The Living & the Dead, a photo from Nottinghamshire, England

Photographer's Note

I am sure this one will not be to every ones taste, but i feel it is in keeping with TE.Taken in the very porley named General cemetry right in the centre of the city of Nottingham,is hidden behind lots of tall walls and buildings so it seems like a seret garden. The cemetry has marker stones that ive seen dated around 1850 and some that are worn out look alot older. (for those intrested look at the web site WWW.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/bereavement ),and look at the history, it is the same place as the piece of twisted iron I posted the other day.
This slate head stone was one of the first things that I saw when entering, the site has been planted heavily with some superb trees this one is a weeping ash (fraxinus excelsior `Pendula`), it has leaned forward onto this stone.As its grown it has cracked the stone but at the same time it has surported it and grown round it and even between the split, ensuring that as long as the tree stands so will the memorial. it is to a man and his 3 young sons dated 1865, the edge is carved with leaves ever so finely worked into it.I suspect that you will be able to read the details off the stone if down loaded and enlarged I can from the original. I am going to be very cheeky and post as a workshop the whole tree so you get a feel for the context of the picture.
You may notice that even at F2.8 that the houses overlooking the site are all in focus. this is some thing I find a problem shooting in digital DOF seems very variable some times only inchs make a difference then others like this you can go to infinity like here.
Adjustments . crop to size . saturation +10 contrast +4 USM 120% X 1.9px radius X threshold 1
save to web at close to 200K as possible (TE limit)

Jeppe, Eagle78, jhaider, eelliott305, milloup, Rockyboy, mogens-j, hojper, quegardens, richtersl, digiken, rabani, roconnell, r_bodenschatz ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

Jeppe (18654) 2004-03-22 14:59

Oh - this one special :-) It seams like the tombstone about to being swallowed by a giant snake. Surely a photo worth posting and I haven't seen the workshop yet.

I wonder why this tree was allowed to grow in such a way - Good work Robert.

Eagle78 (1933) 2004-03-22 15:07

Wonderful capture Robert! This is an unusual situation and your title really matches the mood here..very creative indeed. Great work.

eelliott305 (776) 2004-03-22 15:48

This is a weird one. Definitely TE material, thanks for sharing. I`m surprised nobody tried to fix it years ago. BTW I have similar problems with DOF and digital.

gadinga (626) 2004-03-22 15:48

Great idea to take this shot and even better idea to share it with us. Lovely compostition. The grass seems awfully green,is that its true color for this time of year or did you do some postprocessing?

milloup (1829) 2004-03-22 16:01

It looks a bit like the question of who came first, the hen or the egg - or maybe the egg*snake*, as suggested by Jeppe ;-)) I can see your point with DOF, but I don't think it detracts or matters here, it's just all part of the whole. You have left a white sliver top left which you might consider removing.

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veimann (1269) 2004-03-22 16:08

Is more tremendous!
They look as a unit. The human life so is closely bound with the wild nature. It is excellent the staff and well made.

Rockyboy (20598) 2004-03-22 16:26

This picture is very stunning, robert. Your note explain it very well with the WS too. Thanks for sharing it on TE!

mogens-j (56) 2004-03-22 16:43

Remarkable example of the strange ways of nature. I do like the picture and the composition. Thanks for sharing.

hdl (7035) 2004-03-22 17:19

This is the weirdest picture I saw in days! Great one! Your title says it all.

hojper (2832) 2004-03-22 17:36

It also makes me think of some sci-fi or horror film. Another thought that occured was an elephant's foot stepping on the gravestone. That image really sets the imaginations ablaze, doesn't it? Very well seen.

quegardens (1469) 2004-03-22 18:10

That is an absolutely amazing shot Rob.I've never seen anything like that before.Glad you were able to show us this unique juxtaposition of the living and the dead.
As others have mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is some kind of monstrous animal with a particularly unusual dietary preference:-)Even the two eyes are already adequately displayed.
This might also work well in b&w.

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richtersl (3546) 2004-03-22 19:04

Great photo! The tree looks as though it's swallowing up the grave and reclaiming some of the earth. Very well seen. I couldn't resist playing with the photo in a workshop.

[workshop] [compare]

rabani (9645) 2004-04-05 2:54

Long DOF on F2.8? I got the same thing the other day, which was contracdicting myself with my students. Then I learnt. It seems we would get long DOF on F2.8 when we are more than 2m from our subject.

roconnell (327) 2004-04-23 22:28

Quite a contrast and a study of time. Well done.

cdewet (0) 2004-04-24 13:38

Evening Robert
This is proof that there is life after death! I like this a lot. Sorry I could not get to any cementaries in Britain as there are hunders of shots just waiting to be taken. This looks like a giant snake, swallowing its pray

r_bodenschatz (173) 2014-04-19 1:11