Good Friday Service, Bath Abbey

Like the last time I shot around Bath Abbey, it wasn't the wonderful Georgian architecture that came to be my Blip - a www.blipfoto.com/entry/3634321 Royal Prince stole the show then and today, Good Friday, it was an outside service. Led, not by a vicar or someone in a dog collar but this woolly scarfed gent.

The crowd was huge, with religious participants as well as many many foreign tourists, half interested, videoing on their mobiles, but there was an air of real occasion. The Abbey itself was closed to visitors for the entire day. The service after this, inside, would run for THREE hours!

The three crosses, representing, well, you know, that  very important Biblical occasion, the one that Christians hold as being so important to their belief, were very close to the Abbey's west front. Shooting head-on with a very long lens would have just given a flattened perspective and my 70-300mm being f5.6 at its longest, no differential focus at all.

From the south side though, a gap was left for people to walk through. I planted myself at the edge of this, but not in the ideal position as a couple had already grabbed this for themselves. And of course, I had all those passers-through going between me and the subject. Very often, indeed.

My ancient manual focus Nikkor 135mm f2, wide open, created the differential focus, only the preacher and the nearest cross are in the same plane of focus. The gent in the hat (not clonable out) is part of a brass band.

So, on a dull, cool Bank Holiday, which started off with that so-wetting drizzle, I have chosen pretty well what I set out to. Well, a street shot of sorts. And one that was a challenge too, I like to have to think fast on my feet. And of course, Bath's gorgeous honey coloured architecture only looks special bathed in sunshine and we had none of that today!