Poland, being a predominantly Roman Catholic country, does not celebrate Halloween -- just all saints day. It's a tradition (really, not sure when it started) to visit your dead and light candles and leave flowers on graves.
Much to my mom's chagrin I'm an atheist but I like the tradition of lighting candles, so, like every year, I visited the cemetery tonight and did just that. I wish I had a better camera or just better photography skills to accurately reflect how beautiful the cemetery looks at night all lit up with candle lights.. I suppose this will have to do until next year and maybe a better camera. Picture.
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Mix it all together and set a catholic on fire ;)
Just don't pick me for it... I'd burn for hours what with all the blubber I carry!
#What camera do you have..? Oh yes, if you have an OS installed, of course you have a..never mind.
(Wonders why people are taking interest in seeing you as an elf..?)
Have a good one Kasia.
Kasia,
I on the other hand brought Halloween to Poland in 1990. My first trip to Poland to visit my then Girlfriend (now wife of 10 years this year) I brought along all sorts of costumes, fake blood, teeth, door knockers that moaned and groaned when you touched them, fake spiderweb jelly (gel?) etc.......we had a halloween party until 1am with fellow students, neighbors thought everyone was nuts. At the time my wife lived near Warsaw University (she was a student) and had an apartment in one of those huge buildings, where there were tons of old grandma's who liked to watch everything you did :)
After that party, we all walked through the cemetery in the old town, lots and lots of candles everywhere, it was very touching.
jim
for such photos you have to use an old cammera with no flash and then place the cammera static
#You don't have to be Christian to honor your ancestors. I live 3 hours away from my families graves, but every few years I make the "pilgrimage" to visit the graves of my father and my grandparents. Going there often revives memories that are otherwise dormant. It is a peaceful and reflective time.
#Any camera that allows independent control of aperture (Depth of Field), shutter, and the functionality to turn the flash off will do. Also having control over ISO will be helpful. The higher the ISO the faster light can be captured (along with larger aperture). The downside is that the higher the ISO is, the more grain that will be introduced into your picture. My DSLR treats the grain effect almost identical to my film-based camera, so digital doesn't seem to offer any advantage over film in this regard.
Another thing to keep in mind is contrast. Most eyes can see a range of tones that span about 12 stops (think aperature). Film captures about 6 stops in a sliding window compared to the 12 stops our eyes can handle at a time. My DSLR exhibits the same behavior regardless that it uses a CMOS instead of a CCD sensor so again digital offers no apparent relief over the limitations of film.
A way to approach your shots might have been to focus mostly on the lighted statue for one shot. If your camera supports adjustment of white-balance this would have helped greatly for this shot especially the closer you got to filling the frame with the object. White-balance is another area where cameras (digital and film) perform poorly when compared to our eyes. Proper white-balance can produce some amazing shots in more difficult situations such as overcast and rainy days.
Then take seperate shots of the glowing candles and the various groups of persons and gravestones which contrast far less with the darkness as compared to the statue.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
#Of course honouring the dead at the onset of winter is as ancient a pagan tradition as it gets. Of course the Church saw fit to make it into a Christian holiday, just like they did with Yule, Easter, Lammas, and so on. But whatever your persuasion it is a beautiful tradition.
#
You don't know me, but my name is also Kasia. My blog was also called "kasia in a nutshell." I was bored one day and I typed my name into a search engine. Lo and behold, another blog of the same name. I think I may have seen this blog once before, when I was feeling bored and self centered enough to type my own name into a search engine. (again) Maybe it's a Polish thing. I was curious so I looked in your 'about me' section and we have a lot in common. Funny. I am not a stalker or anything, I am just a little Polish college student whose first name is never pronounced correctly by anyone. Except when they say,"Oh, Kashee! Like the cereal?" Yes. Just like that. People are wierd.
Theres a cereal? Huh?
#The main cemetery in Gdansk was fine this year. And we took the Boo Radley route through the dark woods to get there.
#i like how you write...
its interesting...
i like how you write...
its interesting...