Pope John Paul II

This is another one from the series I shot during our papal audience visit.

Every Wednesday, the public can go and get a blessing from the pope in St. Peter's Square. As I mentioned on the other photo, since it was raining, we went inside to the Paul VI auditorium instead.

The "blessing" is actually a lot more than you might think. It took well over two hours for the pope to welcome all of the different groups visiting from around the world, give blessings and messages in ten or twelve different languages, and greet some of the very special guests and newlyweds. Catholic couples married less than a year who wear their wedding attire to the audience can see the pope close up.

Note to Canon geeks: This shot was handheld, and is relatively sharp despite its long focal length and slow shutter speed thanks to the magic of Canon's image stabilization in the 100-400 lens.

LENS: 100-400 at ~400mm | FILM: Fuji Provia 100F | EXPOSURE: f/5.6 at 1/8" | DATE: 10/03

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