Holy Name Cathedral Chicago, Illinois

Holy Name Cathedral front.

Holy Name Cathedral is a church in downtown Chicago that is a popular church for weddings. Outside it's basically a church in the middle of the city.

The back of the church.

Holy Name cathedral was put in place after the Cathedral of Saint Mary was destroyed during the great Chicago fire in 1871. The cathedral can seat 2000 people. The cathedral caught fire again in 2009and suffered extensive water damage. It was a good thing that it was saved and is still standing in the heart of Chicago.

The right side view if the church.

Visiting the church it's really pretty much common sense to bring an ultra wide angle lens with a full frame body to capture the extreme angles in which the church looks awesome wherever you look. I decided to bring my Canon 6D equipped with of course my 17-40mm Canon f/4L lens.

The awesome view of the altar.

The inside of the church, like any other ones is kinda dark. It was the afternoon so there's sunlight that you can see coming in through the stained glass windows, which makes the shots more dramatic. I set a lower shutter speed to let more of the natural lighting be captured into the photo.

The view from way back.

Shooting at this speed, I had to keep my hands very steady. One good technique for doing this is to keep your hands near your torso. Works for me I'm not sure about other people though. The church is gorgeous inside. It seemed like everywhere you look, there's a photo op waiting for you.

And the shot of the famous altar.

Keep in mind when shooting inside churches to limit your shutter noise and your flash. I shot all of these without using a flash which is pretty much useless in an area this big. I'll be back here next month to shoot a wedding.