Paxtang Cemetery Shoot

Well, guess where the Camera Club went to shoot!!!  A cemetery!!

This morning we went to the Paxtang Cemetery in Harrisburg.  I thought there would be a boatload of things to shoot.  There is a Mausoleum, beautiful trees in the fall foliage finest, tombstones with details, etc.  Annette went along with me to keep me company.

It turns out that I struggled to find things of interest to me.  Still, I took 275 shots.  Of course now that I have gone through them I have narrowed them down to less than half of that.

Let's take a look at some of the pictures I got and I'll give some random thoughts on each.

The first place we started was the mausoleum.  It was a beautiful building.  Each little wing had a stained glass window at the end.  I worked with this window for a long time.  With just the available light, the window was bright and everything else was pitch black, so I added flash to try and even the exposure out.

The area was not a brightly lit room like an office or a classroom.  It was fairly dark.  After all, it was in a mausoleum!  I wanted a more somber lighting.  It was difficult to get the amount of flash to the point where I wanted it.  I also played with the color compensation.

After the mausoleum, I went out into the open air.  It was just a beautiful day!  The temperature was just on the cool side of perfect.  There was a bit too much wind for some of the tree and plant pictures that some of the other photographers were taking.  But otherwise, perfect!

When I went out side I decided to work on details.  So I went around looking at the various tombstones.  Everybody is unique in life and I guess that want to maintain that uniqueness after death, because there were so many types of headstones.  Here are some of the detail pictures that I took...

 The angel in this next picture was envisioned over a hundred years ago.  So I was thinking...I wonder if humankind's idea of beauty and peacefulness have changed in the past one hundred years?

My answer, judging from this angel, is that, no, beauty has not changed all that much.  I have seen the square neckline with the stylized flowers in cloth in my lifetime.  The girlish face has smooth skin and would still be attractive today.

 This next little statue was only about 8" tall.  I enjoyed its calm demeanor.  I didn't know whether to include the tombstones in the background or not.  The light color might draw your eye away from the angel.  But without the tombstones, the statue could be in a garden rather than a cemetery.  I think part of the angel's story is that she is watching over a grave.

I often call Annette, Nettie.  Annette asked the nieces and nephews to call her Aunt Nettie because Aunt Annette was hard to say and sounded like Antoinette.  I think Annette should use this image as her wallpaper on her computer, don't you?