:

"My general criticism is that your images give an ‘arms length’ or slightly distant feel. In my opinion your selection would have been improved if you had moved closer to your subjects even concentrating on details at times to give your viewers the impression that you were taking them with you to introduce them to the character of the town."

Book Review, F Godwin, Islands

2010-09-28T14:49:00.000+01:00

To some extent this is a follow on from my work on the Landscape course where Fay Godwin was my chosen photographer. It took me some time to track down her books, initially getting the Land trilogy and then a few others, purchased second hand, mainly through Abe. I had been intending to read Islands for a while but my recent trip to the Isle of Skye prompted me to take this along and start into it.

The book contains photographs by Fay Godwin accompanied by text authored by John Fowles. At a quick glance I had expected the images to feature Scottish islands, perhaps the Hebrides but in fact the photographs are of the Isles of Scilly. It is perhaps interesting to note that the style of the photos is strongly anchored in the characteristic style of Godwin but the subject matter is harder to place and could as easily be a number of varying places in the UK.

Though the photos stay with the Isles of Scilly the text uses this as a kicking off point to look more generally at the concept of islands, drawing upon a variety of historic and fictional text references as it goes. The text discusses our relationships with the seas and with island living but the photos, though littered with signs of human inhabitation, never actually show any people directly.

Overall I enjoyed this book but not as much as "The Edge of Land" which is one of my favourites.

Assignment 4: A sense of place

2010-09-02T14:11:00.000+01:00

For this assignment the location I picked is my home town of Bo'ness, a place that I know well and have had the opportunity to get to know even better. The assignment calls for a set of photographs to be used by an 'intelligent' travel publication and not simple tourism promotion.

One of my starting points was to see how others viewed my home town and so I checked some online guides / gazetteers. One of the best examples is perhaps Undiscovered Scotland, a guide I have used in planning many holidays and photography trips.
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/boness/boness/index.html
This provides what I might consider a somewhat unenthralling guide that provides a little history to the place and mentions obvious attractions such as the steam railway and the Antonine Wall along with some of the more historic buildings.

Looking at a specific tourist guide such as Visit Scotland again the themes of the Antonine Wall and steam railway immediately emerge.
http://guide.visitscotland.com/vs/guide/5,en,SCH1/objectId,RGN168vs,curr,GBP,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html

So if I was not to follow the obvious tourist route with photos of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and such like then what approach would I take? My approach was to look at the history of the town and to look at current visual cues to the more industrial past.

I turned my attention to so alternative sources of information. On the internet:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%27ness
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/search/?image_only_chk=1&keyword=bo%27ness&submit=search
Forth Yacht Clubs Association - http://fyca.sbmyc.com/Publications/CruisingGuide/cruisingP14.htm
Scottish Cinemas - http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/scotland/boness.html

And also printed material:

Old Ordnance Survey Maps, Bo'ness 1896, The Godfrey Edition (sold at our local library)
Bo'ness: a glimpse of the past, pub Falkirk Council, 2004, ISBN 0954045335
Bo'ness Town Trail, pub Falkirk Council, ISBN 0906586305

This led me to some key facts, including:

In 1900 there were fifty pits within a mile of Bo’ness town centre
The commercial port, used for the transport of coal and pit props, closed in 1959.
Mining in the area (Valleyfield Colliery) continued until 1983.

In compiling this set I had a number of exploratory photo sessions around the town, e.g. :

I also considered some of the old photos from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Bridgeness Tower

Bo'ness Ariel View

See the set of 12 images and the individual image notes:

OCA P and P Assignment 4

From this a final set of 6 were selected:

Conclusions

This assignment has encouraged me to learn a lot more about my home town and to consider how the history can be tied in with present use from a visual perspective. One idea I had was to look at then and now pairs of photographs, drawing upon resources such as the RCAHMS for the 'then' photos and then taking my own set of 'now', this may become a personal project to follow up on.

Book Review, W Eugene Smith, Dream Street

2010-08-20T12:30:00.000+01:00

I have been intending to post a review of Dream Street, aka The Pittsburgh Project, since my earlier review on The Last Steam Railroad in America by O Winston Link and finally here it is.

