Goodbye Blogger!

I have had such a HORRIBLE time with blogger. I will no longer be using blogger. I have had all of my photos deleted from my posts not once, but twice! I cannot deal with that stress anymore. Me trying to go back and fix it has made it very difficult for me to move forward with my photography.
I have now created a brand NEW blog! On a whole NEW website! Please check it out and feel free to give me feedback!

https://kelsiemariephotography.wordpress.com/

Photos I'm Featuring for the Month of April 2016

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Victorian District of Savannah

SAVANNAH, GA - December 20, 2015

Since it was December, evening came fast. The darkness set in before my family and I got the chance to get a good look at the Victorian District of Savannah. 

I think the evening made the houses look much more beautiful. Maybe it was the lighting? Or maybe it was the feel you get when you walk the streets of Downtown Historic Savannah.

Some of the houses were mixed in. It was as if the modern homes were beginning to over take the Victorian Homes. It seems like that is happening all over though. It is a very sad thought. Slowly these historic homes and structures are disappearing. 

It was beginning to get a bit cold as we were walking the streets, looking at the beautiful structures. I stood across the street to get a good look at them. Even though it was getting dark, the houses were still very visible.

It's interesting how some Victorian homes were once home to families, but now they are local businesses providing for families. I am just glad that they aren't left to decay and fall to pieces. They should be preserved.

At some of the homes, you could see scaffolding from where the houses were being restored and preserved. They may be an eye sore, but I am happy to see them there because that tells me that they are being taken care of.

Going down some of the streets I got to see some of the homes that looked very Victorian but they were out of the way of the main strip of the Victorian District. Maybe it is because they are still homes to people? But I must say, they are absolutely gorgeous and the owners are doing an amazing job keeping them looking beautiful.

The details of the homes were very intricate which made them worth traveling to see. The main house I was hunting for was the Gingerbread House. I had never seen such beautiful intricate designs on a Victorian house. I want to say it was a Ballroom? But I am not completely sure. It would sure keep it very classy if it was. 

Savannah's Victorian District was the first Victorian District I have ever seen. As much as I love the Victorian Era, I really enjoyed seeing it. It seems like a lot of them were turned into Inns, which is really nice. I just love to see historic things preserved. As much history they have seen, they deserve to be preserved. 

Wormsloe Historic Site

SAVANNAH, GA - December 20, 2015

I saw reviews that this place didn't have much to see and to get in was $10 per person so my family and I saved $30 by just checking out the entrance instead.

The tree canopy was like a tunnel of trees which was very pretty and I am so glad I got to stop to see it. It was very shady there because of all the trees. The air felt refreshing. It looked so dreamy with the Spanish moss hanging from the trees.

There was this very nice family there and they asked me to take their family photo. They had their own camera and tripod. It was difficult to set up the tripod to where I could move it, plus it was hard to see what I was doing with a new camera that I never used before. So I suggested to take the camera off the tripod. So one of them took the camera off and leaned it against one of the trees.

The family stood in the middle of the road under the tree canopy, which made an ideal place for a family photo. I had a hard time using the camera since I wasn't used to it. But I figured it out and took the photos. I gave the camera back and they looked though the photos and they seemed to really like them. They drove away and I look over and they left their tripod. 

I felt awful! I wanted to give it back so bad but I had no idea what their names were or where they were going. We took it inside of the Wormsloe office. I really hope they got it. 

Photos I'm Featuring for the Month of March 2016

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Purchase

Frozen In Time

Because of... unfair reasons, I decided to revisit the Frozen in Time Project. I did this project once before with a great outcome and was one of my most popular photos. But life is unfair. Life reminds me of that every single day. But that doesn't mean life has to be full of misery and anger, which is why I decided to fix the problem by revisiting the idea and creating something new. Freezing a rose in ice is actually not as simple as it sounds. It is actually a very challenging task and is only successful by trial and error. This time I was very hyped up for these photos but it became a huge disappointment which led me to give up and try again later, until, my dad came and told me to take another look at it. The ice had melted around the rose petals. I was very thrilled to see that something good came out of something that I thought had failed. Even though it wasn't exactly what I was going for, I did create something new and I am just as pleased.

Bonaventure Cemetery

SAVANNAH, GA - December 20, 2015

A nice morning stroll though the cemetery. It sounds odd but remembering that you are walking through a cemetery can be difficult in this particular cemetery. This Victorian cemetery is very large in size and is difficult to know where you are unless you have a map. I believe the Victorian statues were made of marble. It is crazy how these statues have lasted from the Victorian Era all the way up to now.

Walking through each and every grave marker, it is easy to forget reality. It is as if you are dreaming. It almost feels like nothing is real and you are walking freely through history without even knowing it. The Spanish moss hanging from the trees really adds a fairy tale effect to the cemetery which also ties into the feeling of dreaming.

The Spanish moss seemed to hang from the trees in a very lovely way. The way the sun would shine through would just make you feel at peace. It seemed to be in every tree and even though it was winter, the Spanish moss lived on.

Some of the grave sites had different plants growing around them. I saw many with brightly colored red berries. Others had different flowers or bushes. I suppose it gave each grave a personal touch.

Some graves sites even had very intricate and beautiful fencing around them, which also gives a very personal touch to the person's grave. The fencing was a very beautiful way to enclose their loved one in their own personal space of remembrance.

