Scottsville Cemetery - Scottsville, TX

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Over Thanksgiving, Jeff Kohn and I were up in East Texas and got together to shoot the Scottsville Cemetery. (Scottsville Texas and Scottsville Cemetery.) It was great to finally meet Jeff face-to-face after several years of being on TPF. He's a great guy.

There are actually three cemeteries that run from West to East starting with Scottsville. The second is a "black only" cemetery named Rockspring. The third is a veterans/military cemetery. All three are distinctly different from each other. Rockspring is not maintained at all and appears in horrible condition. The only thing separating Rockspring from Scottsville is a 4-foot cyclone fence. I tried to tell a segregation story but couldn't get what I was looking for.

Here are a few of the ones I personally liked... starting with my favorite... a Rockspring headstone. Notice the crudeness of the engraving.



Another Rockspring headstone. This is the only headstone in any of the three cemeteries that adorns an actual photo:


This was my (somewhat failed) attempt to portray the segregation between the two cemeteries. This is (obviously) taken from the Rockspring side of the fence:



An obligatory photo of the church on the cemetery grounds:


The next set of images are all from the Scottsville cemetery:










I did get a few photos in the veterans cemetery... but it was a little disturbing to me so I didn't stay very long. One thing I notice when I first drove into the cemetery was that is was very well maintained (as I expect most military graveyards are). But then I noticed an open grave that had been dug that very day. That was somewhat disturbing.

But then I saw this headstone... and I left shortly thereafter:


I hope you enjoy these meager photos.

- Wil

[jeffkohn]

Hey Wil, it was nice meeting with you for a bit on Friday. Wish I could have gotten there a little earlier, especially after seeing your images from the Rockspring cemetery which I never made it over to. It's a nice area, lots of history - I have a feeling I'll be visiting again now that I know about it. I haven't really had a chance to work on my images yet, but maybe I'll get a few up soon (I didn't take that many).

I can see why the first is your favorite, it's a strong image. Of the rest, I think the B/W are my favorites, with #9 being one of the standouts. Monochrome just 'fits' for this type of subject matter IMHO. I like your angle on the standing angel (#8); I shot here straight-on and the result is pretty boring.

[wclavey]

I don't know if I will ever be in that area, at least in the near term, but I have added this cemetery to the list of places I keep in my Palm. I really like the last B&W shot from the Scottsville side that has the OOF monuments in the background. It seems to tell a bit of a story itself. Is the Weeping Angel here the same size as the one in Houston?

[jeffkohn]

Is the Weeping Angel here the same size as the one in Houston?

The statue is the same size as the one in Houston, but it's up high on a tall pedestal. If I get a chance I'll post an image later this evening that shows what I mean (if Wil doesn't mind me adding a few images here).

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by ParkImaging

Over Thanksgiving, Jeff Kohn and I were up in East Texas and got together to shoot the Scottsville Cemetery. (Scottsville Texas and Scottsville Cemetery.) It was great to finally meet Jeff face-to-face after several years of being on TPF. He's a great guy.

Did ya check his ID ?????

I am drawn to the last two the most.
Wish the last was a little sharper.

[jeffkohn]

Here are a few of mine from that afternoon.

[KJ Smith]

Jeff,

I like the first two the best. I will comment more later.

[wclavey]

There sure are a lot of people named "Scott" in that cemetery! I guess they mean it when they say "Scottsville"...

I like the first one the most of all these Jeff, especially what you did with the framing of the weeping angel behind it. They look especially "dramatic" - - are these composites (HDR?) to bring up the dynamic range?

I think my favorite of the whole group is still Wil's #9 with Jeff's colonnade from his first shot in the background. Wil's looks like a civil war or other documentary shot.

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by wclavey

There sure are a lot of people named "Scott" in that cemetery! I guess they mean it when they say "Scottsville"...

No kidding. It seemed like half the tombstones had the name Scott on them.

I like the first one the most of all these Jeff, especially what you did with the framing of the weeping angel behind it. They look especially "dramatic" - - are these composites (HDR?) to bring up the dynamic range?

The second one is a blend of two exposures (foreground and sky), but it's not HDR tone-mapping. The others are single exposures (the D3x's dynamic range continues to impress me). I used a 'red filter' when converting to B/W on the first two, which gave a pretty dramatic effect with the lighting and clouds we had (the light was very nice while it lasted).

I think my favorite of the whole group is still Wil's #9 with Jeff's colonnade from his first shot in the background. Wil's looks like a civil war or other documentary shot.

I agree, that shot gives a great impression of the place.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I REALLY need to spend some time in Photoshop to create some frame actions for portrait and landscape. The ones like Jeff's and _/oe's really make the images snap.

My favorites are Jeff's #1 and #2. Both are dramatic and strong. I would really like to see what those two images would look like using the 24-70mm instead of the 24mm PC. I just may have to pick up one of those PC lenses... and then attempt to learn to use it.

- Wil

[wclavey]

Wil, I agree about the virtual matting... I was always taught that you need to look at a photograph with a mat of some kind, to isolate the picture for your eyes... sometimes, just seeing it on the screen can work id there is space around it, but the mat really helps. Jeff pointed me to the matting software he uses and I have gone nuts with it - - it is exactly what I needed. It comes as a script you can use in Photoshop and is simple and perfect. It is called Mike's Framer and he has a version to match every version of PS. Now I sit up late at night, going through hundreds and hundreds (maybe 800?) images I have scanned from film and worked on in PS and putting mats on them to see if I want to put them in my online gallery.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Hi Westly,

Thanks for pointing out Mike's Framer. I downloaded them but have no clue how to get them to work. They don't seem to show up in styles even after I specifically replace the existing set with the Mike's Framer ones. Retard Sunday I guess.

- Wil

[Hanky]

Impressive! I will make that place part of my Shreeveport visit this Christmas.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

A HUGE thank you to Mr. Wes Clavey for pointing me in the right direction with getting the Mike's Framing actions working in Photoshop. My life just got a lot easier with framing.

Here's a quick example... and another image from Scottsville:


- Wil

[KJ Smith]

Wil,

That last one is really nice.

I think the whites are a little hot and maybe add little burn in the upper left.

Nice image!!