Do graveyards scare you?

[EsmeraldaX]

I'm just wondering....do graveyards scare you? During the day? The night? Or do you find them to be peaceful places set aside to honor our lost loved ones? Or both?

I am a photographer (well an ameteur one anyway) and one of my favorite subjects are old headstones, cemataries (as well as old buildings).

Well, over the weekend I took about 45 shots at the graveyard down the street from me. (Digital ones). Spent some time touching them up in a photo program ( I like to alter hues and colors of digital photos for effect).

Anyway, I was showing them to one of my friends at work and someone else walked by and made a rather snide comment about how I was "sick" and "morbid" (sick and morbid??? I love Disney movies for Pete's sake!!) and I should destroy the pictures because it was "disrespectful".

This person is an "artist" herself. I don't really care much for the style of her work, but I would never insult it just because I don't like the subject matter. She is obviously talented, it's just not my thing.

But then my friend, who normally supports everything I do, made a comment about how "it was kind of sick" and I should expect people to give me a hard time about it.

I don't see it as "sick". I see it as someone finding beauty in something that others tend to ignore and capturing that beauty in images.

(Ironically, another guy in my dept, who I normally do not get along with at all, sided with me and said he thought the pictures were gorgeous, kind of gothic but gorgeous. )

So I'm just curious. Do graveyards really freak you out?

 

[monkeyboy]

Originally posted by EsmeraldaX
Do graveyards really freak you out?

No, they are history

 

[Pooh67_68]

No graveyards don't freak me out.

Edited to add: You can't please everyone and you shouldn't worry about what others think. If it is someting you enjoy than I say do it and to heck with what other people think.

 

[onecoolmama]

I get creeped out by them. I always cling to whoever I am with when I am in one. ...but I do warn the person I am with that I do that.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by monkeyboy
No, they are history

This is another reason I like them, esp. the really old ones.

 

[browneyes]

They used to terrify me, but not too much anymore. I wasn't scared of ghosts or anything. The first funeral I went to traumatized me a little bit. I was 7 yo and the funeral was for a 13 yo distant cousin. Some "nice" ladies at the funeral home decided to make sure I knew what the morticians had to do to make my cousin presentable for the funeral. When it came time to bury her, I was afraid those ladies were going to throw me in there with her.

 

[Virgo10]

Not at all and the older the better. Years ago the head stones were really works of art. Some of the insciptions are really beautiful. Years ago I went to NH with friends and we stopped at every old cemetary we found and checked out the stones.

Post some of your photos!

Roberta

 

[trola2]

They don't scare me, but then again, since we have a marker in the yard that says, "tiny" you have to be a little comfortable with the idea to have your own personal cemetary!

BTW, the house is over 100 years old and the grave was here long before we were.

Tiny- may you rest in peace.

~~Beth

 

[always quiet]

No. I do have one story about a visit to a cemetry that really freaked me out though.

It was Memorial Day 1993. We stopped by to visit my brother's grave. My 2 kids were 3 and not even 2 at the time. I was pregnant with my 2nd son at the time. They were 'wandering' around nearby as my DH and myself were at the tombstone. I turned around to see my youngest holding a pinwheel. I knew she removed it from someone's grave and asked them to show me where they got it from. No more than 10 feet from where we were standing, they stopped at rows of grave markers (the flat stones), most of which were adorned with teddy bears, balloons, or other children's toys. I read the markers and filled with tears as I realized each and every grave belonged to a baby or young child. I glanced at my children and placed a hand on my expanded belly. I could almost feel the pain of all those parents. I never knew that cemetries had sectioned areas of infants.

One month later, I would be burying my unborn son in the "little angels" section............................ It was almost as if fate were warning me of the events to come.

