Church by TJ

I think trying to capture "church" in just one photo is extremely difficult, so I decided to base my photo on an aspect of church architecture that interests me. If you walk into any church yard you will usually find a war memorial dedicated to the millions of soldiers who gave up their lives so that we can now live the kind of lives we are able to lead today. My own grandfather was a soldier in the 1st world war, but mercifully came through although he suffered a shrapnel injury in his leg and gas poisoning which affected his health all through his life. The church in Littlewick Green is a place I regularly go to as my father is buried there, and I find it a tremendously peaceful place and I enjoy spending some quiet moments there tending the grave. I thought this particular memorial was really interesting as when I first looked at it I thought to myself surely the 1st world war ended in 1918? On reading up I learned that although armistice was declared on November 11th 1918, the peace treaty formally ending a state of war between Germany and the Allies was signed on June 28th 1919. I think all memorials are wonderful pieces of architecture and also are very poignant as they bring home how the conflicts touched every family and every town, village and city. The shot I took captures the place, the date of the conflict and gives a snapshot of the names of the soldiers who lost their lives. I used quite a lot of contrast to bring out the lettering and felt that an angled shot of part of the memorial was a better to capture than a formal straught on shot of the whole memorial.

The other shots are also of the church at Littlewick Green. The top left and bottom right landscape shots are of the church from its two sides. It was a beautiful summer's evening, and I very nearly went with one of these as my main shot. Bottom left is a full shot of the memorial, and top right is an idea I had to use dad's grave.