There is a small cemetery at the edge of our town that sits along the water, nestled back up under an expansive canopy of oak trees. I've passed it hundreds of times over the years and was always rather intrigued by its appearance but never ventured in before.
Today I visited the Jessie Rogers Memorial Cemetery with my camera. While I don't make it a habit of strolling through cemeteries, when I do find myself in one, I tend to be drawn to the graves of those who passed away very young.
The tombstone pictured above would seem to belong to the young child of the family for whom this place is named. It is located in a section of plots all bearing the names of various members of the Rogers family from the mid to late 1800's.
One of the things I noticed during my visit was that many of the graves have been and continue to be adorned by all sorts of paraphernalia and mementos, some bordering on the absurd for their garish or absurd nature, or just sheer volume.
Being a father myself though, I was particular touched by this one. Here is the final resting place of a young child who passed away nearly 22 years ago as of this posting. Yet it continues to be adorned with small toys. Many are obviously quite weather worn and I just couldn't help but marvel at the fact that they have stayed here undisturbed for however long they've been in place.
I'm not sure what caught my eye about this particular spot. The time was getting late in the day and the entire site was completely shaded over, which would usually render the light very flat and unappealing. But there was some quality in the stone of this marker that for whatever reason gave it a very distinct glow. With the granite nicely contrasted against the surrounding colors of the flowers, I felt compelled to capture this image.
All shots were taken in natural light. The black and white of young Ida Rogers was taken earlier in the day with near direct, but low in the sky sunlight striking a hard angle from my rear left camera position. The other two shots were in total shade of the surrounding oak trees and the sun approaching the horizon well out of the angle of view.
