HOLY HILL BASILICA: INTERIOR

Although there were a fair number of visitors who entered the Holy Hill Basilica while I was there, most were just sightseers.  I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible with respect to those who were there to worship.  I felt badly every time my camera made any sound.

Here is what one sees upon entering the nave.

Pretty impressive.

As usual, when I moved inside, lighting became much more of an issue.  While I was able to take a lot of the exterior shots on a hand-held basis, my tripod was a necessity on the inside.  The above shot required a 2 second exposure at f/11.

Here are a couple of shots of the apse.

And here are shots of the back of the nave and balcony, including the organ and choir area.

As I have stated before, one of the challenges with church interiors concerns the fact that the camera is limited in the range of light that it can distinguish.  As a result, one needs to make a choice between capturing the general light bathing the walls, which is low and requires a long exposure, versus trying to capture the details in the stained glass windows, leaving the walls badly underexposed.  (This range can be extended through the use of a technique known as high dynamic range that involves taking multiple exposures and blending them--something I need to work on.)

There was a number of interesting stained glass windows, which I chose to feature individually.

The church has side walkways with interesting arches, and I took a number of shots trying to capture those arches.

I also attempted a number of shots that highlighted the basic architecture common to the structure.

Although I generally worked hard to take advantage of the basilica's symmetry, I did take some shots from an oblique angle.

Interestingly, the oblique shots seem to give a heightened sense of the size of the interior.

Here are a few "detail" shots.

There were actually two of these collections of crutches situated outside a side chapel.  You tell me.

The Holy Hill Basilica is a beautiful church is a beautiful location.  The building is in great condition.  However, it doesn't have the stunning detail on the interior that St. Josephat's Basilica can boast.

Taken with my Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 lens.