Architecture: Roosenberg abbey

The thermometer in the car had dropped to -6°C. Not what I'd call glacial conditions, but still, the wind chill really hacked into it. Apparently the weather conditions at the time were caused by a well known meteorological phenomenon known as a polar vortex. Our meme-ridden world rejoiced in its own infestation by #polarvortex, as the hashtag was used and referred to in ways defying even the most exotic of logics. Meme theorists and students of cultural transmission theory must be having one field day after another these days - but I digress, I suppose. And I get annoyed too, because evidently, I just fell victim to the meme as well. Sigh. Anyway, like I was trying to say, it was cold that night. Upon exiting the car, and turning towards the driveway, we noticed two groups of birches in the wooded and scrubby area separating the domain from the main road, one at each corner of where the driveway gave way to the parking lot. Their white bark shone in the light of the lamp post placed just in front of the white abbey wall, marking the entrance/exit to the parking lot. I liked the subtlety. We hurried inside for what would be a guided tour through the lamp-lit abbey (it was already past 8 pm), itself a prelude to a lecture on how Dom Hans van der Laan created "architectural space" in the few buildings (and at least as Roosenberg abby was concerned, in the furniture and clothes of the congregation as well) he designed. Given the light conditions, and the fact that a D800E is certainly no lean, mean, high ISO machine, I knew this would be a scouting trip. There was no opportunity to use a tripod (well, perhaps there was, but it would have been disrespectful to the guide and the rest of the group). As expected, the high ISO values took their toll. I basically shot the entire series on ISO 6400 (a consequence of using the non-stabilised PC-E 24), which robbed me of the excellent dynamic range and sharpness the D800E is known for. When working on the files, I clearly remembered why long ago, I had set auto ISO to a max of 1600. No doubt I could either experiment with noise reduction in camera or in software, but I don't really see the point of shooting a 36 MP camera with a fairly high dynamic range at base ISO in such crippling conditions, for shots that matter. And as I knew this was going to be a mere reconnaissance with web report anyway, shrinking the files would do away with most of the noise while sharpening things up at the same time. Apart from the by while odd feeling I got when walking through the building, a feeling I cannot quite put my finger on, the building stood out to me as being "textured". Textured in the sense that walls had been grouted very roughly, and the wooden planks making up the ceiling had been treated only in the slightest of ways, preserving the grain of the wood. Even the floors were covered in a rugged sort of tile that looked like natural stone (but wasn't). As our guide (and lecturer of the evening) explained, a technician had recently changed the tungsten light bulbs for LEDs that unfortunately turned out too bright, thus conflicting with the vision of the architect that certain (darker) spaces were meant as areas of transition, forcing the occupant to mentally prepare for the function and use of the room ahead. The spectral characteristics of the lights were very odd as well, messing up my colour perception. In the absence of something I knew for certain to be neutral, my brain didn't seem to be able to let me believe the walls were completely white. In fact, given the colours of the furniture (olive green for the chairs and benches, and a brownish red for the tables), I wouldn't be surprised if they actually weren't. Obviously, the bulb change had another very annoying consequence: the auto white balance of the camera couldn't handle the lights either, draping every scene with a sickly yellow-green colour cast. Even getting the white balance acceptably right in software turned out to be a royal pain, because of spectral differences between individual bulbs (and even more so because of the impaired processing latitude cause by the high ISOs). A revisit with a tripod, in daylight (and with a grey card for when the lights go on) seems to impose itself.