 

[Stratocastermagic]

We live next door to a graveyard - of the church where I am Rector - and I very rarely get spooked as I spend quite a lot of my time there.
Once, however, when I was walking through the churchyard, late at night - it was Christmas Eve, in fact - my cell phone went off: that made me jump!
When we were first married, I was working for a different church and we lived in a house which was next to some graves in the churchyard. Our bedroom was in the basement, and we could look up and see a gravestone through our bedroom window, which means that we were lying pretty much side-by-side with whoever was in that grave!
And of historical interest: in our current churchyard we have the grave of William Imrie. He was part of Ismay, Imrie and Company, owners of the White Star Line, i.e the firm that owned the Titanic. William died before the Titanic was built, but it's interesting to have a bit of history on the doorstep!

 

[WDWLVR]

They don't freak me out at all. I like to visit older ones. We've got some great ones in the Chicago area that i have visited.

always quiet - the babyland section is a beautiful but sad place. I've got a niece buried in one and it breaks my heart whenever I go visit.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by always quiet

One month later, I would be burying my unborn son in the "little angels" section............................ It was almost as if fate were warning me of the events to come.

I'm so sorry.

I do visit the childrens area of the cemetary once in a while, to pay my respects to them. But it is so sad. I don't take photos of that area. I probably never will.

 

[HollyJoy]

They dont' scare me during the day... they are rather interesting. However, I wouldn't want to go there at night!

 

[WDWLVR]

EsmeraldaX

Here is a site you might like to visit - lots of great shots.

Graveyards of Chicago

 

[Chattyaholic]

Esmerelda: I never thought I would find another person who enjoyed taking photographs of gravestones as I do!!

I've enjoyed doing that for many years, and I love walking through different cemeteries, just looking at all of the stones, seeing how old people were when they died, etc. Some of the newer stones are so pretty with etchings in them. We have a lot of them around here with farm scenes, people have their photographs etched in, etc. So beautiful. And many are adorned with little items that people have left on or beside the stone. I find cemeteries to be quiet and peaceful, very relaxing.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

If anyone is interested in the pictures that started this thread...

Tombstones and Graveyards

Most of them have been touched up with color effects. Sometimes this gives the pictures a very eerie feel, others it gives a very peaceful feel. Some of them , honestly, I don't think are that good (such as the one that is all green). It looked okay last night but now, I dunno, it looks too green and the effect I was going for doesn't look right.

Thank you all for the replies. I feel a little better now.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by WDWLVR
EsmeraldaX

Here is a site you might like to visit - lots of great shots.

Graveyards of Chicago

These are beautiful! Thank you.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I love cemetaries, especially old ones. When DH and I took a car trip around England about 10 years ago, we visited the cemetary where Charlotte Bronte and Little John were buried. The old headstones are really beautiful, and I love reading them. The church accepted donations in exhange for paper and crayons to do rubbings on some of the stones, and we got a great souvenir to take home with us.

I have been in a cemetary at night, when I was about 20, with some other "kids" to see if we could raise the dead. I remember being nervous, but probably because we might get caught. I don't think it is disrespectful to photograph headstones, never heard of that one. As mentioned above, someone is always going to disagree with what you do. People have been photographing headstones for years....

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

Well, if you're morbid, then so am I! I loooove graveyards. There is so much history there. I find it fascinating to read old headstones.

 

[NMAmy]

My grandparents lived down the street from a beautiful cemetary in a small town for 50 years. I remember going down to visit my great-grandmother in the cemetary (she died when I was 8) and reading all the old tombstones.

I just went back with my mom on Memorial Day weekend. I love to go there to visit my grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It's nice to remember. My mom cracked me up though--she grew up in this town and when I asked her where my grandparents' graves were, she told me you turn right at Mrs. Smith--she was my second grade teacher, then you turn left at Mr. Jones--he owned an apartment we rented right after World War II before we built the house.

I remember my dad honked every time we drove by to say hi to Grandma.

I've always seen graveyards as friendly places where you visit friends and family and look at all the history. If you loved them when they were alive, why wouldn't you still love them after they were gone?