Pantheon - Earth and Moon - The Making of :-) The Pantheon in Rome is my favourite place in the whole world and one that I keep coming back to since I first visited it at the age of 17 and was awestruck. Two facts about the building stand out: I never knew how to capture the unique sensation of standing on the marble floor in this ancient and perfectly preserved monument. The only natural source of light is the 9 meter wide oculus (eye) at the apex of the cupola, admitting a shaft of light inside. The inner space is composed of a virtual half-sphere resting on a drum shape: if the sphere was completed it would exactly intersect the marble floor. Basically impossible to photograph with anything but a fish-eye lens. Here are two of my traditional attempts to capture the Pantheon: Similar shots are made every day by hundreds of vistors...
Not very exciting, I'm sure you will agree! So, I wasn't happy with these solutions, as I stood there, straight under the oculus, sweating and jostling with other tourists for a good picture. Then for some reason I looked up, saw the blue sky through the opening and the idea hit me to expose for the sky above and not for the inside of the cupola. Why? - Well, I honestly can't say. I just wanted to try something different. A little cloud passed by as I metered, but then went away before I could take the photo. I realised it would be a bit more interesting with a cloud, so I had to wait another ten long minutes for another one to pass over the building. - And I got the shot! ... After which I didn't think any more of that, until I sat down at my computer and transferred my many photos from Rome. What appeared on my screen was the picture you see on the previous page. - I saw something that I hadn't seen at all when I was inside the Pantheon, because my eyes easily encompassed the dynamic range that allowed me to see both the inside of the cupola and the sky. Well, my camera didn't. The cupola disappeared in a sea of blackness, and all that was left was... "Pantheon - Earth and Moon" I realised that this photo really encapsulated my true feelings of standing inside the perfect sphere of the Pantheon: to be in the center of the universe, floating in space, looking down on our home planet and its companion moon. The Earth even has an atmosphere in the photo, and the Moon craters! Sorry about the long yarn, but it felt fantastic to capture my feelings about that place in a photo a little bit out of the ordinary (at least I didn't find a similar photo anywhere on the web). Write me here - Comments much appreciated! |
