Dolly Market Forum

Ha! That Frankie, always leaving a trail of body parts behind her; her own body parts! It's a good thing her arm was found by a friend, and not by somebody... or something... who was hungry!

Marvelously mysterious picture with a sense of crazy-creepy-cool action swirling about in the background! Your Hallowe'en Tree is serving you well this season!

Ha! Cool lighting again.

Oh, Frankie. Poor girl, her hands are always scampering away from her.

Thanks guys! This was sort of continuation of this post.


Day 304

I had something special planned for today, but due to headache and a few other complications, I didn't make it. Halloween photo coming - hopefully - this weekend.



Original:

Wow! Super spooky cemetery shot! Happy Hauntings to you and your creepy-cool crew!

Glad I'm not the only one posting late Halloween pix. Your cemetery set has provided quite a lot of photos.

Ooh, happy Halloween! (belated) And such an atmospheric post.

Thanks guys! There will be a few more cemetery photos (although a bit different ones), but I promise to give it a rest when I'm done with what I wanted fo Halloween.


Day 305



Original:

Ooh, there's an eerieness to both pictures. These twins seem to bring that.

They are both lovely vintage-style photos (and they are each lovely vintage-style girls), but your tintype processing is especially effective here.

Thank you both!


Day 306 - Dušičky

All Souls' Day, which we call Dušičky (which literally translates as 'little souls') is a big deal around here. Eastern Europe doesn't traditionally observe Halloween, All Souls' Day is the go-to tradition. It mostly involves going to the family grave (the graves are usually big-ish and all deceased family members are there, not just one person), clean it and decorate it with flowers and candles. Our cemeteries don't have any lights, the only light comes from candles, and it's really beautiful. Part of my family has a grave in Prague's most beautiful cemetery, and people who used to take care of it can't anymore, so it's our job now. So we went there today to tend the grave and enjoy the atmosphere, and I took some photos. But I was losing light fast, so they're kinda crappy.



This is our grave. It's a small one, it can only store urns, not coffins.




A slightly darker one, to let the candles shine. You can't really see them, but these are traditional grave candles. They're in ornate red glass with tall brass cap with holes on sides, so they're safe from rain. I really like them. There's a lot of fancier ones, and also some in clear glass, but these red ones are the standard type.




There are some 'main' roads with asphalt pavements, but a lot af graves are hidden in these narrow 'streets', most of them are about 30cm / almost one foot wide.




Our side of cemetery has a lot of abandoned and forgotten graves.




I didn't find this angel's head. This grave doesn't have any names on it anymore.




This one is blurry, because my phone wasn't really able to focus properly anymore, but the Christ on the cross is watching the collapsed grave with a really sad look on his face.




The signs marking which part of cemetery is which are really pretty. The thing on the left is water pump (well, technically, they're not pumps anymore, they all have faucets now). A lot of people grow flowers on the graves, so they can get water here.

And here are some crappy dark photos of the candle-lit graves:







I definitely want to go back and take more photos during the day, and I want to visit some of the fancier parts with older and prettier graves, probably next year.

Oh, what a lovely picturesque cemetery! It's sad when graves are forgotten or abandoned, or have the stones tipped over, but so nice that people actually make a traditional event out of going and looking after them. There's such a contrast between the 3rd and 4th photos here; it looks like this is some other ancient world, and then >boom< skyscrapers in the background. I especially like the 3rd (that one is really magazine-worthy) and 8th ones, and what a marvellous collection of lights in the last one.
I enjoyed the little tour of your surroundings. What a great spot for photos.

What a lovely tradition, and great photos!

Oh wow, this is all so wonderful.

What beautiful photos, and the cultural history about the grave candles is fascinating!

If I recall accurately, you wanted to take some photos like this last year, but there were too many people in the cemetery and you could not get the shots you wanted. It looks like you had the place to yourself today, at least for a little while; just you, your dollies, and the no-doubt amused spirits.