Asher,
I'd never have thought of anything but beauty! Even the idea that it's for religious service can be viewed as another beautiful reaching out of humanity in each separate but interrelated community. Where's the heresy? These are very beautiful ceiling paintings in a remarkable architectural setting.
I was referring to the not so frequent approach of using a fisheye lens for shooting inside a church as I mentioned here:
... but for some reason I prefer the fisheye perspective for the painting on the ceiling to the view resulting from the use of a rectilinear lens.
The distortions are not that prominent in the second shot which I consider as the best use for the fisheye here, but pretty extreme in the third one. The last one still shows the balconies in a - IMHO - way that suits the perception of the human eye in a better way than using a rectilinear lens.
The heresy here is the attempt to use the fisheye in a more serious way for architecture and less for its effect.
Is the church still active? BTW, help me in my understanding of function. what's the purpose of the wrought iron door at the end of the church. It would seem to detract from the beauty made of smooth stone and plaster or frescoes.
The church is still active as almost every church in this corner of the world.
The door - very common here - has two purposes:
It permits to see the interior even when the church is not open to the public.
In this particular case there is a fine mesh added to prevent birds from getting trapped in the church, there is a sign that says 'Keep this door closed'.
Best regards,
Michael
