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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Shooting The Dead

Well it's been busy in my life of late. Started classes at the local college last week and boy has the schedule around here been nuts! Going 4 days straight a week to school, you'd think I'd be the one complaining, but instead it's been the kids whining about it.

And boy have they taken whining to an elevated art form!

Talk about mommie withdrawal symptoms. They do not like the idea that I'm not in the house 24/7 as they usually expect. Mommie having a life is apparently not on their agenda just yet. They seem to be having this elevated "fear" that I won't be home when they get home from school themselves.

My God! What are they going to do during the summer when I'm not here.

They'll figure it out!

One of my classes is this great black and white photography class that has me realizing now that I'm gonna have to hit the bank up for a small loan on all the rolls of film I'll be using. My first project entails me to use no less than seven rolls! Out of those seven rolls, I'm hoping for just 10 good pics for my project.

So I started out this morning embarking on photographing the St. Michaels' Historic Cemetary in downtown Pensacola. I got up to leave at 6 a.m., cause I wanted some good lighting for the "shoot". Instead, I woke up to thick heavy clouds signaling an impending storm on the horizon.

As my instructor says: "Creative doesn't stop when the rain starts."

I made some coffee shoved some leftover cold macaroni and cheese down my throat. The mac and cheese would have been completely gross for breakfast except that I made it homemade last night, and whether or not it's cold or hot, it's damn good!

Driving over the 3-mile bridge to Pensacola and still gobbling down cold mac and cheese, I see the clouds accumulating in darker and darker globs over exactly where I have to go. Upon arriving to the cemetary I find.... it's closed! You know that's just my luck!

Locked up tighter than a drum and no stinking way to climb over its' archaic wrought iron fencing without stabbing myself to death in some kind of "Exorcist" type manner in the process.

So instead, I decided to look like the crazy lady in the family van and start circling the place in hopes that if I go around enough times, the locks on the gates will magically fall off.

Well THAT didn't work!

I implore the assistance of a female cop parked in a nearby parking lot to let me in. She laughs cause she instantly realizes that I'm a Mom slash Photography Student slash Someone desperate to get some pics before she has to go home and feed the kids type of person.

She has no clue when it opens.

So I am left to either go home with nothing or attempt something.

I'm not about to go home empty handed. I came for creepy photos of the cemetary in black and white, and that's what I'm gonna get.

So as the dark clouds loom low behind me, I park the car and start clicking through the old black fence and realize that it's just the perfect day for photographing a cemetary. The dark clouds seem to accentuate tombstones and time-stained crypts billowing from about the ground.

A distant sound of thunder can be heard.

I swear I hear evil laughing as well.

I am so longing to be inside that cemetary though as if the dead are beckoning me to climb the fence and visit their quiet resting places.

There were shots I wanted to get, but didn't because stuffing ones self through a 6 inch space between fence bars doesn't work when you're trying to get the perfect shot.

I REALLY needed a zoom lens at this moment!

I had resided myself to the fact that I would have to visit later in the day (hopefully), when it was opened to the public (finally).

I did manage to pull out some decent shots - I hope - and even managed a cool one as lighting exploded over my head as I was finishing up. I just hope it isn't blurred cause I think I jumped quite a bit when that happened. Thank goodness for awesome shutter speeds!

I'm home now and it's pouring outside as the storm eventually followed me here. Everyone is still asleep and I'm sitting here being completely obsessed about that cemetary and the spirits in which I didn't catch in my lens today.

Until that moment arises, I am left to do nothing but..... my stinking math homework!