Resting in Peace

[FanBoy]

I haven't been to this city cemetery since I was a kid, and my first impression of how cramped and "intimate" it now seemed, especially this older section.

My intent was to capture the spring flowering trees in this cemetery, which features a 29 tree arboretum. It was rather overcast but morning clouds broke, and it quite ruined my plans for shooting under the softened light.

I wasn't planning on doing any HDR bracketing but I thought this scene demanded it.

Comments appreciated...

 

[sleist]

A beautiful scene, but it seems rather underexposed to be honest.
Combined with the HDR treatment, the image comes across as both flat and dark.

 

[manaheim]

Compositionally.., its ok as cemetery shots go, but it's only ok. Cemeteries are tough because there is so much to draw the eye but typically no one thing really stands out well as a subject, so you're left with a flat scene and no point of interest,

It's tough because they can be such beautiful places, but they just don't represent well in photography.

 

[FanBoy]

A beautiful scene, but it seems rather underexposed to be honest.
Combined with the HDR treatment, the image comes across as both flat and dark.

Compositionally.., its ok as cemetery shots go, but it's only ok. Cemeteries are tough because there is so much to draw the eye but typically no one thing really stands out well as a subject, so you're left with a flat scene and no point of interest,

It's tough because they can be such beautiful places, but they just don't represent well in photography.

I did tone down the color a bit, particularly the RGB, because the HDR process initially came across as strong and made the scene look congested. This was a 3 image 2 stop manually bracketed HDR photo, and I had to watch how much sunlight was bearing down from the top right.

As for as composition, I agree, cemeteries as landscapes are a challenge, to an extent. The foreground can really be challenging due to tombstones getting cut off or other distractions. I composed the rutted path in the foreground which leads to the anchored tree and its framing branch. I also wanted to capture a set of obelisk monuments and nearby flowering dogwood trees but didn't want to emphasize their foundations.

Thanks for the input.