Cemetery, Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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Cemetery, Lauterbrunnen Valley.JPG
Cemetery, Lauterbrunnen Valley.JPG1691×2226 1.64 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I could not resist photographing this neat-as-a-pin cemetery in Switzerland, relevant to the weekly challenge because it was almost more garden than cemetery.

Specific Feedback

I offer this for review partly because I’m sure other photographers have seen and shot the cemeteries of Europe, which in general are much more beautiful than those in the USA. However, the beauty comes with a thematic price, the somber nature of the subject, plus there’s a sense of intrusion on a place of private grieving – and for that matter, the privacy of the deceased. Some cemeteries have spooky photos on the headstones. Others (Pere Lachaise in Paris) are so packed with sculpture and crowded that the subject of death almost disappears into the background. In any case, some thoughts on theme, composition and exposure would be appreciated. Would you hang a cemetery image on your wall? Would anyone buy it?

Technical Details

Handheld with an Olympus EM-1 Mark II with IS on a gray but bright morning. F8, 1/80th second, ISO 400, 24MM lens.

1 Like
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It is a lovely looking cemetary with it’s many flowers and shrubs, James. I would burn-in both of the upper corners, to better emphasize the garden view.

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Thanks Mark — I tend to crop tight as you are suggesting here. But I had been thinking I should have gone the other way, wider angle to show that the cemetery is in a magnificent valley in Switzerland. But then I’d have backdrop competing with foreground subject. Landscape photography has turned out to be harder than expected.