Firstly some good news, the book is easy to get hold of and not too expensive, here's a link for Amazon as a starter:

W Eugene Smith

Wikipedia describes William Eugene Smith as an

American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs

B 1918, d 1978. Smith was fired from Newsweek for refusing to use medium format cameras and joined Life Magazine in 1939. He soon resigned from Life too, Smith severed his ties with Life over the way in which the magazine used his photographs of Albert Schweitzer. Upon leaving Life he joined the Magnum photo agency in 1955. There he started his project to document Pittsburgh when sent on a 3 week assignment...
Read more about W Eugene Smith.

The Pittsburgh Project

This assignment from Magnum was initially supposed to take Smith three weeks and was to produce 100 photographs. In a project that ended up spanning years Smith actually shot some 17 thousand photographs, the full collection was too large to ever be shown.

Dream Street

Eventually Smith selected 88 images in the form of a book-length photo essay for Popular Photography's Photography Annual 1959 when editor Bruce Downs gave Smith total control over the layout. This set are reproduced in Dream Street.

Of the opening picture of the steelworker with flames reflected in his goggles (and note its flipped around from the version above), Smith said "I needed a picture of man submerged underneath industry, but not lost.":

Conclusions

This is a book that leaves an impact. It is hard not to be truly impressed with the depth and scale of Smith's work and in a review such as this it is hard to convey much more than a taster of the work. I am not entirely sure what might be a fair comparison, for example I personally find Dream Street much more engaging than Robert Frank's The Americans, though recognising that the two were captured in different ways and with different timescales. It is perhaps the industrial themes that resonate with me and inspire my more humble attempts to photograph my home town (which includes its own small iron works). Dream Street is amongst my favourite monographs and for those that have not read this book I recommend getting hold of a copy.

SWPP Monthly Competition - July 10

2010-08-04T14:22:00.000+01:00

For the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) members' Monthly Competition, July 2010, I was awarded several Bronze merits. Here are a few of those entries (please click on images to see larger versions):

Category: General Sport
Evening horse jumping:

From SWPP Competition

Category: Family and Group Portraiture
Kai and Joel on location, cross processed effect with vignette:

From SWPP Competition

And for all awarded entries from this and previous months please see the album:

SWPP Competition

Book Review, Cartier-Bresson, A propos de Paris

2010-08-02T17:18:00.001+01:00

This post is to review the book, A propos de Paris, featuring photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson and as recommended by my tutor. An initial online search with my local libraries had appeared to indicate they didn't stock the book but I had obviously not been careful enough with my search criteria and looking on the actual shelves in my local branch of the library I did in fact find the book.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

First a few notes on Henri Cartier-Bresson. b 1908 in France, d 2004, he was noted for his photo-journalistic and candid photography. Initially schooled in painting, he moved into photography in the thirties, often using a Leica. He was a founder member of Magnum from 1947.
Read more about Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Thoughts on Leica

So why has Leica been popular with HCB and other street photographers?

Well a few ideas that spring to mind are that Leicas are:

Well made and reliable
Feature good quality optics
Are relatively small and quiet in operation so unobtrusive
Have a viewfinder positioned in the corner allowing the photographers other eye to view the whole scene.

And so why don't we all use them?

They are expensive!

The book

The book comes with two short texts, a preceding text by Vera Feyder which I found a little too 'flowery' in its language (possibly made worse as a consequence of translation from French) and then a more digestible text by Andre Pieyre. The images are produced one per page with only a plate number and a year. Captions to the plates are produced as a list in the back of the book, this lets the images speak for themselves though for me I would have preferred to see this text located with the images rather than need to keep flicking to the back.

The Photographs

Composition

When I started to look at the photographs two things quickly struck me about the compositions.

The first was how there would often be something cropped which goes out of the frame, e.g. spire, tree etc. In general such elements can be a problem as they risk leading the viewers eye out of the frame but this does not seem to be the case with these images, the main subject matter being strong enough to keep the attention.

Here's an example with a tree that dominates the foreground and yet the the women with child and dog, almost in silhouette, draws the eye:

The other thing I noticed was how often the composition was based on an implied triangle or set of three points.

