Ferndale Cemetery

Hooray for my first ever visit to the Ferndale Cemetery! Kinda morbid & creepy I know, but I just couldn't pass up seeing such an old cemetery- some graves date back to the early 1800's! We had to go to the fairgrounds to pickup my entries and arrived a little early so I thought the cemetery would be cool to stroll through (of course with my camera in tow!).

The entrance was pretty non-descript just a simple wrought iron archway behind a newer looking church.


I took this image on our way out rather than on the way in so it would be a little darker. I also added a warming tone over the image to make it appear more antique as well as film grain to help add to the antique feeling. 


    

This was the first mausoleum we saw as we came up over the top of the hill. I had to sneak a peak inside at that gorgeous stained glass window & boy am I glad I did as I really like the picture on the right of the inside with the light reflecting off the walls. 



As we neared the top of the cemetery I noticed this tiny angel statue in front of Mother Rainbow's grave (no joke!). It took some angling but I finally got the angel and the city in the same frame. I added a slight brown tint in post processing to get the antique-y apocalyptic feel... 



I saw these little round wall toppers as we were getting ready to leave. I really loved the shapes and textures of the balls- they looked like they had been there since the beginning. I'm sure they were gorgeous when they were new with that pretty pattern on the front. I really liked the way the balls lined up and the orange poppies and blue skies behind them also.... I played around with the focus on this set of images- focusing on the front for one image, then the second for another, and the last, etc... But this image with the shallow DOF (Depth of Field) came out the best. 



There were way to many unnamed headstones in the cemetery. There were also quite a few headstones that were anonymous to me- like these Mother and Daddy ones that were in a family plot. At first I didn't realize they were in a family plot & thought how sad it was that someone's mom & dad were buried so non-descriptly.... I thought it would make a good triptych (3 image set) so I compiled them together & got this...


The cemetery was great and it was nice to walk around outside on such a gorgeous day. I will have to go back & visit for each season to get some repetitive shots... =)


Location: Ferndale, CA Cemetery
Date/Time: 8/22/10 5-7pm
Subject(s): Flowers, landscapes, graves, statues
Notes: I took most of the images with my polarizing filter on the lens because even though it was 6ish in the afternoon it was still pretty darn bright out.

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