Cemeteries Can Inspire (photo essay)

I finally made it yesterday up to my favorite hill for the sunset, which also happens to be a cemetery that I lived on for a year.  I love this place, and from my picture window each morning and dusk I could enjoy the open sky.  It was akin to living on the sea, for the sky is never the same and is always changing.

I could see lightening bolts off in the distance from here, and I waited after the first ones, but it was an awfully long wait!  Here, I was faced north, basically.

I always loved sitting up around this area of this cemetery, with the wind blowing and the hills which appear to roll on forever until the earth reaches the sea.  Some people are very disturbed by being in a cemetery, but I have found for myself that it depends on the cemetery.  You will notice the difference in a moment, since I did go visit another cemetery after this.  

As I crossed over the hill, facing the west, I caught the sun setting.

Truth be told, I had been trying to get a shot of that distant lightening, and was so distracted that I had missed the full effect of the sunset, but still, I was grateful just to be here.  I decided to head home, and on the way home my eye caught another cemetery that I really have never taken the time to check out.  

I was surprised to find some very, very old stones in the second cemetery, and was disappointed to see that many have been vandalized.  Still, there were some shots to take!

As you can see, this cemetery has a different mood to it.  Even without using the sepia, there is something more haunting about this particular cemetery.

The intact version of this type of stone was ghostly, to me.  This was the only stone of it's type that was SOMEWHAT intact.  As you can see of the previous photo, somebody has STOLEN the tiny praying figures...the karma that might be inflicted on those who have done this scares me.  Yikes.

I originally tried this image in black and white, and didn't like it so much, the erosion of the face bothered me.  I figured I would try it in negative, and WOW!  I like this photograph, a lot!  It brings to this image an entirely whole meaning, to me.