W/NW: Cemeteries

[ChipMcD]

Untitled by Chip McDaniel, on Flickr


London Tract Meetinghouse Cemetery. Home of the Ticking Tomb. See the Flickr link for more information.

 

[css9450]

At a tiny little cemetery near me, an oasis away from the light pollution on a full-moon night.

 

[Bob Michaels]

The phrase "six feet under" has no connection to the depths of modern graves. Graves in the US are now only deep enough to have sufficient dirt on top to grow grass. Newton Bell finishes up a grave site in the local South Apopka cemetery before dropping in the vault that will contain the casket the following day.

 

[raydm6]

Mr. Palmer Detail #3 by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[raydm6]

St. Leo's Cemetery #1 by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[raydm6]

St. Leo's Cemetery #2 by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[raydm6]

St. Leo's Cemetery #3 by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[raydm6]

St. Leo's Cemetery #4 by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[raydm6]

Cemetary #2 - Shadows by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[markjwyatt]

Wyandotte Cemetery by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

 

[css9450]

St. Leo's Cemetery #4 by rdc154, on Flickr

Full moon? 😉

 

[raydm6]

Full moon? 😉

No I went a little crazy w/post-processing 😛

 

[Out to Lunch]

Out to Lunch, on Flickr. Jewish cemetery, Orhei, Moldova. June 2009. Canon 5DII - 1.8/50.

 

[p.giannakis]

Chinon CM4s - Pentax-M 35 f/2.8
Ilford HP5 Plus in HC110 pushed to 800

 

[Larry Cloetta]

St. Leo's Cemetery #4[/URL] by rdc154, on Flickr

Nicely done, very evocative, for want of a better word.

 

[raydm6]

Thank you Larry! 🙂

 

[rhl-oregon]

This was a weird and poignant discovery for me several years ago: a corner of a more or less disused cemetery devoted to members of the Free Souls Motorcycle Club (FSMC). The cemetery sits on the hip of a heavily wooded hill above Noti, Oregon, not far from the lumber mill which keeps the town alive.

The FSMC stones, clustered in a bunch, seem to have been commissioned by surviving members of the club, because each stone is engraved with the club’s abbreviation, the member’s nickname, and in some cases an ankh (free soul, I.e.) , a motorcycle profile or a favorite weapon. I doubt that more than a few members are interred there, though there would be room for an urn beneath.

Engraved nunchuks, a Bic lighter, a Raphael putto and the Egyptian symbol for a soul--the symbolic attendants of Fish who has no family name, other than that of his talisman, Harley Davidson. Maybe he died with his boots on; a sodden pair lies to the right. It's a strange life and a stranger afterlife.

Bergie seems to have lived longer than most of the others. Was he their father-figure, or minister, given his cross and separation from the rank and file of the other commemorative stones?

Lightning died--was killed, as his legend emphasizes--in 1978, long before the Free Souls MC bought its corner lot. Most of the FSMC memorialized here died between 1993-2014. Like Lightnin, most died (or were killed) in their 30s and 40s. The pride and honor of belonging to FSMC figure into this, though not family; there are no references to family, other than inclusion in FSMC. I suspect a lot of lumberyard work, alcohol, weed and meth are in their backstories as well.

These images were shot with a Hexar RF and ZM 28/2.8. There are other digital images of individual stones, photographed with an XE1 or a GR, but I never added them in my RFF gallery.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Not far away from FSMC, in the open field where the latest burials are, this deeply strange mound commemorating a “beloved grandmother.”

Fuji XE1, 16/1.4

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Fascinating - thank you Robert. That last one is extremely distinctive!

 

[Rangefinder 35]

Here's one for you guys, who think the cemeteries should be gloomy:

[/url]Chile_Puerto Natales_004 RF by P/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
Purto Natales. Chile
Zeiss Ikon. 35/2.0 Biogon, Fuji Provia 100