theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Lens-Artists Challenge: Doors
Posted on August 18, 2025
I used to be a regular contributor to the ever-popular ‘Thursday Doors’ challenge: to the extent, indeed, that I eventually ran out of subjects, having snapped pretty much every interesting door within a radius of about fifty miles.
So when I saw that this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge was (drum roll) ‘doors’ I was initially at something of a loss. Did I have anything previously unpublished? As it turns out, I did, and here it is.
Unfortunately, all I can tell you about this particular door is that it’s French and the image was captured on my iPhone in September 2020. No doubt my eye was caught by the unusual pattern of the door itself and perhaps even more so by the carved stone frame.
Monochrome Madness: Places of Worship
Posted on January 10, 2025
This is a detail of the carving over the east door of the Collegiale in Le Dorat – a massive church, although neither abbey nor cathedral. The presence of the small statue – no doubt of a saint – and its contrast with the curves of the repeated arches adds interest to the image.
Lens-Artists Challenge: In the details
Posted on November 11, 2024
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is a slightly unusual but very interesting one. We are asked to provide three images of a subject, showing progressively more detail.
To begin with, here is a conventional shot of the huge neo-gothic cathedral of Albi. It is massive: the walls are about twenty feet thick at the base. Begun in the 15th century, is is still the largest brick-built edifice in the world.
The main door is on the left, through the portico which is just visible in the bottom corner of the above image. Closer to, it looks like this:
That’s impressive enough in itself, with the human figures conveying an idea of the scale, but when you get to the actual doorway itself, you find it surmounted by this amazingly complex stonework.
(It occurs to me that it would be perfectly possible to continue the process of increasing detail by zooming in to some of that elaborate carving, like an almost endless set of Russian dolls.)
Reach for the sky
Posted on September 7, 2024
Another dramatic image of the ceiling of Beverley Minster.
The Penitent
Posted on October 30, 2023
As you can probably tell by the name this blog goes under, I’ve got a keen interest in photography and some of the kit to prove the old adage “all the gear, no idea”.
However, I’m sure that I’m not alone in finding that, these days, the vast majority of the photos I take are captured not on a digital SLR but a smartphone (in my case an iPhone 14 Pro Max). The built-in camera produces results that, in all but the most specialised situations, are just as good as I can get from my old D800 and It’s certainly a much more convenient size. And you can shoot in RAW, which is a huge plus.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I thought I might start playing along with the ‘Cellpic Sunday’ challenge hosted by John Steiner.
So here is my first contribution: a carving of a penitent monk that is on display in the Treasury of the massive cathedral at Albi, in southern France.
Apart from a little cropping, darkening the background and bringing up the texture (all done in Lightroom Classic), it’s pretty much as shot.
Roman abstract
Posted on February 10, 2023
This photo shows a detail from the Roman museum in Perigueux. It’s part of a carefully reconstructed Roman villa which is replete with statuary and carved stonework. However, I thought this crop made for an interesting abstract image when rendered into monochrome.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Carvings, Sculptures and Statues
The Roman Column
Posted on October 13, 2022
There’s plenty of texture in this artfully lit section of a column dating from Roman times, on display in the Archaeological Museum in Toulouse.
Cut from the living rock
Posted on September 2, 2022
Cee’s theme for her Fun Foto Challenge this week is ‘man-made items’. Handily, this gives me an opportunity to post another image from the subterranean church at Aubeterre-sur-Dronne.
This edifice is a good fifteen feet high and it’s been created by cutting away the solid rock from all around it. If that’s not impressive then I don’t know what is.
The Convict
Posted on June 27, 2021
I thought I might start playing along with the new Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) that is being curated in alternate weeks by Cee Neuner and Marsha Ingrao. As usual, I’ve turned up late, so this is Week 2.
The idea is to post an image of any example of public art, which is defined as any art form (buildings, statues, graffiti, paintings etc) that is plainly visible from a public place. There’s certainly never going to be a shortage of potential subjects.
My initial contribution is ‘The Convict’. This carving in sandstone can be found in the oldest part of Sydney, around Circular Quay. It’s one of a series portraying historical characters. The ‘real’ shackles certainly bring it to life. I suppose you could say that they are quite arresting.
Shadows and reflections
Posted on August 14, 2020
Cee’s theme for her Black & White Challenge this week is shadows and reflections. You’re more likely to get just one or the other in a single image, but this picture of a well-preserved stone sarcophagus in the cloister of the local museum at Perigueux manages to combine the two thanks to the strong shadow cast by the bright sunlight and the reflection of yours truly (sadly, rather less well=preserved).
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Shadows and reflections
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