208 Theme 1 Built Environment - Tutbury Church

Assignment 208 Principles of location photography Theme 1 Built Environment

28th September 2011

St Mary Church Tutbury

Assignment Planning

I photographed this church because it is 12th century with a very good example of a Norman arch doorway on the west end of the nave. 

Research and influences

This church was researched with the aid of the book England's Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins. This book indicated that this was a very good example of a 12th century church. 

I was influenced by the work of Lance Wittenberg, Richard Southall and Paul Thetford Professional Photographers whose work is shown elsewhere in this blog.

Choice of equipment used

All of the images of St Mary, Tutbury were taken with a wide to standard lens, a Sigma 18 - 50 mm and with the aid of a tripod. I also had a 70 to 300 mm zoom lens available if required.

Health and Safety

It was possible to use a tripod because there were no people walking around the churchyard so the tripod did not create a health and safety issue. 

Log of image capture

This is a wide view of the church from the east end. It was difficult to obtain an image of the complete building as the churchyard is small so even with a 28 mm (35 mm equivalent) lens it was not easy to take an image that showed the size and proportions of this large church.    

Focal length 28mm, set on manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/50 sec, f/14

The great west arch at Tutbury

 Focal length 24mm, set on manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/200 sec, f/11

Details of the carvings on the great west arch

Focal length 38mm, set on manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, f/11

Focal length 38mm, set on manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/11

The south doorway arch at Tutbury

Focal length 28mm, set on manual exposure, ISO 100, 1/25 sec, f/20

Choice of final image 

I am happy with the images of Tutbury church as I think they convey the age and architectural style of the buildings. The weather was good and helped in being able to capture sharp images, however as the sun was very bright the images were of high contrast which would not have been the case on an overcast day.

Obtaining the right perspective of the church was not easy due to the small churchyard which made obtaining the right angle difficult. The west doorway was taken from the top of a earth bank that rises very close to the door. So the perspective is a little unusual as the viewpoint is well above the centre of the doorway arch.