Yesterday I was asked about a photo I might have taken at a cemetery. I couldn’t remember when I took it, or its likely filename. No problem for my Google Photos app. Searching for ‘cemetery’ found it easily.
Nearly every photo I’ve ever taken is in my Google Drive repository and the Photos app searches by both filename and what it recognises in a photo. It served up a few images that weren’t cemeteries, but mostly it was very accurate.
I found the photo I was after, but I also noticed there were dozens more cemetery photos from all over the world. It may be morbid, but Liz and I like poking around graveyards. And they have plenty of character to attract the photographer in me.
Here’s some of the photos, beginning with my own family:
My great-great-grandparents John and Jane MacGibbon in Mataura, NZ, 2007.
Mataura, NZ, 2007.
My great-grandparents Thomas and Isabella MacGibbon, Anderson’s Bay, Dunedin, NZ, 2001.
Su, Dan, Liz and Guy inspecting graves at the tiny Kingston Cemetery, NZ, 1983.
Kingston, NZ, 1979.
Monuments in the pioneer Waihenga Cemetery in Martinborough, NZ. “One less at home, one more in heaven” is the rather curious sentiment on the left, while on the right the monument marks the grave of the entire Wilson-Smith family – mum, dad, son and daughter – who died in what was considered New Zealand’s most disastrous homestead fire to that date. The family’s cook also died in the blaze.
Maori grave at the main Martinborough cemetery, NZ, 2015.
Martinborough, NZ, 2015.
Waitangi, Chatham Islands, NZ, 2007.
Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, USA, 2015
The Bonaventure Cemetery was immortalised in John Berendt’s best selling book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, published in 1994. It was later made into a movie. In the book, the cemetery was highly spooky, with dastardly deeds in the dead of night. We still felt quite an atmosphere in daylight – partly because we’d read the book and seen the film, and partly because of the lush vegetation, including bright pink azaleas, palmettos, and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.
United Kingdom
Highgate Cemetery, North London, 2007. Best known for an elaborate tomb housing Karl Marx.
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Inside St Margaret’s Church in Cley, Norfolk, UK, 2014.
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Turvill, Buckinghamshire, UK, 2007.
Twickenham, London, 2007.
Dunsford, Devon, UK, 2007.
Dunsford, Devon, UK, 2007.
Italy
San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, 2007.
San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, 2007.
San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy, 2007.
San Michele cemetery island in the Venetian Lagoon, Italy, 2014. We passed San Michelle while travelling by vaporetto ferry to the ‘glass island’ of Murano.
Martinborough Musings 
Fabulous collection of photos. Hard to pick a favourite but I do like the one of Anna, the cat’s, burial place.