Post Your Black and Whites Photos!!

blackstar

Senior Member
@blackstar Why did that make you mad? I was just making a joke about my previous comment, Peter's subsequent lighthearted comment, then your comment in series like it is a trend, which it isn't because I am not that influential, thus the laughing icon. I meant nothing bad about your image whatsoever.
Oh, no! I was not mad at all but smiling at myself as I read your sarcastic statement. I was following your humor and pretending to be angry at you. I hope no harm is done. Chill 😸
 

Blue439

New member
In the small and quiet village of Chapaize in southern Burgundy, a Benedictine priory was founded in the 900s by the monks of the abbey of Chalon-sur-Saône. The church that we can see today, and which is one of the most interesting in all of Burgundy, was built around Year 1000 by the great abbot and builder Guillaume de Volpiano, who had originally come from Italy —but “nations” as we know them today had no meaning, and even no existence, back then.

In general, this beautiful church is reminiscent of the abbey church of Tournus, which is only 15 kilometers away, on the other bank of River Saône. You will have noticed the bandes lombardes, an expected decorative motif for the period, which is often referred to as le premier art roman (“the First Romanesque Art”, or First Romanesque period), and lasting roughly between 980–1050 or even 1100, depending on the location. They appear on the façade and on the bell tower, which is very tall (35 meters) and towers over all the surrounding countryside. The façade is harmonious but quite simple and massive. Because of its old age, nothing is very straight in this church, and symmetry was not even a topic back then.

Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus. FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head.

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Dawg Pics

Senior Member
Oh, no! I was not mad at all but smiling at myself as I read your sarcastic statement. I was following your humor and pretending to be angry at you. I hope no harm is done. Chill 😸
Ah, ok. No harm done. I wasn't angry, just confused. I should have used the 🤔 icon and a 🙂. It is all good, and "good one" even though it went over my head. 👍. I am sorry if I sounded gruff at all, I didn't intend that. Poor writing on my part. I usually edit myself to death before I post things.🙂
 

Blue439

New member
Since some of you guys liked the church of Chapaize (many thanks to all! 🤩), I hesitated between uploading another one of it that would show the bell tower, or selecting another Burgundy church. I finally chose the latter.

So, this is the church of the village of Blanot, 161 inhabitants, barely 11 kilometers from Chapaize. It is very old. On the bell tower, you have spotted the bandes lombardes decoration that tells you “First Romanesque Art, so in Burgundy, that would be around Year 1000 or not long thereafter”. But you also noticed the “gear teeth” decorative motif around the apse, and that is at least a good 100 years before. You see the apparel (the way the stones are arranged), which looks very rough and rustic wherever it is visible under the thick plastering, and you correctly surmise that this church was first erected around 900–950, with the bell tower built of a much better quality (more money and expertise were made available) a few decades later... And indeed, there are traces in writing of a donation of the village and its church by the local lord to the abbey of Cluny in 927, which turned it into a priory.

Blanot is one of the most charming, “roots-like” village churches in all of Burgundy, and extremely valuable for art historians, as aside from the ugly plastering from the 19th century, it remains virtually intact.

The sacristy to the left is more recent, 13th or 14th century.

Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head.

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Blue439

New member
Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand church, Poitiers, France (2022).

Nikon Z7 II, Micro-Nikkor 45mm, ƒ/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.

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Blue439

New member
Large historied capital from around 1100, Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand church, Poitiers, France (2022).

Nikon Z7 II, Micro-Nikkor 85mm, ƒ/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.


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Blue439

New member
One thing you can be reasonably sure of with Cistercians, you won’t be overwhelmed with the abundance of decoration in their churches... :rolleyes:

Abbey church of Le Thoronet in Provence, 2022. Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.

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Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
@Blue439 You seem to be able to convey the sense of size both height and dept in the images. Do you think that is in part the tilt-shift lenses.
 

Blue439

New member
@Blue439 You seem to be able to convey the sense of size both height and dept in the images. Do you think that is in part the tilt-shift lenses.
Thank you for those kind and encouraging words. It must indeed be the lenses, as I have honestly no claim to any hint of talent like what you describe! I wouldn’t know where to begin. But thanks again anyway!
 

Blue439

New member
The Romanesque and Cluniac priory church of La Charité-sur-Loire (central France). Built between 1050 and 1100, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage site as it stands on the Via Lemovicensis path to Compostela.

Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.

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Blue439

New member
An esoteric castle

There is not much left of the lordly Mediæval castle of Simiane in Provence. The keep, built around 1200, is still standing and is famous among Mediævalists for its splendid decoration. This is the rotunda ceiling of the top room, a room so strangely designed that a consensus about its true purpose has never been reached: purely decorative, semi-religious, esoteric? Lots of hypotheses, some of them quite fantastic, have been made. What is for certain is that a visit there will leave a long-lasting memory...

Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.

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The top room of the keep. Notice the cleverly designed window/vent: concealed from outsiders, yet providing light and ventilation, perfect for extracting fumes... and so artistically designed!

Same camera, lens and shooting conditions as above.

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An example of the rather enigmatic sculpture in that room: why is this cleric looking at us so intently?

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Nikon Z7 II, Micro-Nikkor 45mm, ƒ/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.
 
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Blue439

New member
There are very few Romanesque cathedrals left in France. Most of them were replaced by Gothic ones. The one in the city of Le Puy-en-Velay in the province of Auvergne (central France) is a unique beauty featuring Oriental influences and fortunately not too badly restored in the 19th century.

This panorama photo covers the length of the nave, which is of about 25 meters, from the organ tribune to the left to the threshold of the transept to the right. I took seven exposures with the wide-angle tilt-shift lens, which I subsequently stitched together with PTGui (March 2023).

Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light. Seven-exposure panorama processed with PTGui software.

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