Smallpox Cemetery

Preston, CT  2015

While traveling along some backroads in Preston, CT, this sign caught my eye.  It would have been very easy to miss, as it was hidden by some pretty thick brush.  I've seen many small cemetery plots along the roads here, but this is the first one I've seen designated as a "Smallpox" cemetery.  I looked around a little but could find no other evidence for the presence of a cemetery here, but I didn't venture to far into the field, since it was on private property.  I did a little research the site and found that it was a common practice to bury victims of smallpox away from others and that many towns had such "smallpox cemeteries".  

Snow Covered Grave

 Mystic, CT  2015

There are many small cemeteries scattered around Connecticut, and the rest of New England for that matter.  Often the plots are small and contain perhaps a dozen or so headstones, dating from the 1700's and 1800's.  Most are family plots and at one time were probably part of the family homestead.    Some are well taken care of while others are slowly returning to nature.  I could not get close enough to this particular headstone  to make out the inscriptions, but I figure it dates from the late 1700's.  I know that this particular cemetery is where a number of early settlers of Mystic are buried. 

Cemetery

New London, CT  2014

Many of the gravestones cannot be ready anymore.  This is the oldest cemetery in New London and one of the oldest in New England.  The city of New London was founded in 1646 and people were first buried here in 1652.

Memorial Day 2014

Here in New England, there is no shortage of old burial grounds dating from the 1600-1700's.  Even though many of the headstones have weathered beyond recognition,  veterans of all the wars are remembered and honored on Memorial Day Weekend.  In many cases, the original headstones have been replaced with newer, more legible headstones so that we can always remember those who have fought for our country and defended our liberties.  The Old Stone Church Burial Ground in Niantic, CT dates from 1719.  There you can find veterans' graves dating from our early wars.  I visited the burial ground today to find the earliest war having a veteran.

There was this headstone for Elijah Smith,  a veteran from the War of 1812, a mere 200 years ago.

Not surprisingly I was able to find this veteran from the Revolutionary War, Joseph Miner.

Surprising to me was to find this veteran, Clement Miner, who fought in the French and Indian Wars, before our country was founded.  He wasn't the only veteran from that war buried here.  

It's nice that all of these veterans are remembered each Memorial Day, even for those wars fought before the founding of the United States.  There might be other veterans from earlier wars buried in other cemeteries throughout New England, but it was somewhat humbling to find these right here in Niantic.  Happy Memorial Day.

Happy Halloween

Gay City State Park

Graveyards around Halloween seem just a little bit spookier, even in broad daylight.  This small cemetery is one of the few reminders that there was once a community in what is now Gay City State Park.  The upper headstone marks the grave of Rev Henry P Sumner, one of the founders of his community and it's religious leader.  The lower picture is the grave of Matilda, Henry's daughter.  At one time the small religious sect that settled in this area in 1796, reached a  total 25 families, the majority of which had "Gay" as their surname.  The area was originally known as Factory Hollow and in keeping with the spirit of Halloween, the place has been reported as being haunted.  But one can say that of just about any place here in New England.  Happy Halloween.

Memorial Day

Niantic, CT

Mausoleum

Stonington, CT

Stonington Cemetery

Stonington, CT

Cemetery Chapel

Stonington, CT

I think this is a chapel, but it has seen better days.  The windows are boarded up and it looks like it hasn't been used in years.  I thought it might be a mausoleum, but I could find no name on the structure.  It dominated the landscape in this corner of Stonington Cemetery

Cypress Cemetery

Old Saybrook

This cemetery is aptly named with many of the historic headstones nestled amongst and protected by the many large cypress trees. 

Memorial Day 2012

North Stonington, CT

I came across this family cemetery while walking through the woods near my home in North Stonington, CT a number of years ago.  The cemetery was over grown with brush, and as you can see covered with leaves from the previous autumn.  I found it interesting that although this plot was far removed from any main roads, fairly deep in the forest, and somewhat neglected,  someone remembered to decorate this particular grave with a flag.  Only parts of the inscription can be read, but from what I can make out, this soldier/veteran died on January 29, 1761, which pre-dates the American Revolution. His name was William. I can't make out his last name. It's the oldest grave of a veteran I've found, although I'm sure there are some older around these parts.  I thought it was appropriate to post this today so that we never forget all those who fought and died for our country. 

Flag II

Allow me one more headstone, this time from a family cemetery.  Mr Stewart was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and lived till the age of 92, which was pretty remarkable for that time.  He is one of the many Stewarts buried here, the most recent one being interred in 1905, which doesn't seem like it should be over a century ago.

Ellen

I wish I knew more about Ellen.  This headstone simply listed her name.  I didn't go any closer or view the other side.

Flag

It's not uncommon in this part of the country to see old cemeteries, dating back to the 1600-1700's.  Many are family cemeteries and I often find them where I least expect them.  North Stonington, I think, has close to 100 of these cemeteries, perhaps even more.  

No. 100

I see from my list in Blogger that this post will be my 100th post since I started this blog back in October.  I've enjoyed sharing my pictures, and I thank everyone who has looked and commented on them.  I hope you liked what you find here.   Since it is sort of milestone, I thought I would post something a little different and pose a question or two about my photography, workflow, and post processing.  The reason I'm doing this is simple.  I follow a lot of photo blogs, and I find everyone's else's pictures much better than mine.  It could be that I'm my own toughest critic, but comparing my pictures to those I see on other blogs, mine tend to look a little "over processed" and less than natural looking. It could be that others have been at this a lot longer and are much better photographers than I am.  Maybe others think differently, but I'd be interested to find out what others think.  So in an effort to post what I consider to be more natural looking photos in the future, I'm looking carefully at my workflow and the programs I'm using to do the post processing.  I'm also looking at my camera settings at time of capture and how they might influence my final images after post processing.  There are so many variables to control, but I have to admit, I do enjoy tinkering with all the aspects of digital photography.

As an example of what I'm talking about.  This first image is typical of my normal workflow of images in this blog.  It's the jpg image, straight out of the camera, with a curve adjustment, highlight recovery, shadow recovery and sharpening done in Aperture.  I then exported the jpg for this blog.

This next image is the same photo as above, reprocessed from the original RAW file using Nikon's Capture NX 2.   When starting with the RAW file, I eliminated all the camera settings used to produce the the jpg above.  I changed the white balance, did a curve adjustment and sharpened.  I saved the image as a jpg, and  prepared it for this blog exactly this same way as the first image.

I know which image I like better.  There are some subtle differences and I'd like to know what others think.       Feel free to comment on any aspect of the image whether it be subject matter, composition, exposure, whatever.  And finally, if others do a lot of post processing, do you adjust the image for a pleasing image, or to the way you remember the image looking at the time of capture?   Thanks for looking.