Hill of Crosses - Revisited

[Manfred M]

I've just prepared a short presentation of shots I took at the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. These are images I have not posted here before, so I thought I might share these images.

We we visited again in the fall of 2017, there were over 300,000 crosses that had been put up at this pilgrimage site. It was first used in the 1830s to commemorate an abortive uprising against the Russian Empire. The crosses were also put up in Soviet times as a sign of protest. The Soviets bulldozed the site at least 3 times. After independence, the number of crosses at the site continued to grow.

The site is normally quite busy and I was quite creative in both capture and PP to remove most signs of people.

Noted: As per John's (Shadowman) request I have added the focal length to the subject line in all these shots. They are all taken with a FF camera (Nikon D800 / D810) using a Nikkor f/2.8 24-70mm lens.


1. At the first hill (70mm)






2. Stairs at the first hill (26mm)






3. Looking at the second hill (24mm)






4. Medium shot of some of the crosses (24mm)






5. Closeup (62mm)

[Shadowman]

Manfred,

Can you include which focal length you used, I'm guessing 50mm or above based on the amount of compression?

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

Can you include which focal length you used, I'm guessing 50mm or above based on the amount of compression?

Added to the title lines on each image. Little to no cropping in all of the images. If I remember correctly #1 is the only one where I cropped it as I needed to do a bit of a rotation to straighten that shot.

[tbob]

Proof that suppression only breeds resistance. Unless you kill anyone who even dares token resistance or looks like they might. The latter was Stalin's personal favourite

[Shadowman]

Added to the title lines on each image. Little to no cropping in all of the images. If I remember correctly #1 is the only one where I cropped it as I needed to do a bit of a rotation to straighten that shot.

Manfred,

Thanks for the information, interesting how 24 or 70 appear to have the same compression, realize that your position to nearest subject is different in each and the angle of the hill adds to the effect; I think this is something worth exploring for me as I tend to shoot with lenses 50mm or above only recently added the 24-70mm and I tend to do the same with that lens but do like distortion effect of shorter focal length.

[Manfred M]

Manfred,

Thanks for the information, interesting how 24 or 70 appear to have the same compression, realize that your position to nearest subject is different in each and the angle of the hill adds to the effect; I think this is something worth exploring for me as I tend to shoot with lenses 50mm or above only recently added the 24-70mm and I tend to do the same with that lens but do like distortion effect of shorter focal length.

Congratulations, you have just identified one of the more misunderstood concepts in photography; focal length and the relationship with compression.

Compression comes from the distance to the subject, and has nothing to do with focal length. The reason we get the impression that focal length is a factor in compression is that we see that effect more with longer focal lengths. To get a subject to fill the frame with a shorter focal length lens, we will stand closer to it. If we go to a longer focal length, the magnification of that longer focal length sets in and we have to stand further back to get the subject to fill the frame. Distance to the subject is the driver that influences compression.

In landscape type shots, such as these, I selected the focal length because of the field of view / angle of view afforded. The Hill of Crosses is a very busy site and trying to compose to eliminate people in the shot was generally the main reason I selected the focal length I was shooting with. In some of the shots, it was raining, so a lens change was not an option.

[Wavelength]

Superb images; they induce some great feelings....

[NorthernFocus]

Masterful photography. A difficult subject well handled. Nice job.

[pschlute]

Some strong images there.

[FootLoose]

Interesting subject, Manfred. Perhaps a person on the stairs would have given a sense of scale.

[Manfred M]

Interesting subject, Manfred. Perhaps a person on the stairs would have given a sense of scale.

A single person would have been nice; it was more like hordes of people...

[Jim A]

Crikey Manfred! .........and that is a word I have not used for decades. Very interesting insight into a part of another way of life.