Visiting Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, Bahamas
A few years ago on a previous stop in Nassau, Bahamas, we happened upon Christ Church Cathedral, and we enjoyed seeing this interesting church building. During our 2017 Disney Cruise, we decided to drop in once again.
On our previous visit to Christ Church Cathedral, we had been struck by the beauty of the architecture, with the high wooden ceiling and stained glass windows. This time around, the feeling was the same. It is indeed a very beautiful church building, with a very traditional look.
This photo above was taken right as we entered the main sanctuary, looking toward the front of the space. As you can see, there were not many people there. But then this was a Friday morning, not a Sunday morning. So besides a few church staff people, the only ones there at the time were whatever tourists happened to wander in, like us.
This second photo was taken from the front of the sanctuary looking toward the back, making it the opposite view from the first photo. Here, you can see the pipes of the organ that rise above the back of the sanctuary. I would love to hear the organ being played sometime, but we never seem to be there on a Sunday. And I doubt they would let someone who just wandered in off of the street play a few notes.
One of our reasons for stopping by was so that my parents and my sister’s family could see the place we had told them about and shown them photos of after our earlier visit. you can see some of them at the back of the auditorium, along with a couple of other visitors who wandered in as well.
We were excited to take them to someplace that we had enjoyed visiting before so that they could experience it for themselves. Seeing photos of a place is nice, and the photos help you to get a sense of what a place is like. But you really do not have a true feel for a place until you have actually been there before. It is one thing to say, “Hey, look at these photos of this cool old church building we visited in Nassau.” It is a completely different thing to say, “Here is this cool old church that we visited when we were here before - let’s go inside and have a look around!”
I think everyone enjoyed our visit. After all, we do like historical things, and this congregation has been around since the 1600s. This sanctuary, in fact, was built in 1861, at the same time that the Civil War was beginning here in the United States. How cool is that?
I thought about tapping on the tympani drums to get a little rhythm going, but that guy with his sword kept me from it. I didn’t want to get on his bad side, after all, because he just might have come down from his perch on the wall to give me a tap with his sword.
It was interesting to see things like the soldier there in the building. There were plaques about the church’s history, plaques commemorating those who had died in the yellow fever epidemic, plaques dedicated to former church members who had passed away, old Bibles, musical instruments, and so much more.
Christ Church Cathedral is such an interesting place to stop in for a visit. We never have done any organized shore excursions while we have been in Nassau, instead deciding just to walk for a while to see what we can see. And sometimes, such as this time, we go back to things that we had enjoyed on previous visits, especially when we have the chance to share it with someone new. You never know what you might find if you just take the time to look.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Philippians 4:8
About the Photos
Because of the large stained glass windows and the white walls, there was a good bit of natural light inside the sanctuary. This was good because I don’t think the church folks wanted anyone to use any flash photography, although they did not mind photos taken without a flash. So I turned up the ISO just a bit to 640 to compensate for the slightly lower light levels. This did bring some slightly slower shutter speeds, around 1/40 or 1/30 of a second, but usually, I can manage to hold the camera steady for that amount of time.
I did also use a good bit of processing on these photos. However, they are not quite as overly processed as some of the photos that I post here. I felt that the slightly more simple look fit the architecture of the church building well, although the amount of processing that I did apply helped to bring out the wood tones, especially in the ceiling.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 9, 2017
Location: Christ Church Cathedral, Nassau, Bahamas