Decisive Moment

He is known for his ability to capture what has been termed "the decisive moment" (a title of one of his books from 1952) and the following example from 1932, Behind the Gare St. Lazare, typifies what is meant:

Again you have a set of three; the jumper, the jumpers reflection and the and jumping figure on the billboard in the background.

Missing

Cartier-Bresson was certainly prolific and with a book such as this not everything can be included but there are some images which to some extent seem iconic and yet are missing, for example this picnic scene:

And also missing from the book is this image that I think might be one of his strongest, from 1945, Gestapo informer, again with the distinct three point composition:

Conclusion

Overall this is an enjoyable book, I find some of the photographs truly superb but at the same time I also find an indifference to some of them. This may be due more to the collection rather than the photographer but as a set they do not grip me in the same way as something like Dream Street by fellow Magnum photographer, W Eugene Smith (review pending).

Assignment 3: Revisited

2010-07-30T16:33:00.003+01:00

This post is just to follow up on my original post for the third assignment, Buildings In Use, as a chance to reflect upon tutor feedback.

I have already posted some details on my use of metadata, so this is to look at the more specific image comments from my tutor.

Set 1 – St Michael's Church, Linlithgow

"The fall-off in illumination and composition are the strength of the shot of the bible although the subject is slightly too close to the right hands margin."

I can see that having the bible positioned slightly more to the left could help, I hadn't cropped the image on the right so cannot now achieve this with a simple edit, I would need to retake the image with an adjusted composition.

"Although the vestry image is quite a good picture it is lacking in energy and interest which is not helped by the immobility of the composition."

I didn't take a flash with me as I had not expected it to be permitted inside the church but I am thinking a bit of extra light on the gowns would have enhanced the colour and so added a little energy.

Set 2 – Stanley Mills, Perthshire

"In my opinion this section is the weakest in your assignment. The subject does not yield the nature of its history, not because of the quality of the images but because they do not provide the viewer with sufficient information.
...
As you have submitted the full quota of six sections, perhaps you would consider omitting this one. "

I think I probably agree. I did the set from a single visit as the location is a rather long distance away but really would have wanted to explore more. I think I got caught up between a couple of different ideas, I wanted to look at signage but then was a little lacking on people.

"The shot of the young man watching the video display does not compose with enough energy to make the point. By shooting from behind the boy’s back his shape is submerged in outline of the console. If it were shot from one side his attitude would have conveyed more animation and interest, particularly if his facial expression were included."

I appreciate the constructive comment and agree that the suggested approach could have improved the image.

Set 3 – Cairnpapple, Lothians

"The shot of the two tourists examining the information panel would have been improved if their faces had been visible from the camera position to enable the viewer to see their interest in this exhibit. If the eyes of the principle subjects are turned toward the action it forms a focal point in the composition."

I was trying to show the steps and ladder of the entrance down into the underground site in addition to the tourists and information board but agree that some visibility of the eyes would have provided some direction, something to work at.

Set 4 – Scottish National Equestrian Centre (SNEC), Lothians

"This section succeeds by virtue of the amount of human (and animal) activity in all the images."

"Your comment about the plastic bottle is quite correct as it appears to be the centre of focus. Because the horse is quite soft it must have been further away. Do you think you could clone the bottle out in Photoshop because it is persistently dominant?"

When I first selected this image I considered trying to edit out the bottle but it sits over a complex background with various elements including; a glove, some wood, peoples arms, a horse etc so I feared it would be hard for me to make all that blend and not look too false. I would prefer to have the benefit of something like the content aware fill in CS5 but have tried anyway,so here's my attempt having used the patch tool, heal brush and regular brush in CS4:

Set 5 – Boys' Brigade Event at Broxburn Parish Church

"The picture of the Boys Brigade banner bearers is one of the most important images in the set and in my opinion I feel that it should have been shot from front to give precedence to the boys and the flags."

Getting good images of the flags proved tricky. To see the flags themselves a side view works. To have been 'front side' rather than 'rear side' would have required me to levitate over the pews somewhere so wasn't immediately practical.

Here's an alternate image of the fronts taking at a different moment, given a 16:9 crop to accommodate the tall flag poles, but the higher angle of the poles means the flags are not shown off as well, I don't think I like this image as much as the one originally selected: