Review of Fall Photography in a Cemetery

Bellefontaine Cemetery

On a crisp fall morning in mid October several members of the O'Fallon photography club took a trip out to Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum in St. Louis.  This historic old cemetery was a wonderful place to explore and take photographs.

History

The Bellefontaine Cemetery has been in operation since 1849 and contains over 160 years of history. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The cemetery contains the graves of many of the men and women who shaped the history and culture of St. Louis.  To find out more about the people who have graves and mausoleums at Bellefontaine you can click on this link to their website. Bellefontaine Cemetery  There are brief life stories of many of the influential people who are in the cemetery as well as a detailed history of the cemetery through the years.  Before the 19th century cemeteries were mostly in church yards.  When Bellefontaine was first started there was a movement to provide peaceful parklike settings for burial places. 

Architecture

The architecture and art in Bellefontaine Cemetery is truly amazing.  There are many different types of architecture including Classic Revival, Romanesque, Gothic, Egyptian Revival as well as mausoleums and statues with Western influence. The first mausoleum in the photograph below is one that was constructed in 1921 and is an elaborate Gothic Revival style.  The details on it are truly beautiful.  You can't tell from the photo, but when I looked in the front doors I saw beautiful stained glass windows on three walls.

 You can see from the next three photos that there are a wide variety of different styles of mausoleums at the cemetery.

There were also  many statues throughout the cemetery.  A lot were of angels and crosses were carved into many of the stones.

There were beautiful features in the windows of many of the mausoleums.  Above you see a stained glass window and below is a photo I took from inside one of the mausoleums.  I really liked the details on the window.

Nature

Bellefontaine is also an arboretum that has over 500 trees and woody shrubs throughout its 314 acres.  These come from over 200 different species and when we visited in mid October some of the leaves had turned and others were still green.  This made for a beautiful mix of colors among the old stone tombstones and mausoleums.

We walked around the cemetery taking photographs for over 2 hours and only saw about 25% of the area.  I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more. It was truly an interesting place.

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Celebrate Fall with a Visit to a Pumpkin Patch and Crafts

Remember when visiting a pumpkin patch meant picking out a pumpkin for Halloween carving?  Well you can still do that, but pumpkin patches have sprung up all over with a wide variety of fall activities for all ages.  I discovered all the fun of a pumpkin patch visit last weekend when we visited Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch in the Kansas City area.

In the photo above my granddaughters Kate and Emily stop so I can take their photo by a pile of pumpkins.  The pumpkin patch had many different photo op spots throughout the area.  There were those cute wood cutouts where kids can stick their heads through the holes and look like a farmer, cowboy or even a pumpkin.  There were also lots of fall decorations with places for the kids to sit while you took their photos. This photo shows the girls running out of a maze made of corn stalks.

The pumpkin patch that we went with our granddaughters also had lots of animals for the girls to feed or pet.  There was a pen of goats and also other enclosures with ducks, rabbits and chickens.  

There was lots to do for the girls including a ride on a train, tractor tricycles to race, and places to climb.

This big rocking chair was a hit with the girls.

After taking plenty of time to let the girls run around we stopped at the donut hut for some delicious pumpkin donuts.  There was also a fudge shop where we purchased some fudge to take home with us.  Of course we couldn't forget to get our pumpkin so before we left we hopped on the wagon for a ride down to the field where all the pumpkins were growing to pick out some special pumpkins to bring home and carve.

The trip to the pumpkin patch was a great success.  It was so much fun watching the girls enjoy the day.  If you are looking for a fun activity for a fall day I would suggest looking for a pumpkin patch to enjoy the treats of the season in the great outdoors.

Fall Crafts

When we got back home from the pumpkin patch it was time for some quiet time so the girls colored some wooden masks that I had gotten from a craft shop.  Here are several links to some fall crafts that would be great for all ages.
Easy Pumpkin Craft
Halloween Crafts
Here are the girls with their newly colored witch masks.

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