Photographing Brasses
Feb. 12th, 2020 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloIt was dark in the church. (St Peter's, Ardingly, West Sussex)
I had to move a prayer desk and roll back a carpet to expose the brasses.
Then I had to find somewhere to stand where the light from the chancel wasn't bouncing off the metal, causing dazzle, and my own shadow wasn't falling into the field of vision. The positions I ended up in were awkward and uncomfortable.
The best of the resulting pictures were the close-ups. This is often the case.
These are Nicholas and Elizabeth Culpepper. He died in 1510. She must have died after the brass was installed- because none of her 18 children could be bothered to fill in the blank that had been left to record her date of death.
18 children! Did they all survive? I don't know- it seems unlikely- but they're all shown as grown-ups at their parents' feet.
An unusual feature of this brass- as of its companion (same date, same family, didn't photograph as well)- is that the shields still hold some of their coloured enamel.
I had to move a prayer desk and roll back a carpet to expose the brasses.
Then I had to find somewhere to stand where the light from the chancel wasn't bouncing off the metal, causing dazzle, and my own shadow wasn't falling into the field of vision. The positions I ended up in were awkward and uncomfortable.
The best of the resulting pictures were the close-ups. This is often the case.
These are Nicholas and Elizabeth Culpepper. He died in 1510. She must have died after the brass was installed- because none of her 18 children could be bothered to fill in the blank that had been left to record her date of death.
18 children! Did they all survive? I don't know- it seems unlikely- but they're all shown as grown-ups at their parents' feet.
An unusual feature of this brass- as of its companion (same date, same family, didn't photograph as well)- is that the shields still hold some of their coloured enamel.
