Netley #5 Netley Abbey

Just a little tilt disturbs me with this.

But, to be honest, I find little more therapeutic than walking though quiet, old ruins. There is an inner peace which emanates and one can even feel somewhat connected to the past. Thank you for posting this. - David Lyga

@David Lyga I know what you mean. It bothered me in the darkroom for a while. If you look at the East window and scroll the image down on the screen you will see that there is no horizontal tilt. What is actually happening is that the walls on the left are leaning in. You can also see the lean in the picture looking the other way (in that case the right hand wall) I just had a look on the abbey website and noticed that the abbey is currently closed due to a masonry fall. I was lucky because I only visited on 15th September, a few days ago. Maybe the masonry fell from that leaning wall, I don't know.

It wasn't as quiet as I would have liked. There are people having a picnic in the picture but it was the children running about that spoiled the atmosphere!

When I was at the Mitla ruins (near Oaxaca in Mexico, 1988) I had that quiet experience that I will always remember.

Your 'fault' is not with the your holding of the camera, as you correctly surmise. The 'problem' is the wide angle (which charges an 'admission' for giving its 'all'). This is where a view camera (or PC lens on a '35') becomes gold. But, at least you are aware of this optical situation and I will wager that next time you will do yeoman's work to rectify it. Still, you have given me an inner peace with this, perhaps mostly because an audio representation is not included with the picture! - David Lyga

Ah yes, that wide angle issue. Well I went to Salisbury Cathedral after Netley. That is a challenge. The spire is 404 feet high. Loads of opportunity for leaning walls, converging verticals etc.

There are lots of ruined abbeys in the UK. I remember visiting one up North in Winter. I was the only person there (too cold for anybody else). It was afternoon in weak Winter light. I had the same experience of peace that you describe.

Also see my comment on Netley #4. I imagine my father visited Netley Abbey but I do not know for sure.

Some info about the abbey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netley_Abbey