"Going Down" by Wes Aldridge
This shot comes from inside St. John's Episcopal Church in downtown Lancaster, Ohio. I went in to shoot an interior of the sanctuary because an exterior just wasn't happening with the day's lack of sunshine. This was the beautiful staircase that I climbed to perch in the choir loft and shoot a marvelous shot of the sanctuary.
This shot was pretty tough to get. It was really dark in this staircase and I didn't want to use any fill flash for the shot because I wanted it totally natural. The shadows and sunlight through the narrow window were just too good to pass up. I ended up shooting at ISO 400 at aperture f/2.8 handheld at 1/10th of a second... no tripod. If you don't shoot much, holding the camera still enough to not get a blurry image at that shutter speed isn't exactly easy. I was jammed up against the wall, arched awkwardly with the camera resting on my right collarbone. I had to be sure to completely exhale before releasing the shutter in case the expansion of my lungs while breathing might cause the camera to shake.
Well, up at 6 a.m. for a non-existent sunrise... last shoot ended at 8:45 p.m. Yes, think it is time to rest a little. First day in Lancaster is officially in the books.
