Taken as part of a series for wakefield cathedrals 125th anniversary I snook this shot mid sermon the reflection on the floor set this off for me along with the lingering smoke a great ambience.
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Taken as part of a series for wakefield cathedrals 125th anniversary I snook this shot mid sermon the reflection on the floor set this off for me along with the lingering smoke a great ambience.
While the atmosphere is nice, I find the composition not working for your photo in this case.
The light coming from the window is grabbing our attention instead of the priests.
Now first of all, obviously, I am not the photographer so I have no idea what the photographer was trying to achieve and you may question the success of the photo because I have no idea. But, that is the beauty of a photo, it is up to the observer to interpret. So, given the series is to celebrate the 125th anniversary for wakefields cathedrals, AND the photographer himself suggests '...the reflection on the floor set this off for me along with the lingering smoke...' I suspect, and certainly for me, the focus of the photo is not the priests but is in fact the cathedral in which case the very strong light achieves its purpose; grabs your attention away from the priests and focuses it on the area lit up. In fact, when I saw the thumbnail on the potd page I didn't even see the priests. For me they magically appeared only after I'd opened the photo to view it. For me, job achieved very nicely. Ooops, just went back to the potd page and found the priests weren't included in the thumbnail so that explains why I didn't see them :-(
Just my opinion.
Emotions and Opinions aside. You both have a point. While the optical strength of this pic allows different interpretations, the light from the window is mightier. The photographer clearly intended a low key for the priests. A different angle or a subtle lighting behind the pulpit could have balanced it a bit more I think, especially if no strobe was used