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Photo manipulation — Haunted houses

Oct 262011

A few posts ago, I mused on the word haunt. In keeping with that theme, here are some photo manipulations* of houses in Bellingham that were meant to convey a haunting mood. Of course, whether they succeed or not is up to you to decide!

Forest Street Castle This first image is of a house very near where I used to live. Though I didn’t know it when I lived there, the house is the Alfred L. Black house and was built in 1903. The house is huge and looks like one of those old homes that have lots of cool nooks and crannies.

Another, even larger house not far away is called Wardner’s Castle. When I first moved to Bellingham, the place was a Bed & Breakfast, but later it was put up for sale.

Walden Castle from below

Bellingham Daily Photo has some pictures along with links to more information on this interesting house. The house is supposedly haunted. If you follow the link, you can read about the third floor mural that, from the pictures, looks rather spooky, but has since been painted over.

I found a sort of tribute to the mural artist posted by a fellow artist who loved her. And here’s another site about the mural and the artist. (Note: My firewall warned me that the site had been reported as malicious, but I opened it and — so far at least — my computer hasn’t exploded.)

Here is another picture taken from a slightly different spot and, of course, edited differently.
Walden Castle with sky

Finally, we have the Gamwell House. I used to walk by this house often and it is one of my favorites. I was lucky enough to tour the inside and see some of the ornate woodwork. It’s just a really cool-looking house.
Gamwell House b&w

Here’s another version. (Have I mentioned I can be indecisive? That’s a trick question — I know I have!) In this picture, I added the sky and lightning backdrop.

Gamwell House with lightning backdrop

If you have any photos you find haunting, I’d like to see them!

* I talked about photo manipulation in an early post. All of these photos were taken by me, except for the lightning in the last Gamwell photo, which came from mjw on stock.xchng. In case you’re interested, I use a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera, and Photoshop CS4.

Chernobyl by bike, World War II by shovel

Random 2 Responses »

Oct 052011

I have to share this. A young woman named Elena posted these stories of her adventures in Russia. The sites aren’t pretty, and the English is stilted at times, but her straightforward and heartfelt accounts are fascinating.

Ghost Town: Images of Chernobyl

Years ago I came across Elena’s amazing story of her motorcycle ride through the Chernobyl area. She shares her first-hand experience with vivid descriptions and photos of the area twenty years after the 1986 disaster.

The author is a good story-teller and she tells the history of the event from the eyes of a Russian native. Mostly, though, she shows images of the aftermath that are fascinating and haunting.

Dolls and gas masks, standard kindergarten supplies

The Serpent’s Wall: Russian battlefields

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by World War II, especially the European theater. I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my mom was born and raised in Germany. She was eleven years old when the war ended, and she told me stories of living in Schweinfurt when the Allies were bombing the city. The people who lived in the apartments went to the basement during air raids and she can remember hearing the explosions.

Whatever the reason, it comes as no surprise that Elena’s account of her visit to the battlefields around Kiev should interest me. But, even for a non-World War II buff, the history and the photos of the relics she finds are worth checking out.

Elena has written other things, including one about the Soviet gulags.

Stroll through Ashland Cemetery in Oregon

Cemeteries 7 Responses »

Aug 292011

You may wonder why I am interested in cemeteries. (Or not. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many people I know also like cemeteries. Of course, you may also simply not care!)

For one thing, cemeteries are great photography subjects. Between the artwork of the headstones, and the stories told in the inscriptions, I continue to take hundreds of pictures every time I visit one.

I know I said I’d soon be posting pictures of Hargadine Cemetery, but first I’m posting some photos of an earlier walk through Ashland Cemetery. Sorry if that disappoints you for some reason.

One of the things I find interesting is how the headstones often suggest attitudes about death, the afterlife, and even grieving.

The shapes and markings on the headstones symbolize certain things. For example, an arch may signify passage to heaven, or being reunited in heaven. Or, it might simply mean the person buried there thought arches were cool.

Though it may be impossible to read in this photo, the arched headstone on the left marks the graves of what I’m guessing were two brothers, Freddie and Ossie Caniard. They died in 1883 within a few weeks of each other; one was fifteen, the other sixteen. Talk about harsh.

As I was taking that picture, I was listening to a mourning dove calling from the trees in the background.

Here’s a close-up of the headstone on the right in the picture above. I suppose the gazebo-thingie (I’m pretty sure that’s the correct term) on top might be arch-like in meaning, or it may refer to heaven, or maybe that the dead body we leave behind is a house left by the spirit that occupied it.

I found several interesting inscriptions scattered around the cemetery:

“There have been many changes in those we loved.
Some have changed from old friends to the new.
But we feel in the depths of our hearts,
There never was any change in you.”
– Your old playmates

I’m not sure I understand what the old playmates were trying to say. How do you change from an old friend to a new one?

Ashland Cemetery headstone inscription

“To the dear little mound
Among the hills, foliage crowned.
Where happy songsters trill their lay,
With thee my heart will always stay,
For thee my thoughts will oft return,
For thee my inmost soul will yearn.”
– V.S.C. Mickelson

Here’s a bit of history. The inscription itself tells a little bit about the man, Capt. Thomas Smith, and about the times. It turns out the inscription was etched into the marble in 1890 — before Capt. Smith was actually dead. His wife, Margaret, however, had already been buried there nearly sixteen years.

I found a transcription of an article* from the Ashland Daily Tidings dated Friday May 23, 1890 that talks about this very headstone:

Ashland news article about Capt. Smith's headstone

The article says, “the Captain is in his 81st year, but he bids fair to prevent the completion of the inscription for a goodly number of years yet.” Capt. Smith ended up dying two years later in 1892.

Oh, and another thing about cemeteries (at least, if you write stories) is that they are a good source of interesting names.

For example: Pliny R. Strange

Just one more:

I’ll leave it to you to “interpret” the meaning of the images on this grave marker. (Click the image for a larger view.)

It’s interesting to me that this man died in 1875, yet I read that Ashland Cemetery wasn’t established until 1880. What gives?

The National Register of Historic Places site says, “Burial dates in Ashland Cemetery range from 1860 (predating the official graveyard platting in 1880) to the present.”

So, there you go.

*****

So do you have a cemetery you have particularly liked?

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* I want to credit the source of the article on “A Beautiful Monument.” Oddly, it’s part of a scanned document whose pages have the following footer:

“Source: Iowa Territorial and State Legislators Collection compiled by volunteers and staff at the State Historical Society of Iowa Library, Des Moines, Iowa.”I found the document at www.legis.iowa.gov