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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Review of Worldwide Photo Walk

Worldwide Photo Walk

 Saturday, October 7 was the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk.  This walk sponsored by Kelby One had over 21 thousand participants on 985 walks throughout the world.  As I looked at the map I noted that just over half of the participants were in North America and the rest of the walks were scattered throughout the world.  The stated purpose of the walk is for photographers to go out on a walk, shoot photographs and have fun with other photographers.

The walk will have a contest at the end where everyone is asked to submit one photo from the walk.  The photo at the top of the page is my submission.

Supporting Charity

The participants of the walk are encouraged to donate to The Springs of Hope, a Kenya orphanage.  The organization feeds, houses, educates and empowers young orphans.

View of Barge going down Missouri River

Walk in St. Charles Missouri

The walk that I participated in took place in the historic downtown and the riverfront area of St. Charles.  A group of us (about 15) met at 8:45 Saturday morning at the old train depot on the riverfront.  We were given a bit of guidance from the leader of the walk and then we all gathered for a group photo.
After the group photo we broke into smaller groups and began our walk. The group I was in walked down the riverfront for about a half a mile, talking, laughing and stopping to photograph interesting sites.  

After a while we turned up from the river for a stop at a farmer's market.

Next we followed the itinerary for the walk and walked a block up from the river to historic Main street in St. Charles.

Main Street is a delightful area with cobblestones streets and lots of wonderful old buildings that are turned in to shops and restaurants.  It can get quite busy on a weekend afternoon, but since we were there in the morning the crowds were slim and we were able to get some good shots.  The next photos are the sidewalks and shops along Main Street.

Changing Decor for the Seasons

It is early fall when we are taking our walk and the shop owners have decorated for the season.

Taking a Rest

Our walk lasted just over 2 hours.  Here are a few of the group stopping for a rest on some bundles of hay.  After the walk several of the participants stopped at a local restaurant to enjoy some good food and discuss photography.  It was a fun morning that I enjoyed thoroughly.

Photography Books

I enjoy reading photography books to get ideas from other photographers and to hone my photography skills.  I have found Scott Kelby's digital photography books to be very helpful.  Here is a book he now has with the best of the other books.

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Ideas for Fall Photography

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year to take photos.  I love the way the colors are so bright and cheery and there are so many wonderful items to photograph.  On this page I will give you some ideas of items to photograph in the fall.

One of my favorite subjects is the beautiful fall colors reflected in water.  This photo was taken at a friends farm in mid Missouri.  The colors were beautiful on the hillside by the lake and in late afternoon I was able to catch the reflections.

Landscape scenes are beautiful in the fall, but you will also want to take the time to photograph some items up close.  In this photo I was taking an early morning walk in the woods in Minnesota and I stopped and zoomed in on these bright red leaves with drops of morning dew still on them.

Fall flowers make great subjects.  In this  photo fellow blogger, Sylvestermouse captured a beautiful bouquet of fall flowers.

Fall Floral Post Cards by Sylvestermouse
Create a full color post card on Zazzle

Pumpkins and fall decorations make great photos.  Here is a photo I took of a pumpkin display in Old Quebec city.

Pumpkins in Quebec Photo Art by mbgphoto
See other Pumpkins Photography

For more ideas on items to photograph in the fall here are a couple of hub pages I wrote on fall photography.

• http://mbgphoto.hubpages.com/hub/fall-in-michigan
• http://mbgphoto.hubpages.com/hub/autumn-in-missouri

Fall is in the air here in Missouri and I'm anxiously awaiting the fall colors.  Wherever you are I wish you  much success in your fall photography!

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