Heavenly Light Inside Churches

You do not have to be a believer to feel there’s something heavenly in the way Light plays in some churches. Especially if you’re a photographer, the light inside churches is something special.

It’s a kind of magic

The light in some churches is something special, making you want to sit around the whole day, understanding how the movement of the Sun in the sky changes everything within the temple. And believe me, it changes.

Old churches are better

This feeling is, I should say, more present, to me, in older churches, mainly, I guess, because they are those that interest me more. Having visited many temples on the paths to Santiago de Compostela (Galicia’s capital) for the last 30 years, and also multiple examples from Romanesque and Gothic architecture and time, along with small rural chapels and big city cathedrals, I never cease to be amazed by the way light appears to us when entering through the big or small, wide, narrow or tall windows from temples, or through stained glass.

Be patient, wait for the show

Either the pure white from the direct rays or the rainbow like result from traveling through stained-glass, light transforms spaces, as much inside a church as it does on a landscape. Just stay time enough to see the changes, and grab the unique opportunities from this experience.

A contemplative path

This exercise has another interesting aspect. It will make you slow down, in a place that is an open invitation to assume a contemplative state. Sit on a corner, focus attention on Light, and meditate. You’ll feel reinvigorated after such a moment. And you’ll probably have some interesting photos to take home.

Must see jewel

The Tabernacle present at the Capela do Santíssimo Sacramento (Holy Sacrament Chapel) on the right side, when facing the altar, at Caminha’s parish church, is a “must see” example of religious art. Built in 1674 by the sculptor Francisco Fernandes, the Tabernacle has a truly unique rotating lower body, heptagonal in shape, showing six small sculptures and a relief. There are only a few known tabernacles of this kind in Europe.

Taking notes for a project

These pictures taken at the parish church in Caminha, on the north of Portugal, are not works of art. They were taken, on a period of two hours, while listening to the explanations from a unique guide, while we visited the monument. Here and there I took the time to grab some images, of light that “talked to me”. I used an old Canon EOS 50D handheld, with a 17–40mm lens, using the widest aperture, of f/3.5, with speeds from 1/10 and up, at 400 ISO, just for the fun of showing light. I just wanted to register the multiplicity of possibilities open to a photographer able to stay there, with the right tools (a tripod, essential) to really get the “spirit of the place“ through light.

Story originally published at Maptia in 2015