St-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey

[Manfred M]

While touring through Quebec's Cantons de l'Est region last week, we discovered a gem to visit, the Benedictine St-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey. Most of the abbey is fenced off and behind walls to preserve the peace and tranquility of the 50 monks that live and work there. It is a relatively modern building, so sits in stark contrast to similar places I have seen in Europe.

1. The building sits behind a wrought iron fence and stone walls. I wish I had a drone to shoot it.





2. The corridors are finished with bright tiles





3. The entrance to the chapel is simple, modern and understated.





4. The shop in the basement has both religious books as well as products that the monks produce that include cheeses, ciders, jams, etc.

[Tom Barry]

That is quite a find, and you've done it justice in this interesting and well-photographed series.

[pschlute]

For a modern building there are more than a few nods to the great architects of medieval times !

[Manfred M]

For a modern building there are more than a few nods to the great architects of medieval times !

The building was designed by architect Dan Hangau, who was born and educated in Romania, but moved to Canada in 1970. I suspect he was strongly influenced by classical European architecture when he designed this building

[Bob44]

Excellent work on these photos!

[Shadowman]

Nice series, I like the dreamy look of the corridor.

[Rita]

Nice images Manfred. I like the mix of the old and new in the architecture, very interesting.

[William W]

Corridor image is great, additionally it appeals to my personal lust of Geometry.

I also think that played the light exceptionally well.

What FL? I am guessing between a 20mm and 35mm on 135 Format? Am I close?

WW

[Manfred M]

Corridor image is great, additionally it appeals to my personal lust of Geometry.

I also think that played the light exceptionally well.

What FL? I am guessing between a 20mm and 35mm on 135 Format? Am I close?

WW

Actually, shot at 14mm focal length with a full-frame camera.

I like treating physical objects using one of the views of orthographic projection which are very much used by engineers and architects when detailing a three dimensional object. When designing something they will generally draw an object so that they are only looking at the object square on so that the height and width, from their perspective are properly represented, but depth starts to look a bit strange. I used that technique in the second and third shot.

Orthographic projection is used in ID photos; think passports or mug shots. In fact mug shots are taken in two different orthographic views; straight on and side view. We all know how well people look in those images. It's not just that the photograph is "bad", but rather that we rarely look at people that way and it enhances the asymmetry of our faces.

[John 2]

Fascinating place. Just love the corridor. Pity about the church entrance. I recently shot a very similar composition in one of our local churches - so I won't be posting that any time soon.

[William W]

Actually, shot at 14mm focal length with a full-frame camera. . .

Thanks for the info. I didn't guess wider than 20mm because it seems that any pincushion is well under control, maybe a few mm bottom left hand corner remains apparent.

More kudos for using FL = 14mm, that's not an easy task with all those mortar and grout lines; on the other hand, those lines allow an accurate Camera Position. I guess there was a little PP apropos the final alignment/corrections?

I love my 14mm/2.8, but, IMO it can be my most difficult lens to use.

I do understand engineering/architectural drawing perspectives and viewpoints. It is good that you explained the basics of Orthographic Projection - it does apply to (some) Portraiture, but I have never looked at it that way, until just now. Thanks.

WW

[Manfred M]

Thanks Bill. I've been an ultra-wide angle fan for decades. The Nikkor f/2.8 14 - 24mm lens is an excellent that way. My first ultra-wide angle is one I bought 40 years ago, a Leica Summicron R f/2.8 19mm lens. The corners definitely stretched out a bit on that lens, but I've loved the challenge of UWA ever since. These are definitely some of the toughest lenses to use well.

I applied Camera Raw lens correction during raw conversion and trimmed a tiny bit off the top, but the bottom and sides are uncorrected other than that. I was lucky and Vespers were occurring in the chapel, so I had to whole corridor to myself. I aligned along the tiles and verticals.


This is the uncropped original with no lens correction applied.