 #7 of the ten best that I like from the last year. I took off looking for a cemetery picture on a very cold Sunday morning. It was so cold that I couldn't feel my fingers when I got back to the truck. I had my SLR with a wide angle lens while I was looking for a wide scene of backlit monuments, then I quite literally stumbled across this shot The shadow from this stone made it one of my favorite. It's a tall monument that's fallen on the ground, most likely just due to natural causes of being there for nearly 150 years. I switched my SLR for the Panasonic digicam on this one because I wanted a nice sharp picture with constant depth of field from front to the back. After processing most of my pictures, I put them as the wallpaper on the PC. There's nothing like living with one for awhile to tell how they affect you. This shot wasn't a big hit in my household, to say the least. I think it all depends on how you view death. Some have stated that they get a bad feeling when looking at it and I can understand that. For me, though, I liked it from the beginning and even more now. The children lived only a short while, but because of their monument- there's a few people still thinking about them...thinking about the mystery of it all, how they lived, and why they died. Everyone has a story to tell and that story isn't likely to be told by their monument. Take pictures, plenty of them while they're young. Borrowed from a line about planting trees: "The best time to take pictures is 20 years ago, the 2nd best time is now." I did some research, all compliments of Google. The father of these girls was a storekeeper in the mid 1800s in downtown Ironton. At the time, the town was a booming riverfront town with many well to do families. This cemetery, laying well back from the river, was a burial site for many of these folks. It's not used anymore and gets minimal care, but you can see that it was once a place where people spent lots of money in memory of their loved ones. These children died at (or near) the same time, then the family appears to have moved west. I still wonder about the family, if they ever returned to look at the graves, as these children seem to be buried alone. (Note: The end of the first year for 4x6 is nearing. I've posted over 300 pictures, which even surprises me. Many thanks for all the encouragement, advice, arguments, and comments. I'll be posting some of my favorite shots, along with comments, from now until July 8th, which is the one year mark. I've selected 3 runners-up and the top 10. Feel free to tell me what the picture makes you feel, good or bad. That's what it's all about. ) Comment (1) | Permalink |
4x6photo.com | Top Ten Shots: #7, Daisey & Rose | 30 June, 2005
