Finishing my Nativity icon took me well into the wee hours. Do you ever hang around churches at midnight? Sometimes they can be strange places. Heading back to my car after finishing the painting, I noticed this statue beaming in the night.
It's lit by its own spotlight after dark, so nothing supernatural goes on here. But the tone of the illumination matched exactly the moonlight that was filtering though low cloud and nocturnal fog. I found my camera in the trunk of my car and marched back to the site to frame this shot.
The halo is not an effect, rather it's real moonglow that I positioned behind Our Lady's head. I'm pleased with how the composition of this shot came together: I doubt I'd ever get the same quality of light again. It was like the sky was filled with quiet beatitude, a rare enough and personal moment in our modern world.
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