Even the mausoleums were created very beautifully with very intricate and special designs. Some of them looked medieval to me and put me in mind of a tiny castle, but I know that they are not. Someone must have put so much thought in the design of the mausoleums because they were designed very nicely.

There seemed to be multiple mausoleums with the same design but the doors were the only difference. Each set of doors had their own design.

Some of the grave locations were shaded very well by the trees which seemed to make you think you were in a fairy tale forest. Even the shapes of the trees, the twists and turns of the branches could make anyone confused of where they might be, in Savannah, GA or in an enchanted forest.

There were many beautiful monuments and each seemed to have a particular meaning which I thought was interesting. The Victorian Era had a meaning for the things or symbols families would put on their dead loved one's grave. Most, if not all, were made of stone. Many of the monuments or symbols symbolized who the person was and what they meant to family and friends. They also had symbols that showed what hope they may have had for their loved ones after their death.

Even a few of the headstones had intricate carvings. The designs were very beautiful and looked so real. It was very impressive, especially for the Victorian Era.

A lot of the statues did show some wear, But I feel like that is what makes them beautiful. I mean there is something way back from the Victorian Era that has stayed intact enough for us to see today.

I seem to catch myself imagining the funeral of these people. I think of the mourning family members and friends all dressed in black and standing around the grave where their dead loved one will be put six feet under. They are forced to let go of the person they once knew and leave them behind. I suppose it sounds pretty familiar. But imagining it in that time period kind of make it somewhat different. I imagine the statue and headstone being placed over where there once was a gaping hole. Where the statue has been there ever since.

These statues have seen many years of different people and visitors of the popular cemetery. They have seen many faces. But they won't see the face they were placed there to represent.

The statues have many lovely details about them but how can something be lovely when it represents death? Or does it represent death? Like I said earlier, they seem to represent the person and who they were. But why are they so sad? Or are they representing the family and friends that are missing an important person in their lives.

I found it interesting how not all of the statues were of angels. Most cemeteries only have angel statues, but not Bonaventure.

Bonaventure had a few angel statues but there seemed to be more statues of women mourning than angels. I couldn't help but think of Doctor Who when I saw this particular statue.

It is always sad when a family member you love dies. I began to wonder, if someone's mate dies, why does the widow or widower put "My Husband" or "My Wife" on the headstone? In the vows that have been repeated in weddings for many years, "Til Death Do Us Part", that means that they aren't married anymore right? Maybe it is just a memory for the widow or widower who lost their spouse and they want to display love for the person. But what if they were to get remarried? I suppose it is all up to the person and what they feel they should do and how they cope with the grieving process. I have never been in that situation so I am not sure.

Quite a few monuments had a design with a cup, or chalice. The cup, or chalice in the Victorian Era meant The Christian Sacrament. A lot of monuments also had columns as well. The columns in the Victorian Era meant Noble Life.

There were also some monuments that had urns on them. I found out that in the Victorian Era the urn meant Immortality, penitence, death of the body and its return to dust in the final resting place. I found that very interesting.

There was an arch that I saw that had torches, I found out that the torches in the Victorian Era meant Immortality, purification, truth, wisdom. 

It is always sad when children die. The parents are devastated of course. In the Victorian Era there seemed to be quite a few children deaths. The statue of Mary and Emma is absolutely heartbreaking. Two very young children who never had a chance to show the world who they were.

Gracie Watson is very iconic at the Bonaventure Cemetery. She had to be fenced in because I am assuming that people could not seem to leave her grave alone. But regardless, to see a statue of a child who faced death way too early is so heartbreaking and all I could think about is how upset her family must have been.

There was a stone with information about Gracie right in the fence with her. It stated: "Little Gracie Watson was born in 1883, the only child of her parents, her father was the manager of the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's leading hotels, where the beautiful and charming little girl was a favorite with the guests. Two days before Easter in April 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at age six. In 1890, when the rising sculptor, John Waltz, moved to Savannah, he carved from a photograph this life sized, delicately detailed marble statue, which for almost a century has captured the interest of all passersby."

Right next to Gracie's grave was this cute little chubby bird sitting on a headstone. I walked so slowly and quietly to get close enough for a photo.

There were many graves of children and somehow you can tell that they were Victorian children. It is like the sculpting and the art of that time period had a special look to it, I always know the Victorian look when I see it.

Walking through the cemetery I did see this statue of a child with angel wings. I was kind of curious as of what it meant exactly. Was there a little girl buried there and her family and friends wanted a statue to re imagine her as an angel? I am not sure but the details of the statue were beautiful. The girl had to be modeled after someone right?

There was also a Jewish section of the Cemetery. I believe there was something about the Holocaust, like a memorial. I was so excited to find this because it was so different and neat to see.

The headstones were in a foreign language so many of them I couldn't read. I thought it was so interesting how some of the headstones had photos of the person on their headstones. I have never seen that before.

Some of the headstones had Jewish stars on them. They were engraved into the stone. Some of the stones were rounded at the top and that is where the star would be located.

The Bonaventure Cemetery is quite an adventure. You can really enjoy taking a nice relaxing walk through the cemetery while smelling the salt air from the cemetery's waterfront. There is so much to learn and so much to see.

There are so many secrets and so many clues to decipher to find out the truth about the people who are at rest inside the Bonaventure Cemetery.