What started out as an impromptu hike to one cemetery prairie to see prairie gentian in bloom ended up at a different cemetery prairie (by Paxton). Oh well, the cemetery Frank and I ended up at had better “architecture” for photography than the original destination. I’ve been fascinated by cemeteries since I was a very little girl and cemetery prairies, while tiny, usually have the best biodiversity of any prairie remnant in Illinois. The day was perfect for a prairie hike—it was cloudier and more overcast than the previous day (which was even more perfect—oh, the blue background we could have had for our photographs!), but the texture the clouds added to the sky was equally desirable and blue flowers (like gentian) photograph better on overcast days rather than in bright sunlight (bright sunlight works better for yellow flowers). My companion and I didn’t find any gentian, possibly due to the cooler summer (delayed? Didn’t bloom at all?), but I amused myself with the iron fence around some of the graves. It’s tricky trying to compose around cornfields and parked cars (don’t want those in the background) and yet get the architectural elements in the frame with a bit of stiff goldenrod for a splash of color. Of course the clouds didn’t cooperate; they were dissipating into a smoothness that also worked. My main focus was the ironwork fence around several graves, but I layered one of the posts, pock-marked with the rust of time, over a gravestone orb. Some great geometric shapes: the straight lines (and some not-so-straight lines) and angles over a smooth circle. By the time we left (the ragweed was getting to us) the sun was out and the clouds gone; as I type this, maybe I should have tried the shot with blue sky behind the architecture. Oh well, next time.
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