Saturday, March 07, 2009

RRPC: Shrouded in Purple

This week's Round Robin Photo Challenge, as suggested by Vicki of the blog Maraca, is "The Color Purple." As Vicki notes, it can be a challenging color to photograph, because somehow, some cameras have trouble capturing that shade. This is a good time of year to photograph purple, because it's Lent. Purple is the ecclesiastic color of Lent. It symbolizes repentance.


The Altar of Repose
From Lent at St. Michael's 2009

During Lent, all the statues, crosses, paintings and other religious icons at St. Michael's and other churches are either covered up with purple cloth or otherwise hidden away.


Purple cloth covers up bits of the pulpit.

The exact shade of purple seems to vary a bit, but for the most part you can tell they're trying for the same basic color.



I think the idea is to cover up Jesus and angels and saints - persons, in other words. So it doesn't matter much if there's a bit of sky, grass and a flower poking out the bottom of this painting.



The church was not lit Friday afternoon when I took these photos. Most of the lighting came from my camera's flash. Here is what the camera saw of the sanctuary without the flash.

I have more photos along these lines, but let's move on. After St. Michael's, the dogs and I crossed town, got Pepper's license renewed and visited a different dog park (see entry below). The sun was setting as we left Columbus Park, so I drove to the most famous place in southern Arizona for watching a sunset: the top of Gates Pass.


Sunset at Gates Pass.
From West Side Story

As long as a little sun remained above the horizon, there was more yellow than purple in evidence.



But overall, yes, there was purple in that sunset!



Is this purple enough for ya? Totally unedited tone and color in the two photos above.



How about this one? It's also completely unedited except for size and sharpness.

I'll have more photos of this sunset Saturday night. Meanwhile, let's go see everyone else's purpleness!

**Linking List**

Vicki
Maraca
http://mymaracas.blogspot.com

Monica
- Posted!
Click Shots
http://familyaffairphotos.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jessica
QuickSilver Dreams
http://www.thewatersedge.us/QuickSilver/

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
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Chris
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Camera Obscura RRC
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Jama Hameed - Posted!
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Nancy
Nancy Luvs Pix
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Sherrie - Posted!
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Sandra
Strong Chemistry
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Gwenlyn
GreenChair
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Robinella
Robinella's
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Molly Mavis - Posted!
Visual Dialogues
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T.J. - Posted!
T.J.'s Photo Expressions
http://tjphotoexpressions.blogspot.com

Suzanne R
SuzyQ421's Photo Blog
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Mary
- Posted!
Work of the Poet
http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com


Connie
Far Side of Fifty Photos
http://farsideoffiftyphotos.blogspot.com

Marina
milepebbles
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Wammy - Posted!
The Ellis Family Cincinnati
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Terri
Ways I See The World
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Julie
- Posted!
Julie's Web Journal
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Linda
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Marina
Visual Chronicle
http://visualchronicle.weebly.com


Teena - Posted!
It's all about me!
http://www.purple4mee.com

Valerie
Rosemary's Other Baby
http://rosemarysotherbaby.blogspot.com


Liz - Posted!
Colour Contrast Continuity ***new blog***
http://colourcontrastcontinuity.blogspot.com

ellen b. - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
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Karen

17 comments:

Teena in Toronto said...

Nice array of pix!

I love purple!!

I played too :)

maryt/theteach said...

Karen, your sunset pix are marvelous! I think the statues are covered up to suggest that during Lent we the faithful are abandoned by God and the saints. Also to suggest that we are waiting in grief and penance for Christ to rise from the dead and return to the world... I think.

Anonymous said...

I'm speechless....those are wonderful sunset shots!
You've captured magic in the sky.

Show us more please.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting information about Lent and purple. I wasn't raised observing lent but we celebrate on Easter in a big way. I've been observing lent more in my adult years by adding some good habits to my daily life. Love your purple sunsets!! I've actually posted this time around :0)
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/purple/

Carly said...

Hi Karen

Interesting church traditions. The sunset photos are probably your very best to date, at least in my opinion. You did awesome!! I especially liked the one with the person in silhouette. Gorgeous colors... GORGEOUS! Well done! More please!

-Carly

Linda said...

I love the way you captured the color of purple in regard to Lent! Perfect!

TJ said...

Oh how I remember all the purples for Lent at our Episcopal church. This time of year and Christmas was always my favorite! You really got some great shots of that sunset! I am so jealous....interesting as always my friend. Good job!

barrettmanor said...

Lots of lovely pictures as usual!

Far Side of Fifty said...

Stunning sunsets! Thanks for sharing about Lent too:)

Suzanne R said...

I wasn't raised knowing much about Lent so that information is very interesting to me. I also loved your sunset shots!

Jan AKA Wammy said...

What an aray of purple...love all the shots.

Monica said...

I LOVE that last sunset! All were beautiful but, that last one I just wanted to go sit back and watch. Interesting about lent and purple, stuff I didn't know.

Monica

Jama said...

You sure have a lot of purples here!

Anonymous said...

I love your sunset pics, Karen. And if they touched YOU, that's what matters, don't worry about "professional equipment" and such...heck, even as a professional, with professional equipment, a lot of times I don't like what comes out in the end product, and some of the best pictures I've taken are with my old throw-away camera.

MyMaracas said...

Lovely sunset photos there. And I LOVE the sanctuary shot without the flash. It's so mysterious.

Liz said...

Your sunset pictures are fantastic.
You capture the natural picture so well.

Gattina said...

Real nice purple things. I live in a catholic country but have never seen these purple covers.