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Kirkwall Church, Orkney #1

Sandstone St Magnus cathedral at Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands, Scotland

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The story behind this image

The Scottish island of Orkney is full of historical suprises, some of which Liz and I got to see during our day's stopover at the end of our cruise to Iceland and back on board the P&O liner Azura.

Berthed at the docks in the capital town of Kirkwall, we had the opportunity to explore, and soon arrived at the eye opening St Magnus cathedral in the centre of town.

Built out of red sandstone, and glowing in the afternoon sun, we weren't expecting to see such a huge and ornate edifice.

So while Liz explored the local wool shops I had a few minutes to photograph the cathedral from various angles, trying to get the best composition, as free of parked cars and tourists as possible.

This view proved to be the strongest, but did involve stepping out into the road and taking the shot while looking out for traffic (thankfully light) at the same time.

The colour combination of red sandstone, green leaves and blue sky with white clouds was delightful, and I made full use of my polarising filter to bring out the best of those vivid hues.

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Image data

Filename - orkney kirkwall church 01

Camera - Canon 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm

Exposure - 1/320 sec @ f8, ISO200

Filters - Polariser to enhance colours

Location - Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland

This image - 800x640px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop

Comments - -0.7ev exposure compensation used to preserve highlights. Shadows brightened in PhotoShop.