Midnight Mass 2011

[br1078lum]

This last Christmas, I was able to go to Midnight Mass at Saint Andrew's Cathedral, in Roanoke, VA.  It had been a while, as I'm usually in Indiana for the holidays.  The decorations seemed just right, and the hour of music before mass was excellent.  The organ is new this year, as they replaced the air drive with all electronics.  And thankfully it was turned down a bit.  The week before you could barely hear the choir.  I wanted to get a photo of the nativity set that was built by the Vietnamese members of the parish, but there were a lot of folks hanging around in front of it after the mass, so I thought I'd get a picture later.  Hopefully it's still up, as I didn't make it last week, being a bit out of sorts.

I took these with a Canon Sure Shot 120 Classic, using expired Fuji 400 X-TRA.  I kept the flash off, and hoped the shutter speeds wouldn't be too long.  Saw a lot of other folks with their little digital p&s's and cell phones flashing away.  They probably got a lot of the backs of people’s heads, and not much else.  I'm surprised at the color in these, what with all the artificial illumination.  It's not far off from what I saw, but the blue in the altar nave doesn't really shine like it should.  Not a bad trade off though.  I did use some increased contrast in PSE8 to get rid of any 'snow' in the scans (CVS on a Kodak CD).  The 120 Classic is a fine camera, and I hope it lasts a bit longer.  It had some issues when I got it, and some new ones have cropped up since then.  I had it in my shirt pocket one warm day, and when I pulled it out to take a shot, there was moisture condensed all over the back of the camera.  Normally, this wouldn't mean a thing, but the Canon has a control dial on the back, and I think some of the moisture got in there, and scrambled a circuit.  So the self timer, and date function no longer work.  The timer I'll miss, but the date function I can live without.  I've other cameras that still have it if I ever need to use that feature.  And the dater doesn't work very well on the slower speed films I prefer anyway.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #1 by br1078phot, on Flickr
Before the music began, the lights were turned down low.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #2 by br1078phot, on Flickr
The choir loft.  This shot is a little shaky, due to the slow shutter speed.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #3 by br1078phot, on Flickr
After the service.  Folks milling about, as it was a packed house, and people were taking their time getting out the door.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #4 by br1078phot, on Flickr
The church was tastefully decorated this year.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #5 by br1078phot, on Flickr
The new altar, lectern, and Monsignor's chair are all made of black and white marble.


St Andrew's Midnight Mass 2011 #6 by br1078phot, on Flickr
The original altar is basically as it was built.  In our church back home, it was stripped of all the fancy parts to comply with the Vatican edicts.  This shot came out the best because I had the most light to work with.  I still had to straighten it up though.

PF

[Kalkadan]

PF - you take me back.  What brilliant exposures and subject selection.  I have no idea what is a Canon Sureshot 120 classic but I'll google it later, the point is that under what are always difficult lighting conditions you have produced these.  Bravo.

I was trained as an Altar Boy in the old days when the Mass was in Latin, and I cannot shake the memory of the phrasing of the introductory words of the Priest and the Altar boy: Introibo ad altare Dei (I will go unto the altar of God); Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum (to God who gives joy to my youth).  Well, my youth was not quite like that and was mostly a misspent youth, ask Anne ;-)

Thanks for the memories

Dan

[Philip]

Great pictures, Phil.  Flashless, hand-held pictures don't always work as well as yours have.  (But then, at those distances, flashed pictures might not have worked at all!)  Your de-noising worked well, too.  That's a beautiful building.

I sang in a church choir as a child and -- despite my adult atheism -- still love church buildings and lots of church music.  (The Christians really knew how to hire the best of architects and composers . . . .)

The good pocketable cameras by Canon and Olympus from that period (about 1990?) were some of the best cameras around for usability and high quality images.  I have an Olympus Stylus like that, that I trust to give me good pictures.  I hope your Sure Shot 120 keeps on going, too.

[Olypen]

Phil: 
Your photos really convey the feeling of light amidst darkness which, I suppose, is the intent of a Midnight Mass.  You used the capabilities of that Canon camera to their fullest.  Maybe there ought to be a new designation--  KYE P&S (Know Your Equipment P&S).

Bill

[jamesmck]

Phil - These are amazingly nice shots under very trying light conditions.  Very well done on your part, and the camera gets an "E" as well.

I was trained as an Altar Boy in the old days when the Mass was in Latin, and I cannot shake the memory of the phrasing of the introductory words of the Priest and the Altar boy: Introibo ad altare Dei (I will go unto the altar of God); Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum (to God who gives joy to my youth). 

Dan - We share this background and the indelibility of the memory (even 6+ decades later).  Are you a fan of Gregorian chant?

James

[br1078lum]

Thanks, guys.  I too was an altar boy in the days of the Latin mass.  We lived just down the alley from church, and there were many a weekend morning when my Mom would get a call from the nuns needing a server for 6 o'clock (AM) mass.  So off I'd rush, no matter the weather.

The only complaint I have about the Canon Classic is the tele just doesn't go far enough for me, but that's a little thing.  I do hope it keeps working, but I've got other cameras if it doesn't.

PF

[NancyB]

Very nice shots in difficult lighting, what a beautiful church.

[Graham Serretta]

I'm lost for words!  Wonderful images, that really tell a story.  Bravo.

[BillyBob]

Phil, I love what you're doing with these photographic orphans.  The poor film p&s has all but been abandoned.

Great results for 400ISO film indoors (and church interiors are especially challenging) - and hand-held too.  The motion-blur of the people moving in the second-last shot show how steady you were.

The last (below) one's my favorite.

[lesged]

Phil,

I'm slow to respond to your excellent thread with the wonderful photos you took during the 2011 Midnight Mass at St Andrew's in Roanoke, VA. Kudos for the quality you got under difficult lighting conditions, and with an under-rated camera, to boot.

To the list of altar boys, I can add Claudia's father who was one at his small town’s German Catholic church in present day Slovakia-- where his family lived for 3-4 centuries—which was part of northern Hungary until ~1919. Before the Laslops immigrated as settlers in Hungary in the middle ages, they came from lower Saxony in Germany..