RETURN TO HOLY HILL

Holy Hill National Shrine of Mary is a Roman Catholic basilica located about 35 miles northwest of downtown Milwaukee in Wisconsin's Kettle Morraine glacial area.  The surrounding wooded terrain is beautiful, especially in the fall.  I made this trip to the basilica in early November, a bit late for the fall color season.  My time at the basilica was limited, a scheduling mistake.  Perhaps another time.

I failed to get any decent shots of the exterior, in part because it was a cold and blustery late fall afternoon that featured increasing overcast.  Most of my shots were of the interior.  Here is what I kept.

First is a standard shot from the rear of the nave, looking toward the sanctuary.

The basilica has an especially hight ceiling, which projects a feeling of spaciousness, and I thought the neutral color palette added to a sense of majesty.  Here are some detail shots of the sanctuary area, including the apse ceiling.

There is much detail in this venue, including some whimsical faces on the nave's supporting pillars.

Here is a shot toward the back of the nave from just in front of the sanctuary area.

Following is a detail shot of the rose window behind the balcony at the back of the nave.

The basilica sit atop a hill, one of the highest elevations in southeastern Wisconsin.  There was a good deal of haze in the afternoon air, and seeing conditions to the west were difficult because of the afternoon sun, despite a heavy overcast.  Even so, I did take a few shots to the west.  Here is the one that I kept.

I had to do a lot of work in post processing to bring out some of the colors, which were muted by the haze.  I did like the white limbed trees in the lower left of the image.

On my way home from the shoot, I ran across this scene on the side of the road.

After all it was just a few days after Halloween.

John