“And sometimes it rains!” This quote from Bull Durham springs to mind way too often during the autumn planting season. This year has been especially rainy! Each weekend seemed to have at least one day of soaking rain. Last weekend we even had a nor’easter. Needless to say, I’m behind on my planting!
(I checked in with another grave tending friend…she’s behind, too. At least it isn’t just me. 😊)
Each autumn is a race against time…on both ends: You can’t plant too early because first, the summer flowers you planted are still blooming, and second, the plants in the nursery are either still budding or they simply aren’t in stock yet. But if you wait too long to plant, you run out of daylight fast.
We needed to plant two sites this past Friday. I took a few hours off from my “day job” because this particular cemetery is a solid hour away. Unfortunately, we had to make a stop to buy a few flowers before we left, so once we were on the road, we ran into Friday evening commuter traffic.
We had two gravesites to plant, so we were literally pressed for time—the sun was going down in less than an hour and a half!
Then it started raining…
I don’t particularly mind planting in the rain. What makes it tough is the pictures. When it rains, the headstone gets wet…unevenly. Rain splatters do not make for a nice picture!
The rain began during our first stop. My daughter stood over me with an umbrella…or more accurately, she stood over the headstone with an umbrella, to try to keep it dry.
In this situation, I take two sets of pictures. One with the rain splatters. Then I wet the entire stone so the water is evenly distributed and take a second set. I almost always send the client the fully wet pictures. The stone is darker, but my client isn’t distracted by all the splotches of water.
By the time we moved on to the second (and larger) site, the rain started letting up, but the clouds made it even darker pre-sunset.
We worked fast, but once we had finished, it was dark enough for the solar lantern into turn on!
I have to admit, my phone’s camera is excellent. It does really well in low light. However, when it’s so dark the solar lantern lights up, that’s a bit too dark!
Unedited picture (with a good phone camera)
How do you deal with pictures when it gets dark?
I do the best I can by snapping a series of pictures, and then using the Brightness function in my laptop’s photo editor for the best shots. I also make sure to crop and straighten the pictures so the focus is on the lighter headstone and flowers, not the darker grass surrounding it.
Don’t be afraid to edit for clarity: cropped, straightened, and the brightness level turned up.
Another challenge: sink holes
Did you notice the hole in the ground in the unedited photo? This is one of the hazards of grave tending. With all the rain lately, small holes can appear as you walk over the ground. I’m just glad I was the one who stepped in it, not an elderly cemetery visitor.
Before I left, I turned over an empty flower container and stuffed it into the hole so it’s visible to walkers. I also emailed the cemetery with the gravesite location and a picture of the hole so they can fill it in.