For several years now, I've been wanting to go photograph headstones in the local cemetery. Not that I'm morbid, or anything, but I think most headstones are pretty cool. Particularly the older ones that are weathered, moss-covered or even slightly crumbling. There's something simply beautiful about an old graveyard monument!

I'm not sure I can really explain my fascination with cemeteries, but it goes back a long ways. I used to spend a lot of time hanging out in the cemetery in Colfax, either alone or with my small group of friends. We mostly went up there to smoke covertly, or just get away from our parents. Plus, it was creepy and cool to be hanging out in the cemetery! I guess we were goth before goth even became a thing to be!

Anyway, I took some photographs up in that cemetery - very cool photographs, if I do say so myself! - but I haven't seen them in a while, and I'm afraid I may have lost them during a move, or inadvertently destroyed them. I also had some cool photographs of the cemetery in Pierre, South Dakota, and an old western ghost town, Gallatin City, Montana, but those seemed to have vanished into thin air as well. I do know for sure I have some pictures of headstones from the Carmel Mission and San Luis Obispo Mission, and I just need to dig them out and scan them, but, other than those few, I don't have many cemetery photos left. So, I decided I need to rebuild my portfolio of cemetery photographs, and last night I started doing just that.

Since it's been staying light later in the evening, I decided to stop by the SLO cemetery after work to snap a few shots before sunset. Unfortunately, it clouded over and grew dark pretty quickly, so I didn't have much time to get too many pictures. I tried some with the flash, but they just didn't look at all natural or beautiful. I got a few good shots like the one above, but I'll have to go back another time for some more. There was a whole other part of the cemetery I didn't even get to explore before it got too dark to see, and I'm sure there were some great monuments hidden behind overgrown bushes!

Reading: You've Got to Read This ed. by Ron Hansen. This week's stories are "Goodbye, My Brother" by John Cheever, and "Paper Garden" by Jerome Wilsom, as well as three short stories submitted by classmates.

Classic Book: Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

Previously: Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Listening to: Big Daddy Weave, Nate Sallie, and Clay Aiken.

Writing: Working on "False Memories." For now.

Gratitude: Rain! We're supposed to be getting some soon. I hope so, because we really, really need it!