Graven Images

[Wicked Dark]

Anyone else love cemeteries? I don't know what it is, but I can hardly resist them. Around here ours aren't that old in the grand scheme of things, but insofar as European burials in America they are some of the oldest we have. Some of the stone carving is beautiful and I always find a small, colonial cemetery to be very peaceful and soothing.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites -

Old Hill cemetery - 35mm film scan from ages ago
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/Old-Hill-Cemetery-1600/760019668_SXp4m-XL.jpg

Pet cemetery (you have no idea how hard it is not to write Pet Sematary!) in Massachusetts; still used today.
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/Beloved-Pets-5/759389962_tG9Bb-XL.jpg

Bullfrog Mine cemetery outside the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada -
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/DV-Rhyolite-cemetery-wooden/759385213_Bn9Ju-XL.jpg

Family plot on hill in a cemetery from 1740 -
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/P1014586/757339049_LAoGs-XL.jpg

Sarah aged 9, 1762 -
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/Sarah-age-9-BW/757323378_EwoNx-XL.jpg

Anyway...I could go on forever since I have so many, but this oughta hold ya'. Thanks for looking.

[Bambi]

I love graveyards. In fact, I took a couple today from an old graveyard in halifax. Your's are very good. I love the last one-great shot!

[Hillbillygirl]

Last one for me also. I also love the old gravesites, as they tell such stories and have so much history within them if you look long enough and a little research.

[Jason]

Really cool shots here. I love those old tombstones with the skulls at the top. Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)

[Wicked Dark]

I actually really like the ones with the skulls. This one is older and less stylized -

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/P1014600/757339237_GFSQV-XL.jpg

And if you look at the one tipped toward the camera, you can see another -

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/P1014935/757319804_hozSz-XL.jpg

thanks for the compliments all around. Graveyards & cemeteries aren't everyone's cuppa, but I dig them.







no pun intended.

[Iguanasan]

Cool shots. I have a few myself. I hope you don't mind me jumping into your thread.

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[Wicked Dark]

oooh you dirty thread-jumper you!


Kidding. I don't mind. See how differently styled the skulls became over the decades? it fascinates me.

Here's another from the same cemetery as Sarah's grave.

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/Cemeteries-Nov-2009-049/786421536_qqx5J-XL.jpg

It's such a pretty stone.

[JAS_Photo]

Cool stuff! We have nothing as old as some of those out here.

[Iguanasan]

I still wonder why the character f used to represent an "s" but no longer does. Why did it change?

[Wicked Dark]

I don't know...I can see if there's a reference to it in my book about early American grave markers. The original Declaration was printed the same way and I noticed that the f-like S seems random, but there's probably a pattern. On Sarah's marker you can see both styles used.

[Marko]

Very cool set - Love these shots. I'm not freaked out in any way.

The term 'Graven Images (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idolatry)' is a loaded biblical term. I'm guessing you know that though.

[Wicked Dark]

Yeah I know. Got more than a barrelhead of religion as a youngster.

[Arun Gaur]

I have some pictures posted on my site about this cemetery. One of them I post here:

Arun Gaur
Tripoila-Exploring India-Arun Gaur's Indian Landscape Images (http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com)

http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com/images-1/images/6a_jpg.jpg

[Bambi]

found this one yesterday. I call it 'redundant':
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_eTzuNZZ7ZF0/S3XARCf5PvI/AAAAAAAAEg8/oud7VkKXTOA/s800/coffin.jpg

[Wicked Dark]

Funny. Reminds me of one a friend took while we were on a city walkabout - Sleeper.

I grabbed this one on the same walkabout -
http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/P1272888/775309734_VZKAu-XL.jpg

[Bambi]

yikes, adds a whole new meaning to 'being put on ice'.

[Wicked Dark]

Was out and about in Marblehead Mass the other day and went to one of my favorite cemeteries - Old Burial Hill, est 1630. The light was harsh, but I wandered around anyway and ended up in a really marshy section that contains some of the oldest stones.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2795/4401535815_d6b58fec66_b.jpg

Mary Reed, 18 years old, died 1712.

[JAS_Photo]

Very cool! I love to look at old headstones. These are so ornate and have weathered well.

[Wicked Dark]

You guys are going to get soooo sick of me and my graveyards. Still, I can't keep away from them. After going by this one that's up on a hill by a busy road about 1000 times, I finally stopped. It's tiny and not very well kept up. Vandalized, but oddly free of beer cans.

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/P3094023/806276542_paQQL-XL.jpg

[JAS_Photo]

That is al rather spooky looking one. We have nothing really old here. Very cool history out in the New England area for sure. I like your muted tones, they tame down the rather brown dullness of late winter.

[Wicked Dark]

Thanks JAS. I'm contemplating hitting a couple old ones in Mass soon. Mt. Auburn in Cambridge is supposed to be wonderful for its history. My sister in law & her husband live near the one in Boston where Samuel Adams is buried as well as some of Ben Franklin's family (he lived in Boston as a boy before moving to Philadelphia).

Here's another from the same cemetery as the one I just posted. Tonally, it was pretty blah (as the ass end of winter is bound to be...don'tcha just love it?), so I did a selenium treatment and cranked the contrast. I like what it does with the grass in the bg - makes the stone pop more.

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Graves-and-Cemeteries/Graven-Images/smugmug-vickery-grave/806290184_B9qvc-XL.jpg

[JAS_Photo]

Very cool! Sounds like an interesting trip too. I like to wonder about the lives of the people who were thought well enough of that they have a little monument erected for them. I have relatives in Nova Scotia from long ago. My mom and dad visited out there a few years ago and took a few pictures of the old gravestones. :)