Different Statue, Same Problem. Too much clutter. I'm sure a pro could work with the background and make it blend, but I'm not that good yet. I had to settle for a tightly cropped shot.
Most of the Angels at the cemetery have been female so this one, male, caught my eye. Again, a too cluttered background prevented a wider angle shot, but you can see one of his wings to the right of his chin.
Most of the statues at the cemetery have space around them, giving me flexibility to compose the shot. Not this one, it was crowded in tight and behind the plinth were trees and other clutter, so I had to get in tight and stand rather awkwardly for the shot.
This statue wasn't at the best position to photograph, it's way too high but with the sun behind me and reflecting off the statue, the background fades away and (I think) really brings out the contrast between man-made and Nature.
Although it may seem like I'm obsessed with the local cemetery and B/W film, I'm not (really!) it is just that B/W seems to work rather well for the sombre subject at hand.
Was at a smoky jazz lounge the other day. Okay not really, but they had a band playing jazz. Here is the sax player at rest. It's funny how good our eyes can be, in the dim of the lounge, I could see perfectly, but the camera had difficulty. Shooting 400 speed film, with a wide open aperture (1.8) I couldn't get anything less than 1/6 second, which makes handholding neigh impossible.
Another statue from the local cemetery. It's interesting the depth of colours and decay on those I have seen. I presumed they were all made from marble and possibly copper, but who knows? In any case the weathering had a dimension and an age to the statue, as seen here.
A re-visit of one of the Angels with the lford film. The grain effect is less obvious here than in some of the other images I took. I wonder where on the East Coast is the oldest cemetery? I would suspect that the older the place, the more ornate the monuments. That would be a good place to go for photography. Maybe even visit New Orleans as everyone is buried above ground.
Was using the new 50mm lens I got for Christmas, wide open at f/1.8 and as you can see, the hand is not in focus. What she was holding was a bit of a mystery to me even in person, so for the shot I wanted to convey that, so I focused on her head and made sure the hand out be fuzzy. The Ilford grain helped there too.
Same large cemetery, same Ilford roll, same day. I want to photograph every angel/cherub/non-standard headstone there, and I think I'm making good progress. Although the place is huge, it's well laid out and easy to follow.
Yes, you are seeing double. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to do a side by side comparison between the 400CN BW Kodak film and the XP2 Super 400 Ilford film. This shot, as identical as I could make it, comes from the Ilford. 