Point of View

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
Edwardsville, Illinois
Photograph by Tom Atwood

I was looking for a way to capture the beauty of my church without making it look pretty. As I have mentioned here before, I am not wild about pretty pictures, but I am all for beautiful ones. So, in this picture, I decided to lay the camera on the floor and set the timer. The result--a photo straight up of the gothic ceiling, including a fan that is blurred by the long exposure. The ceiling at St. Andrew's is old and beautiful, the wood darkened from years of coal furnaces and oil lamps--and maybe even all the incense we use? Shutter: 1 second; Aperture: f/11; ISO: 200; Focal length: 18mm.