Andrea, Thank you so much for these tips. Many of them are not
covered in some of the sites I have been looking up. We really
appreciate it. We are doing this as a family reunion activity. If
anyone out there thinks they may have family buried in the Squirrel,
Fremont County, Idaho cemetery, let me know and I will try to find
them, Karleen Lenz Phillips
On 6/15/07, andrealong <andrea7(a)rcwifi.com> wrote:
Karleen, I take a lot of stone pictures, Helen Wildermuth of
http://www.stonehugger.com/ told me last summer that her ideal time of
day to take pictures was about 2pm. I don't get to cemeteries very often at that
time, more like 6pm. I often will take more than
one picture of a stone, one with the sun on the lettering, and then I stand in front of
it to cast a shadow on it and take a
picture. I have also had luck at using a spray bottle, I use a spray bottle that has
never had anything else in it other than
distilled water, and will wet the stone and take a picture. So if I plan ahead, I carry
a gallon or two of distilled water with me,
depending on what I have found in previous visits to the cemetery, it's also a good
way to clean off someone else's chaulking that
was done and not cleaned off. When I've been fortunate once to have help from the
hubby, we wet the stone and then he held an giant
umberella to shade the stone, those were great pictures of some sandstone ones. The
hardest ones for me to photograph are the
polished granites, the sun just reflects so much, you can't get around the glare, so
take different angles, you'll just have to
piece together the info that way. Unless you can go back on a cloudy day, for more of
those to add to your file.
It is very hard to get a clear picture of a stone that is in a deep shadow of a tree or
bush, if you have someone else with you,
have them hold the plant or leaves away from the stone as much as possible. Make note of
where it is, just in case you need to have
someone local go back in the fall once the frost has taken care of the foliage to get a
better picture as there will be more
lighting to get it and the licken or moss will be retreating as well then.
You will end up with lots of pictures on your card, so try to take a laptop with you or
extra cards so you can get your work done
all at one time. The higher dpi or resolution you take the more you can zoom in on your
pictures afterwards. Take extra batteries,
a battery charger that you can plug into your cig lighter in your car is a great help.
For my camera, two sets of batteries for a
cemetery with 200 stones will cover me, but you know your camera better than anyone else.
Turn off your flash if you can, saves
battery power, and you don't need it anyway, plus it saves time between pictures if
it doesn't have to wait for that part of it to
register.
Before I start, I take a picture of the Cemetery Name Marker if there is one, I take
pictures of the cemetery in general, and when I
am all done I take another picture of the Cemetery Name Marker. I do this because I
often go to more than one cemetery in a day,
and that way I know what cemetery these pictures are from days later.
Another thing I like to do now, is I take a picture of the row from the end, take the
pictures of the stones in that row and then
take another picture of the row at the other end, this is when I am doing the whole
cemetery. So that when I get home, I know how
many rows there were and what row a stone is in in perticular when someone asks me.
Make sure to check the back sides of stones, for other information like kids, military or
other burials on there, sometimes,
children's names and dates are ingraved at the very bottom of a stone below the
parents names, and you might not see it unless you
smush down the grass or whatever infront of it. Sometimes you will also see plot makers,
they may have just a number on them or the
plot owners initals. These can vary even in the same cemetery. Some plain, some even
fancy, I photograph those as well, and any
other stone that happens to be in the row, as some burials are simply marked with a
fieldstone.
I've tried to use a mirror, to add extra light on a stone, but have never found a way
to hold it just right and take a picture at
the same time, but maybe if you are going to have help, then you can try it.
I find a lot of stones I that I can not read while there, with my eyes. So I will often
feel the stone with my eyes closed to feel
out the lettering or to even find which side to photograph, I write down what I feel and
hope the photograph will also turn out,
many times the photos are easier to read than the stones were. Take a shot of the whole
stone and then several up close.
Be prepared for muddy knees, I get down on my knees to take pictures at eye level with
the smaller stones, and those tip over facing
down.
Be prepared for bugs and snakes. You never know. Take water drink, it's thirsty
work, not all cemeteries have a pump, and some of
them are not safe to drink from anyway.
Andrea Long
-----Original Message-----
From: inrandol-bounces(a)rootsweb.com
[mailto:inrandol-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Karleen Phillips
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:10 PM
To: INRANDOL-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [INRANDOL] Photographing cemeteries
We have a family reunion project of photographing a family cemetery in
Squirrel, Idaho. I certainly would like some hints from you "pros" if
you have time to send them.
Thanks,
Karleen Lenz Phillips
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