I had the opportunity to spend some time in Lithuania, staying with the Jesuit community at the Church of St. Casimir in the old city of Vilnius. It was a great visit but alas, the temps were in the single digits that week. Didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked as a result.

The Church of St. Casimir was built in Vilnius in the early 17th Century. It went through multiple iterations as a result of politics, having been taken over by the commies and, before being returned to the Jesuits in 1991, being used as the "museum of atheism." Who says they don't have a sense of humor? Fortunately, the crypt below the altar lay undiscovered through the 19th and 20th centuries. No photos are included here but will be as I revisit, reprocess, and convert many to black and white.

I spent two afternoons alone in the church photographing. On the second day the organist came to practice. Hearing Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in g minor BWV 542 alone in a magnificent church is a memory I will treasure.

Marble, granite, and other enduring materials. Place is solid to say the least.

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Side alcove with a painting of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

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Organ pipes. Superb sound. Have recently been converting a lot of shots to b&w with Capture One 21. My first rolls of film in 1977 were b&w. Is definitely my first love.

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Side altar. The church is huge with multiple niches and side altars. It is almost overwhelming to see in the typical tourist-length visit. The superior gave me a key to the church which afforded the opportunity to return multiple times.

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Am attracted to shooting chandeliers. This looks as if it could be a shot in Independence Hall (it has been decades since I've been there).

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Distorted reflection in a mirrored glass. Love shooting these shots using "natural" filters rather than computer legerdemain.

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Everything above 3000 feet seemed to be brown or down. These were all taken at about 2500 feet elevation. One day of rain but even then there were some good shots to be taken. Autumn: the reason to live in New England.

Around 3 PM.

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The dock could use a tad of paint after a good scraping.

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Few things backlight as well as autumn leaves. Cue Nat King Cole.

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The Long and Winding Road. Cue the Beatles.

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A stand of birch trees.

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Agreed. I keep it simple, edit or process one shot at a time (the only batch function I use is renaming), and do not focus on either speed or efficiency. I use v. 21 and see no reason to upgrade. So please, Capture One people, stop sending me photo spam.

Thanks. I sent him copies of multiple shots both in color and black and white. I preferred the black and white. The music stand on the organ combined with LED lighting creates difficult to correct color casts on faces.

Thanks for commenting. The organ shoes are very important element for professional organists. The architectural details in St. Mary's Chapel are fascinating. I'd like to find a movable ladder platform to shoot the stained glass. The chapel is not wide and thus distortion is a problem.

Thanks. Good way to end the week.

thanks. Only minimal lighting was on. The lights for the body of the chapel were not yet on.

Two weeks ago I was shooting from the choir loft during the community Mass at the BC Jesuit residence. The loft is long but very narrow creating some challenges when the subject is the organ and organist. The only way to shoot the chapel from the center is to sit on the organ bench. All shots taken raw with EM 1 mk iI and processed with Capture One 21. The lighting on the organ causes a difficult to correct color cast on skin in particular. I converted almost everything to back and white, much easier to process. Used Capture One 21 for the processing.

The main altar before Mass. Olympus 12-40 at 12 mm

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Shot from the loft. Olympus 12-40 at 40 mm

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St. Mary's Hall is around 100 years old. The chapel has a wealth of architectural detail. This was at eye-level from the loft. Olympus 40-150 at 150mm.

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I played organ and piano in another life. My goal with shooting was the organists hands and feet in particular. At 150 mm with camera held overhead using the screen.

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The organist plays on Fridays at the community Mass. All organists have "organ shoes" that are soft, leather, and always kept dry. And are frequently quite worn. At 85 mm.

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The organ is small with only one keyboard but has a very good sound in the space. Organ playing (this was something by Brahms after Mass) requires intense concentration. At 48 mm.

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This is the organist's view of the altar. The organ faces away from the altar so he takes his cues from what he sees in the mirror. Shot at 19 mm.

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Spent most of 2011 in Australia. The birds were great to shoot. But, those sulfur crested dudes were loud. Always seemed angry at each other. Nice shots. Spent a month at Sevenhill, SA. The gulahs were all over the place.

Thanks. If I could afford the $7k Leica that shoots exclusively in black and white I would purchase. Highly unlikely it will ever happen.

Thanks. Loyola was an amazing place to shoot. Took several hundred. Revisiting them as I move everything from various USB drives to one solid state drive.

I agree with windows and doors. Natural framing, reflections, the window/door in itself. They have a lot of potential. Thanks for commenting.

Thanks. It is going to be several more sessions before the Loyola photos are edited, culled, and reprocessed. The Basque regions is a gorgeous part of Spain.

Thanks. Will be on retreat at a cloistered nuns' monastery for the anniversary. Still a little surprising.

Shot these in Loyola, Spain, birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) which I entered 25 years ago next month. Was presenting a paper at a conference in 2019 just before covid. Have been moving all of my stuff from USB drives to a SSD. Doing some re-editing and processing of the raw images.

The area near the basilica is sparsely populated. Came across this house (barn?) while wandering. Spent a lot of time at it over the five days that I was there.

All shot with EM1 mk ii and the 40-150 f/2.8 Olympus lens.

Obviously unused. A study in texture.

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Intrigued by the relationship between window and door.

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Moved in on the window . . .

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. . . and decided it needed to be converted to black and white as well. Actually converted all of the shots of the house to black and white. Fascinating comparison.

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