A sort of ghostly story.

Halloween is approaching and it's a great excuse to be found in 1 of my favourite places, graveyards.

My parents had great ghost stories and really believed that they were true. My mother talked about a girl she knew who while dancing with a very handsome man looked down and noticed that instead of shoes he had hoofs. He was probably just a very bad dancer.

I love giving my friends the willies by telling them ghostly tales and even though they pretend to not want to hear them I know they really do. I'm not easily spooked myself, I have quite a logical mind behind it all. I know there has to be a reason for everything though i lost all sense of reason one night about a year ago.

Much to my youngest daughter's horror I agreed to look after the ashes of a dead relative for a few months. I thought nothing of it but she was really freaked at the thought of us ash sitting. I put the ashes in the attic for safe keeping and to hide them, out of her sight and mind. I was very respectful and placed them at the far end of the house above my own bedroom, I even said a wee prayer before I left them there.

Almost straight away I noticed a difference in the night noises in the house. On a windy night in particular the normal creaks and groans from the attic timbers seemed to be louder and more enhanced than they used to be. I knew i was imagining things, my mind was playing tricks on me. Then one dark winter's night, myself and my youngest daughter were alone in the house. Himself was working the night shift and the other two daughters were away for the night.

 I was heading for bed around midnight and went to lock the front door. As I turned the key an alarming  noise coming from the other end of the house sent chills down my spine and i could feel my blood running cold in my body. I could hear myself saying "what the f#@k was that" and at the same time my daughter was saying something similar. Then it happened again, it was for all the world like someone was moving a heavy wardrobe across a wooden floor. 

At this stage the two of us were clung together shivering with fear in the hall. We thought it was coming from the attic, then it happened again and i thought it was coming from the small box room at the end of the house. You should have seen the two of us clinging to each other and slowly walking down the hall to investigate. I knew there had to be a logical reason and thank God there was. I opened the door of the room just in time to see the venetian blind on the window being played like a musical instrument by the northerly wind through the open window. You would be amazed by how loud it seemed in the empty room. We handed back the ashes soon after and thankfully the house returned to normal. 

In keeping with the story and the time of  year my photographs are graveyard themed.

 Camera settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/200sec, f7.1, ISO 100 +remote and tripod

 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70 D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/800sec, f16, ISO100 +remote and tripod

 Camera Settings, Camera- Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, exp 1/10sec, f13, ISO 100 +tripod

 Camera settings, Camera 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@15mm, exp 1/320sec, f9, ISO 100

 Camera settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, exp 1/320sec, f22, ISO 100

 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@11mm, exp 1/800sec, f4, ISO 100 converted to Black/White

 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@11mm, exp 1/6sec, f22, ISO 100

Camera settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@28mm, exp1/60sec, f22, ISO 100

Ruins and Graveyards

Incase it isn't obvious from my profile photo I love old graveyards and old ruins. Not so much for the Spiritual aspect of the places but I love that too. I love the feeling of peacefulness, the feeling of being alone with nature, at least i hope i'm alone. I haven't had a visitation yet so let's hope it stays that way.

I was actually blown away when i came across this tree growing out of an old grave in the Lusitania graveyard in Cobh. I imagined the dead body nourishing the ground that produced this tree ( I know, I have a strange mind) and admired the fight for survival. So much so that it had burst through the corner of the grave and blown the pillar sideways. It has obviously been chopped down several times  and still it is growing and reaching for the sky. It actually looks like a male torso in a strange sort of way.

Camera settings This image is a HDR image, this means that i have taken 3 images at different exposures and merged them together using software. I cheated though and just took 1 image then saved it at -1 exposure and at +1 exposure and merged the 3. settings were, speed 1/125sec, f7.1, ISO 100. I converted to Black and White after and played around with the colour sliders to give it the affect above.

Lens used Tamron 10-24 wide angle @10mm

I took this image using the Tamron 10 - 24mm @ 11mm also.  Speed 1/800sec, f4, ISO 100. I love the way it exaggerates what's closest to the lens and gives it a surreal feeling.

I have photographed this arch so many times that i feel i own a share in it. Unfortunately it's not going to be around for too long more, i noticed a fair bit of deterioration in the structure since i photographed it in the spring. I used the Tamron 10 - 24mm @ 12mm, 1/100sec, f16, ISO 100.

I find using manual focussing with this lens works better than auto focus.