385 Elmwood Revisited

My friends Tricia and John wanted to get away for a little photocation. I had shot Elmwood before with Candy in October, 2008 but I was more than willing to hit it again. Even scorching hot it was totally worth the effort. A great morning with friends and some good pics.

116 yeah, I took more pictures at the cemetery ...

I am sure you are tired of looking at pictures of Elmwood Cemetery, but I am going to put up another slideshow anyway. I only had about half the "keepers" on the last post. Next post will have pics of the kiddos, don't worry :)

Our trip to the cemetery was full of silly jokes, that I am sure just seem plain dumb if you weren't there. I was making a comment that one of the statues had lost its arm, and Candy responded with "Maybe that's how she died!" Which was pretty funny at the time, but got even more funny when I found a headless statue. So, of course I commented that maybe that was how she died, but Candy did not think it likely. I bet a lot more people have died from losing their heads than losing an arm ... dontcha think :)
Or finding a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes laying next to a grave. It seemed the perfect caution against smoking.
And the best was when Candy came running up to me "I got a picture of a ghost!" And how cool would that be ... and she shows me a picture of a Mylar Ghost balloon that had been tied to a grave. We had talked about how the theory is that ghosts can be captured by photography ... but no ghosts for us.
Although Candy would say the best was watching me run/flit across the graveyard trying to get a picture of the coming train. We did not know the trains would come every 15 minutes!! Or maybe when I "flew" to the next big monument. Or maybe when I kicked the van into reverse to try to get another shot of an oncoming train. It sure looked a lot slower than it was :)
Also, there were a few statues that bore striking resemblances to Gone With the Wind characters. I saw Ashley Wilkes and Doctor Meade! There were also a few Grover Cleveland-esque statues around.
I am sure they enjoyed the sound of laughter a lot more than the pounding of the trains!!

115 Saturday in a Cemetery

It is not often that you get to enjoy a trip to the cemetery, but this past Saturday I definitely did! My friend, Candy, and I decided to take a little "photocation". Originally we planned to head to downtown Memphis, but then we started talking about the old cemeteries around, and decided to visit one. We decided on Elmwood, although there were quite a few choices in the area. There are a couple that you can see from the interstate as we drove up that I want to go back to visit sometime. I am sure that there are people who would think it morbid to traipse around a cemetery taking pictures, but the grounds were absolutely beautiful!! The leaves were turning, the sun was shining, and the nip of Fall was in the air! It was very peaceful. Well, except when the trains went roaring past, and that was about every 15 minutes!
It was definitely interesting to read the tombstones. Of course the most interesting markers were the ones that had been worn away. The truly old always draw me the hardest. Heartbreaking the number of baby graves! It really re-enforced to me how lucky I am to live today. A hundred years ago we probably would have lost Katie at 4 months when she was diagnosed with diabetes. And when Connor arrived six weeks early it would have been a true struggle to keep him alive. But then there were the graves of people who had lived long and happy lives. Monuments to the love they shared.

I took over 600 photos, parsed them down to 354. Here are the few I have had time to edit. It truly is a beautiful spot!

On a lighter note, while looking through the pictures Katie walked up behind me and said "I wish Elvis was buried there!" Which of course made me pull up pictures of Graceland. Looks like I know where we are going the next time Grammy comes to visit!!

Years and years ago, back before digital, my buddy Ilka and I did a school report on Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. I don't know how we managed to limit ourselves to the film we had with us!! I would love to go back to Oakland now, and be able to compare the pictures from about 18 years ago. Early this year Oakland was hit by a tornado and many of the monuments were damaged. 150 trees were lost. They are working to restore the cemetery, but it will never be the same.