Shots from a Graveyard

As a part of my attempt to continue to challenge myself, I am going to try to start sharing photography on this forum, something I have had a hard time convincing myself to do since I joined over a year ago.

This is a shot from a graveyard, which I wasn't sure where else I could fit it in. I live in a pretty rural area (some of our closest neighbors are Amish), but it's here. I was a little less concerned about perfect cropping and angles on this one than I was about showing the age and getting the post-processing right (abnormal for me, ordinarily I'd toss this out in a heartbeat).

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It's a nice pic that fits in with the rest of the pics in this thread. Photography should be for the joy of it, not the stress of it. I think you should lighten up on yourself.

I get lots of joy out of photography. The stress comes from the mindset I'm trying to delete. Think of it as reformatting my stupid brain rather than my SD card. I drive myself CRAZY with the nitpicking. There's a chance I might be a bit neurotic.

adivineeternity wrote in post #13628218
I get lots of joy out of photography. The stress comes from the mindset I'm trying to delete. Think of it as reformatting my stupid brain rather than my SD card. I drive myself CRAZY with the nitpicking. There's a chance I might be a bit neurotic.

I think you're probably normal. Most of us try to do the best we can and improve but I think it is important to recognize that not everyone is going to be the next Ansell Adams or Yousef Karsh for example.

I don't know how many times I have waited for the lighting to be just right or the sun in the right place. The next thing I know, the subject I wanted to shoot is gone. Take your flag/headstone pic for example. The flag makes that pic. Without the flag it is just somebody's headstone. I see a fairly new flag on an old headstone. Somebody is looking after that grave. I would think the person who put the flag there would be happy you took the time to take that pic. They could explain to you who that person in the grave was. Who knows?, Maybe that person was in WW1 or WW2.If you waited for the perfect lighting etc, that flag may not be there. Then what do you have?

Also, keep in mind that there are some threads here that aren't looking for perfection. I'm thinking of the urban thread, the delapidated building thread and there are a few other others. Take note that some threads say "Show your best". If a person has a pic that is their best. why not post it.

I'm a summer photographer. Summer pretty good shots, Summer okay and Summer worth deleting. I know where I can improve and the areas I need to educate myself. PP for example. I know nothing about that other than the very basics like cropping and straightening etc. It's all good.