NHM: Central Hall Ceiling HDR

See the detail in large ("L").

I just wrote up a long description, but then tried to submit it with my internet down, so I lost it all... Meh.

The light was strange in the museum this afternoon: the clouds had rolled in by the time I took this, and the light coming through the windows was quite a cold blue-white. It was also rather dark; I pushed up the sensitivity to ISO400 (as far as I feel comfortable going...) but was worried that I'd be unable to take a set of pictures that would be sufficiently aligned to make a detailed HDR image. I must be becoming less shaky, because I'm quite pleased with the crispness of the final composite image :o)

I took this picture to share the central hall's amazing ceiling panels: they're all different, and depict plants that a significant to humanity. First and foremost, Coffea arabica is represented for its sublime brilliance, as is Theobroma cacao, but others are represented for their use in medicine (such as Digitalis purpurea which gave us the Digitalin group of cardiac medicines, or for their damaging qualities (such as Nicotiana tabacum). There is more info on the Natural History Museum website here.

I wonder how many people visit and don't see the beauty and effort that went into this easily overlooked (underlooked?) feature.

Thank you very much for all of your comments and feedback: I'm really enjoying blip (looking for my photo, looking at your journals), and the feedback, support, and banter makes it seem especially rewarding.


p.s. At the top left of the picture is the panel depicting Citrus bergamia without which we wouldn't have Earl Grey tea!