Winter visit to Forest Lawn Cemetery

Sometimes when I go to a location to shoot photos I have a plan in my head about the resulting images I’d like to produce. On this trip my expectations were exceeded by the scenes presented on this cold winter visit to Forest Lawn Cemetery.

I have been searching for opportunities to shot some tiny Planet photos for a couple weeks. The photo at the top of the page was what I was looking for. The location is in the north-west corner of Forest Lawn Cemetery near the Scajaquada expressway. It is perfect. Several tall structures and trees located near each other and a clear blue sky. What more could I ask for.

I setup in the deep snow, tripod between two mausoleums, in the shadow of one. I leveled the camera and tripod, installed the remote shutter release and began shooting 81 photos in three sets. The above photo is the result.

A benefit to shooting tiny planet photos is the images can be reprocessed many ways. I decided to make a traditional panorama but leave much of the distortion of the tiny planet in place.

Next I applied a painting affect to the panorama which I prefer.

So one series of images gave me three completed photographs.

After taking the series of shots I needed for that panorama I drove around looking for more locations. Driving by the Birge Memorial I found something interesting. having just finished shooting the first tiny planet I thought it would be perfect for another.

I walked over to the memorial and placed my Fujifilm X100s and tripod on the crypt and began.

The memorial did provide some challenges. Under the snow around the crypt was a sheet of ice and I did not want to disturb the snow on the crypt too much otherwise it would show up in the resulting photos. I had to be careful.

Three loops of photos for the total of 91 later I had all the information needed. A unique perspective if I must say so myself. Processing in the computer still required several hours but I think it was worth it.

Right next to the memorial the Scajaquada creek runs through the Forest Lawn Cemetery. The fresh winter snow on the hillside, ducks in the water, it was a scene out of a storybook. I setup for another panorama, this time a traditional one.

It was a nice windless day, only the ducks disturbing the water of the creek as it slowly ebbed towards lake Erie.

I reprocessed this image as a black & white panorama.

It was a cold day, my fingers where starting to go numb. Taking these panoramas with my equipment take a while. But I had one last stop to make. Being a FireFighter, the Firemen’s Memorial near the entrance gate.

I shoot two series of photos from different locations and processed the second one as a black & white panorama

I work within walking distance of Forest Lawn but have not spent much time there. I will make a point of stopping back several more times this year as I have only scratched the surface of what it has to offer.

All photos above are available for sale though my online store, Gallery.hotpixl.com. You can click on the photos to go directly to each photo.

If you enjoy my photos I could use a little help. The company that I sell my photos through, Fine Art America, is doing a contest. In order to get to the judging round I need to get 250 votes. I have submitted three photos which you can find here :

Leave a Reply Cancel reply