sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Excellent Photography. Thank you

Sarge69

Bill_de Loc: US

You do come up with some of the most beautiful things to photograph ... and then you do it very well!

--

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for commenting.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for the compliment on doing the photography well. Coming up with beautiful things to shoot in Ljubljana, or almost anywhere in Slovenia, is like shooting the proverbial fish in the more proverbial barrel. On Sunday a planned 30 minute walk to blow out the cobwebs turned into a three hour walk with about 300 shots, at least 2/3 of them unique. For photography this is a spectacular city. The only caution is don't come in November unless you love rain photography. It was rough.

Star Shotz Loc: Weeki Wachee Fl

Absolutely gorgeous. Photo 6 is awesome. Well done thanks for sharing some history.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for the compliments. The church is small on the inside but the dome soars way up there. I wonder how long it takes to change the light bulbs in the chandelier?

carlysue Loc: Columbus

Altho' not quite the ornate splendor of the Franciscan church, still awesome to behold! the ornate carvings are a wonderment. And that chandelier! That is one gorgeous, as well as huge, illuminant!!

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for the comments. Orthodox theology demands a very different architecture. There are never carved statues in an Orthodox Church, only icons. The iconostasis and doors are the dominant feature. During the Divine Liturgy the altar is only glimpsed by the congregation rather than seen in the manner of an RC Church as only the doors are open. The chandelier is characteristic.

Annie-Get-Your-Gun Loc: Byron Center, Mi

Once again you have captured and shared some of the wonders of Ljubljana. Your photographic talent is appreciated, frjack.

OutBack Loc: North Central Florida

I really like them! Am I wrong to wish the beauty of the candle's back ground was either more blur or that it was more focused. I will begin a quest to find out how to perfect that. Sometimes the mathematical theory says it can be done with the proper numbers but the physics is hard to overcome.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thank you. Wonders of Ljubljana is a good way to describe the city.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Beautiful church, thanks for putting these up. I grew up with 4 grandparents of 4 different churches and attended 3 of them with them at one time or another. The only one I missed was Orthodox. By the time I was interested Grandpa Charney was just going to the Roman Catholic services with Grandma, both late 80's and it was 6 blocks further to the Orthodox church, uphill in a PA coal mining town. Once a new young Irish priest asked Grandpa why he was in the Roman Catholic Church instead of "his" church.
The family story went like this:
Grandpa We are all God's children, Yah? (Austrian German Accent he never lost.)
Priest Yes, of course.
GP This is God's house, Yah?
P Yes
GP The other one is God's house also?
P Of course
GP Good, I am old man and don't walk so well any more after all those years in coal mines, 6 blocks up hill is a lot, so I attend here with my wife, makes her happy too! If God doesn't like it he can tell me when I get to Heaven.
P mouth hangs open, older Irish Priest watching from around corner almost chokes keeping from laughing.

This was a favorite story with my Mother's family.

My Dad's family in Kentucky it was Granddad Southern Baptist, Grandma First Methodist. And yes he and all the other people would always show up at the Methodist annual Fish Fry, Grandma and everyone attended the Baptist BBQ and everyone from all the churches went to the small Catholic Church in the next town for the annual Irish Stew dinner.

Oh, I and my brother were raised Catholic by Mom but often living in small towns without a Catholic Church would attend just about any church with friends or relatives. I grew up believing God is God and believing is the important part, not the Church. The first person I ever heard the same belief from was a Jesuit Priest when I was in the 8th grade. He said the Church believed it was the best way, but maybe God was just as happy with someone in the shade of a coconut tree praying to a rock idol as long as he was a good person and truly believed in a creator.

My wife and I are now Baha'i.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for the comment. The laws of physics and the lens pretty much dictated the photo. Was using a 12-60 f 2.8-4. I shoot manual. f 4 was as wide open as the lens would go under the circumstances. (ISO 400 1/15). Did not have the prime f 1.4 that would have given a much greater degree of background blur. Wanting the candle and candle holder to stand out I chose not to use a greater depth of field. I will go back with the 1.4 25 mm (50 equivalent) at a later date to see what happens. Your comment 'the physics is hard to overcome' caused to both laugh and break into a cold sweat. Physics was not one of the happier moments in college. Organic chem? Bring it on. Physics? Learned a lot about the power of prayer and, in one exam, that the age of miracles is not yet over.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Thanks for the comments. I'm from Upstate Coal Country (just outside Wilkes-Barre). Your story of the 'conversation' resonates at the deepest. We had Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, Irish, Polish National, and Ukrainian Catholic in a town of 10,000 (much smaller now). I sometimes joke that a mixed marriage was an Polish Catholic marrying an Irish Catholic. Talk about clashing Christmas and Easter traditions.

Whenever I walk down to Tivoli Park, I stop in the Orthodox Church even without the camera. One of my closest friends is a Taiwanese Jesuit priest. He was spending a sabbatical in Boston. I took him to NEPA for the Easter Triduum. We were driving by one of the Ukrainian Churches. He asked if we could go in as he'd never been in an Eastern Rite church. The look on his face was pure astonishment. The priest came into the church while we were there and gave father a detailed explanation of the tomb, the iconostasis.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

My Mom's hometown was Houtzdale.
Grandpa came over at 11 with his uncles and because none of the school teachers spoke his dialect of German they took him to the mine and got him hired as a waterboy. By 14 he was a miner and retired at 65. Grandma's parents spent their honeymoon on the ship from Europe and she was born about 8 months after they arrived. The other side of the family had ties to Pennsylvania also. My Dad's mother was a Penn and her father was a direct oldest son descendent of William Penn's youngest son. About 30 Penn's all moved to Western Kentucky in 1791 to take up land they got for government IOUs from the revolution. By the 50s the only land still in the family was the farm my Grandparents took over from Papa (my great Grandfather - 1865 to 1956 - all the older members of the family said I looked more like his brother than a great grandson based on the old family photos, I sure wish I had some of them but they went away with relatives when I was too young to care about them.).