Cemetery and Mausoleum Night Shots

A few weeks ago, I decided to take my camera out one night and see if I could get some good shots in a nearby cemetery. I enjoy walking through cemeteries at night; there is a peacefulness and quiet that you just don’t find anywhere else, at least not without leaving the city.

I ended up parking next to a fairly large mausoleum that I had never explored before, so I checked it out. Most of it was outdoor, but there was an interior that looked like a small chapel on the bottom floor. The doors were already locked for the night, so I was not able to go in. There was a second floor as well, but I couldn’t tell what was in there. As you can see in the video to your left, there was a nice fountain at the far end of the mausoleum; the water from it echoed through building and made it sound like it was raining—a very nice touch.

Besides the mausoleum, the rest of the grounds were well kept and pretty standard cemetery look. I walked around a little, but didn’t go too far away from the building. I ended up doing a big circle around the mausoleum and ending up back where I started.

This is my favorite pic from the night. That is the mausoleum form the backside view.

An overview of the cemetery grounds.

A different side of the Mausoleum.

However, as I circled back, I saw something. It looked like someone was sitting on a bench beside a grave just out of sight; I could only see the silhouette. I froze for a moment, but heard nothing and saw no movement. I already had my camera set for a slower shutter speed, so I steadied it on the partially open tripod and took a discrete picture to see what was there. It turned out to be nothing more than a large vase built into the bench. I’ll admit that I was quite relieved to see that on the view finder.

In the dark that vase looks a lot less like vase and more like someone sitting on the bench. Despite how the pic looks, it was almost completely dark besides the lights on the graves.

Besides that small scare, the night was relaxing and helped take my mind off of everything else—in other words exactly what I was looking for there. I left feeling a lot better than I did going in and got a few good pics and short video as well. 

A stylized picture of the fountain at the mausoleum.