I may have referenced the Andrew Marvell poem To His Coy Mistress here before.
A close and good friend likes to quite that specific phrase.
I tend not to think of the entire line at this point but just those words, thanks to them.
The meaning Marvell is building toward is quite different from what the phrase conveys when isolated like this.
I rather like the latter better.
I’m continuing the monochrome theme from my last share a few days ago with this morning’s post.
I met up with another long-time, dear friend in Sleepy Hollow earlier in October.
Neither of us had been, and we’re both massive Halloween fans.
I drove in the night before, so I could spend the early morning on my own photographing.
I started out in Tarrytown and didn’t get to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery until just after opening.
The sun was a bit higher by then, which played into what I was envisioning: sharp contrast between high key light and long shadows on the ground.
That kind of scene also naturally lends itself to monochrome.
The biggest change I made here was to choose a cooler tone. The lighting was quite hot / warm when I made the composition.
To return to the quote that trigged this brief reflection, I find cemeteries comforting.
More for the privacy than for the being around the remains of the dead, I think.
Most of the time when I visit these places, I’ll see one or two people at most.
Of course I didn’t have the graveyard to myself in the middle of spooky season. Tours started about 9 AM and went on all day.
That said, they were confined to the older section where Washington Irving is buried, and I had spots to myself for good stretches.
Cemeteries are also great for the kind of photography I at times yearn for: peaceful and beautiful, tinged with a bit of the maudlin.
I’ve left the elements I don’t like in the final composition rather than clone them out.
My friend indulged me as I complained about some of the things that drive me crazy when I’m photographing cemetery scenes.
I wouldn’t say they’re impossible to avoid exactly.
But getting a “clean” scene in a busy graveyard with markers on top of each other can be challenging for sure.
I intend to post again this month, but we shall see. Life happens, as they say.
Thanks for reading me and contemplating my work!