Shadows of the Primatiale

As befits an old European city, Lyon has many religious buildings. Wandering around the city turns up more churches than I can track. The most notable are Primatiale Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lyon and the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière.

One evening we visited the old centre of Lyon as the sun was setting. The area is suitably filled with narrow streets and shops targeting tourists. It has a slight feel of a theme park. Thankfully it is the off season for tourists and we were spared the full onslaught.

I have been trying to better understand what my small point and shoot Canon SX200IS camera is capable of. This camera is not sold as suitable for low light scenes, so capturing anything in the dark and shadow filled cathedral we visited was going to be difficult.

I managed to play with enough settings and was pleased to capture these photos inside Primatiale St Jean. I am starting to move away from the Automatic setting and my preset “go to when Automatic fails” Program mode, and into the realm of spur of the moment shutter speeds and aperture values.