Friday, February 23, 2018

Simply stunning. . .

Watch this video to see how light flows through stained glass from dawn to darkness. This time lapse video -- part of the exhibition "Scaling Washington" at the National Building Museum -- highlights the movement of stained glass light at the Washington National Cathedral. Photographer Colin Winterbottom was making fine art and documentary photographs of earthquake repairs at the Cathedral when he noticed the beautiful spray of colored light moving through scaffolded work spaces. He had little experience making time lapse, but thought the phenomenon had to be captured, especially as it moved over surfaces across time.

The final video shows movement of light through areas of the Cathedral familiar to visitors as well as through temporary work spaces with limited access. Most of these vantages could only be accessed while scaffold was in place. The opening and closing images, for example -- with the west rose window centered straight ahead within the nave -- cannot be recreated now that scaffold is down.



Stained glass time lapse, Final edit from Colin Winterbottom on Vimeo.

For more timelapse Cathedral fun, see this:
colinwinterbottom.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=76080&AKey=VKNT9F5T

2 comments:

Janis Williams said...

How utterly stunning! Light is liquid! I love when the light from our windows shines on my face, but to see it move and flow like this is is absolutely, well, ravishing.

Anonymous said...

Compare this to the glitzy shows that use stage lighting and block out all natural light in the worship space. It’s sad, really.