2013, Day 349 - Departed

A couple days ago I was headed from one appointment to another and because I was running early I decided to stop off at Lone Fir Cemetery.  It is a 19th century cemetery that is on that National Register of Historic Places.  There are over 25,000 graves in Lone Fir but the occupants of over 10,000 are unknown due to poor record keeping and a lack of maintenance over the years.  Many notable people are buried here, the doctor who is the namesake of Hawthorne Street, multiple mayors of Portland, governors, court justices, US representatives, and a number of notable artists.  Today it is a beautiful place and because it is open to the public many people stroll the paths and use the cemetery as a shortcut.  Fortunately most people are respectful and vandalism isn't a big problem, I would hate to see access limited in the future.

Fujifilm X-E2, Fuji 35/f1.4R
35mm, f1.4, 1/280 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 23 - Here lies...

I like the solitude of cemeteries, they seem like the perfect setting for contemplation of the world, of life, of our little woes, anything really.  It's hard to imagine that in Victorian England people used to picnic in cemeteries.  Most parks were reserved for society's upper crust so the more working-class folks used the well maintained and park-like cemeteries for their urban outdoor entertainment venues.  I suppose if I were dead and there is an afterlife it would be nice to have my home in a place of celebration, it would be depressing if it was only a place people came to mourn, I would have to do some serious haunting...

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f2.8, 1/160 sec @ 500 ISO

2012, Day 22 - Chaperon

I met up with Brian Matiash this afternoon to have a little photo adventure.  I say little because it is still raining quite heavily and while we have the equipment to deal with the inclement weather when you're shooting for fun there is no reason to get too wet.

Macro photography is one of my interest despite the ample room for improvement my macro lens is one of my favorites.  When Brian stated his intention to get more use out of his macro I decided to use mine as well.  Given the rain you have to choose your lens carefully because you really don't want to be changing lenses in the field.

I started out with closeups but quickly found the longer focal length great at isolating scenes that I liked so I ended up with more landscapes using a lens that is quite capable of the opposite.  The light was great and there was some decent shadows despite the overcast skies.  I used OnOne's Suite 6 to create a a dark and slightly soft vignette and upped the contrast a little.  The results I quite like and I am eager to see what Brian has to post from out brief outing.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f2.8, 1/50 sec @ 500 ISO