Graphic Shapes

Mark Graf made a comment on my last post about Gargoyles, saying that I should consider photographing them in a cemetery.  I mentioned in response to that comment that, in fact, I live not far from two old and locally historic cemeteries.  And, while I have gone to photograph in both of them (I should probably put some of those images up on the blog at some point), it has not been for gargoyles. At any rate, that comment got me thinking about those few cemetery trips I took and the images I came back with. During one trip, I thought I was going to shoot photos of interesting headstones.  However, one of the things that has always grabbed my attention when I am making photos is graphic lines and shapes; the simpler the better.  On this particular trip, I vividly remember that I started to lose interest in the headstones (though I did take this previously posted photo on that same visit), but that my eye was caught by a cement ball that was on top of the brick entrance gate to the cemetery (I am sure there is an official architectural name for this, but it escapes me, if I ever knew it).  So, on this visit, I ended up spending more time taking photos of this cement ball at the gate than of any actual graves or headstones in the graveyard itself.

"Cement Ball I"

Copyright Howard Grill

"Cement Ball II"

Copyright Howard Grill

It is sort of funny.  You might think that it would be a simple thing to take a picture of a cement ball, but I actually spent quite a bit of time with it, shooting at various apertures to change the depth of field, cropping differently, and generally moving around to make differing compositions.  It ended up being an exercise that was really quite enjoyable......and certainly a different one than I had expected to be doing when I left the house that morning!