Cragsmoor Stone Church - Interior
November 6, 2010 When I took pictures of the Cragsmoor Stone Church a few weeks ago, I e-mailed the church saying the church was welcome to use them. After seeing the pictures, the church’s administrator (not really sure what to call him) replied saying I should come back, take interior shots, and make sure I make it all the way to the altar because of the two stained glass windows there on either side.

Needless to say, I was excited. I normally would not step on the altar floor but here I was just given permission to shoot a beautiful and historic church. It was an opportunity impossible to resist. So when our son took his SAT at the nearby Pine Bush High School the following weekend, I used it as an excuse to stop by before picking him up and take interior shots of the Cragsmoor Stone Church.

Inside it was beautiful. In the church’s dark interior of mostly gray stone walls and wooden beams and panels, the long red carpet in the center aisle drew my vision toward the altar where colored slabs of light came filtering in through a stained glass window and landed gently and diagonally across the floor. It was a picture-perfect scene of peace and tranquility.

I began taking pictures making my way from the back to the front. When I was about done, I realized my camera was set incorrectly -- at ISO 200 instead of 100 -- so I had to re-shoot most of my shots for better images. I ended up spending more time than I intended. I had permission to take all the pictures I wanted but, still, I didn’t want to overindulge.

When I came out a white car was parked outside with an old woman slumped in the backseat. A man that appeared to be her chauffeur based on his straight back posture sat in the driver seat. I couldn’t make out if there was a third person on the front passenger seat. In any case, they all sat very still and as far as I can tell didn’t look in my direction while I walked around some more taking exterior shots of the church.

I can’t help but wonder if the woman in the car was the church’s owner, or perhaps a descendant of the late Eliza G. Hartshorn, originally of Rhode Island, the woman who had the church built in 1897, alerted of my presence and came to make sure I was not a vandal.

In retrospect, though, I think it’s just paranoia on my part because I felt I spent too much time inside -- more than 30 minutes -- unsupervised. It was a beautiful church on a beautiful day on a beautiful mountaintop and photographing the place to my heart’s content was just a bit too overwhelming. In the church’s e-mail, the administrator said photographs have been taken of the church for the past 100 years but none were as good as mine. I wanted to think I was worthy of praise but I knew that after 100 years, maybe the best tools in photography have finally arrived.

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