Walking Through Greenwood Cemetery during a Pandemic

[shadowkat]

Greenwood Cemetery is located right next to one of the boroughs of Brooklyn most affected by the pandemic (at least in Brooklyn) - this is where the Orthodox Jewish (Russian, Polish, Eastern European), Muslim (Pakistan, Bangladash), and Middle Eastern communities reside, along with everyone else. My area of Brooklyn is one of the most diverse in the city. We have just about every racial ethnicity, creed, age, etc imaginable. This area is also lower middle class - they don't live in the big mansions, and are mostly renting. The area is largely residential in character with many large trees, and narrow sidewalks. It being trash day - there were bundles of trash cluttering the sidewalks in front of many of the homes and apartment complexes. It feels a bit like a suburb of the city proper, although at the same time very urban, the perfect mix of the two.

Greenwood Cemetery founded in 1838 was among the first rural cemeteries in North America.

Founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark, Green-Wood was one of the first rural cemeteries in America. By the early 1860s, it had earned an international reputation for its magnificent beauty and became the prestigious place to be buried, attracting 500,000 visitors a year, second only to Niagara Falls as the nation’s greatest tourist attraction. Crowds flocked there to enjoy family outings, carriage rides, and sculpture viewing in the finest of first generation American landscapes. Green-Wood’s popularity helped inspire the creation of public parks, including New York City’s Central and Prospect Parks.

Green-Wood is 478 spectacular acres of hills, valleys, glacial ponds and paths, throughout which exists one of the largest outdoor collections of 19th- and 20th-century statuary and mausoleums. Four seasons of beauty from century-and-a-half-old trees offer a peaceful oasis to visitors, as well as its 560,000 permanent residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbets, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Horace Greeley, Civil War generals, baseball legends, politicians, artists, entertainers and inventors.

It recently changed it's hours due to the COVID-19 outbreak. So I was not wrong about that.

Below are various photos that I took on my walk through the cemetery this evening:

1. The Cemetery from the Street



2. Flowering bush in the Cemetery





3. Another Flowering Bush - not the same one.





4. Dogwood Tree Among the Graves..at least I think that's a dogwood..





5. Trees and graves - I think these photos give you and idea of how vast it is and beautiful at the same time. Also convey how peaceful it can be, in some ways even more peaceful than Prospect Park. For one thing it's better maintained. No litter to speak of, well mowed, and less people.

















6. Walking on a path by myself through the graves, one of the few times I've been able to pull my mask down from my face while wandering about outside. It's amazing to be able to pull a mask down and breath the fresh air. I really really miss being able to breath fresh air without a mask.

Comments

[atpo_onm]

I especially like the one with the cross on the pedestal and the clouds behind it, with the tree and the stone wall kind of framing it from the side and bottom.

Question: When you compose your images, is it mostly a conscious effort, mostly unconscious ("it just looks right") or a mixture?

I know some of the best shots I've had over the years have been largely the latter-- even though I always pay great attention to the composition within the camera's frame, there often seems to be something there that only my subconscious seems to see, and I only really notice it when it's up on the monitor screen in my photo software or in a print.

[shadowkat]

It's all intuitive. I don't think at all when I shoot the pictures. I just look at it, think wow, and lift the Iphone and take the shot. No analysis, nothing.

I do, however, photoshop or edit it on the phone afterwards - to make it work better. But the photo you liked? I didn't photoshop at all and just kind of took on the spur of the moment.

[maia]

I'm having trouble seeing your images - I'm not sure why?

[shadowkat]

Odd, others are seeing them. Could be something to do with your server or account? Because the atpo_omn had no issues. And I can see them. I do know that I occasionally have issues seeing people's photos too. (I did post them on FB as well...that's how I got them here - via the FB url.)

[atpo_onm]

I don't have a Facebook account, so it couldn't be that you need one. They take a few seconds to load in when I view them, but I'd expect that since they're externally sourced. I do have to click on one of them first (the link)-- they don't appear on your initial post if I don't. (All appear if I click on one). Or, I can make them appear if I click on a reply someone's posted.

[shadowkat]

I see them in the email responses. I do know that I had issues seeing photos in some other's posts for a bit, so it may be a bandwidth or server issue - or the fact that they are external sourced. I honestly have no other way of doing it. It asks for an external url - so you hit "copy image location" and link it.

LJ was better - because I could just upload from my computer, that and the polls are the only things I miss from LJ. (Well I also miss some of the people there who have no migrated over here.)

[yourlibrarian]

So nice seeing the greenery and flowers.

[herself_nyc]

Gorgeous. Thanks.