Creating an entry on the 'post-apocalyptic' theme in just one week was quite a challenge to me. Taking the photos for this one required some planning and preparation, as there was very few room time-wise for mistakes or re-shooting.
First, I had to find an idea: a dark mood was an obvious choice, but how add some interest to it? What kind of story to illustrate the destroyed environment? After a day of thinking, I decided to go with that man, lost in this new world, not really knowing what to do or not, what to believe or not. A man all by himself.
I created a composite of 1) and 2), as none of them were fitting natively in my final frame. It was an amazing experience: the churches were matching incredibly well. It is quite obvious that their architects followed similar rules and plans. In fact, that similarity help me greatly, and even perhaps permitted me to finish the project within the week. Don't get me wrong, there was still some work to do (cloning out the altar, the visitors, adjusting the colors and lighting, etc.) but the main geometrical lines were just magically matching.
Then, I of course needed to 'destroy' it. For that, I used the photos of 3), which is actually a ruined abbey. I photographed many broken walls, windows, arks, roofs, and inserted them everywhere in my main image.
At this stage, I had all the photos I needed for the main building, but the ground was much too clean. Where to find a ground full of debris? I found the answer in an old abandoned hospital, located an hour away from where I live. The Internet is an incredible tool to find shooting locations I must say. The hospital was in use until WW2, unfortunately also used as internment camp during that war. It was quite unbelievable to penetrate in there. Everything was destroyed, graffiti on each wall, windows all broken... and yet one was able to recognize the rooms, their functions, and imagine all the things that happened. My wife and I were walking all alone, silently, visiting the different floors: it was very impressive, and sad at the same time. What you see is the actual content of various rooms and corridors ground.
In fact, all the churches and debris photos were taken the same day (sunday), that my wife and I spent on the road (first Aincourt sanatorium, then Rouen for the 2 churches, then Jumieges for the abbey). Intense, but rewarding, and we were lucky with the weather. Good that we had our roadmap ready, or we would never had the time to photograph everything.
Finally I shot a photo of myself at home using the appropriate lighting (and wearing some very old clothes way too big for me), and processed everything together, which took about 20 hours. For those that noticed the non-parallel light beams, there are even more of these (in the sky to the left, at very low opacity), and they all converge to (quite logically) one point. Yes, that point is relatively close to the church, symbolizing a reachable hope.
Thanks all for the incredible votes and great comments, they are always much appreciated!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 41 Avg (all users): 8.3622 Avg (commenters): 9.2273 Avg (participants): 7.8750 Avg (non-participants): 8.4757 Views since voting: 11561 Views during voting: 502 Votes: 127 Comments: 49 Favorites: 14 (view)
I love that in one image you have done what preachers and religions alike aspire to … inspire hope and faith. Your score shows that you obviously have gone above and beyond the challenge and added an element that warms the heart. Really awesome.
Yeah... this is fabulous, Christophe! I knew you must have had something up your sleeve since you suggested the challenge topic. I'm so thrilled that you Blued.
This is so beautiful, Christophe. I never dreamed that it was three different churches! I love the light rays. I was thinking about those in a different challenge, and never had the nerve to even try. Wonderfully done -- and I continue to look forward to each description. They're even more fun that the creations. :)
Incredible image. It is amazing to me that it is even possible to create a scene this realistic from photographs of this group of structures. Amazing job.
Amazing image! ....as usual! Congrats on a well deserved 'Blue', Christophe! There is always the story, and then there is the image. Thank you for sharing your amazingly, fabulous 'talent'. You are an exceptional artist & photographer..... Do I care if you fit into a pigeon hole.... not remotely..... Thank you for choosing to share your fabulous talent on this site! It is one of the reasons that I am still a member. (Oh! ...and there is more than, a little, image envy) LOL! :)
Congratulations (again!!) - It is indicative of the quality of your work and your dedication that all of your profile pics (even with 9 showing) are 8+ scores.
I always look for (and look forward to) the-Gyaban-entry in these challenges.
I'd love to see what you'd come up with for a month-long Expert challenge. Have we ever had one?
Thanks a lot Paul. At least one challenge was a month-long expert one, but it sure would be very interesting to have another one.
Congratulations (again!!) - It is indicative of the quality of your work and your dedication that all of your profile pics (even with 9 showing) are 8+ scores.
I always look for (and look forward to) the-Gyaban-entry in these challenges.
I'd love to see what you'd come up with for a month-long Expert challenge. Have we ever had one?
This is definitely one of the better ones. I wish I could have seen more of the light source behind the structure. This should ribbon regardless. Nice work!
I looked at the thumbnails before looking individually, and I didn't see one that outright said Christophe. After progressing through voting and coming upon this, I'm pretty sure this is yours. I say that neutrally, but the bleakness of message leads me to believe I'm right, along with the great editing.
Very interesting shot. The angle of the beams through the lower windows doesn't match those of the upper windows, but this is minor, and the shot is very well composed and edited. Very, very nice.
Perfect, in almost every aspect. The messiah must be close, since the rays from the upper windows appear to come at a different angle than the ones below.
LOVE the post-apocalyptic look. Yet very real look.
The title along with the man, seemingly looking upward, entices the viewer to have sympathy, yet compassion, for the man. The birds flying in the left of the photo also add the "life" to the photo... yet a darkness as well.
now a ? on faith would have been even more apt :), gotta be Christophe, love the detail and the naturalness of it, thats what im struggling with subtle blending its my next thing to learn.
Faith
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