AP Studio Art: Taking Reference Photos in the Cemetery

Syd needs several hundred reference photos to use in her AP studio art classes, so we've been taking lots of little field trips out and about lately, in search of interesting places with lots of interesting things to photograph there. 

While Syd roamed around a local cemetery the other day, taking photos of things she might want to reference in her art someday, I roamed around, too, stayed out of her way, and took my own photos:

One of my Girl Scouts told me recently about the multi-faceted artistic tool that is "portrait mode" on one's cell phone camera, so that's what I'm experimenting with. I think she's quite correct!

Found a Freemason:

Found a fellow photographer!

Limestone used to be a major local industry, so the older cemeteries have lots of examples of masterful and detailed carving:

Once upon a time, a sapling was planted in between the graves of two departed lovers...

I would rather my corpse be tossed into a ditch than interred in a cemetery, but I wouldn't say no to a limestone memorial to my love of reading!

Our town thinks it has an urban deer problem, so much so that every now and then the city council will pay some of our hard-earned tax money to hire either hunters to shoot them down or other hunters to shoot them with birth control. I think it's absurd, but to be fair, it was a little disconcerting to see a couple of deer wandering around the cemetery in broad daylight, as brazen as squirrels:

It's too bad that the camera on Syd's ipod touch isn't great, because I can see that a cell phone camera is obviously the ideal tool for taking reference photos. It's probably better for her overall artistic growth, though, to increase her familiarity with my DSLR.

I'll be very curious to see if Syd finds these reference photos useful during her AP studio art work. She doesn't think she will, but collecting them is a strong recommendation for the courses, so that's what she's doing. I guess we'll both just be happily surprised if they happen to come in handy!