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The people in my home town said that my mother was a saint, as
she often went to mass three times in one day, gave large sums
of money to the church, and made perhaps 10,000 rosaries that
she gave away. The Catholic church says that to be become a
saint God’s will must be manifest through a verifiable miracle. With just
a little twinkle in my eye, I believe this photo is the miracle she needed. This phenomenal light I first photographed an hour after her funeral. The stained glass windows,
part of a remodeling job,
and one of which beared her name, colored the light that illuminated
these pews. I had just returned from the cemetery and observed
the empty church while family and friends waited in the
reception area downstairs. Over the next few days I returned to this scene five or six times, shooting 43 frames
before reaching the conclusion I had done the best that I
possibly could. The miracle here was the unusual steadiness of
my hands since I
had flown no tripod home to my mothers funeral. Despite the
unlner nerve palsy in my left hand I still
managed to shoot this exposure quite sharply with a focal length
of 75 mm at a shutter speed of 1/20 of a sercond. Under normal
conditions a photographer needs a shutter speed that corresponds
with his focal length, or in other words, even someone with a
good left hand should have used at least 1/75 of a second. But
that would have been too dark, and I had already pushed my
F/stop and my ISO as far as I dared. I think mother was smiling
down on me as I attempted to capture this scene, giving all of
you a chance to appreciate this memorable gift. |
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