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Greeff
Genealogy Journal
Journal of the Greeff and related families, No
13, September 2008.
Editor: Francois Greeff.
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About 80% of the Greeff clan lives in South Africa, and most of them understand Afrikaans and English. Roughly 10% of the clan lives in Germany, and they speak German, and understand English. Another 10%, more or less, live in America, where English has not been spoken since the revolution. Because the Greeff Genealogy Journal is also read in New Zealand, Australia, Cuba and Qatar we try to write most of it in English.
The grave of Vincent Eric Russell at Windsor, London, UK. Move the mouse cursor over the picture for Rollover image.
Photos of Graves.
Francois Greeff
Eileen Russell emailed me from South Africa and asked if I could do her a favour and photograph two graves in London for her. I agreed readily, and in time a friend and I set off to do so.
My friend Sam and I are both keen photographers and have been at it for years. I used to do portraits as a hobby, and in the old days I had my own dark room where I spent many happy hours developing my own pictures. Both of us used digital SLR cameras. Sam has a Pentax K100D and I used a Nikon D60, with two lenses, a Nikon DX 18 - 55 mm or a Nikon ED 70 - 300 mm. Those just happened to be the cameras we use, but I have not yet heard of any camera that would be unsuitable for the job.
I took two other bits of equipment with me because I consider them vital for photographing graves: a tripod, and a nice big umbrella. At any time that you want to maximise the quality of a picture, use a tripod. A tripod eliminates the tiniest movement of a hand, and thus causes the detail in the picture to be crisp and clear, especially under magnification. Grave stone photos are often magnified afterwards so that people can try to decipher what was written on an eroded stone, or under moss or lichen. An umbrella is useful for two reasons: it can be used to keep direct sunlight out of the lens, and it can be used to cast shadow on a grave stone.
In this article I want to point out a few easy mistakes that are commonly made while photographing graves, and how to avoid the problems.
1. Mistake: Standing too close and distorting the picture.
Left: Standing too close distorts the picture.
Standing to close to a gravestone causes one to stand 'over' the gravestone and the result is, at best, a gravestone that seems out of perspective. At worst, some of the writing on the gravestone will be in focus, and some of it will be out of focus because the focal distance of the different parts of the subject are at different distances from the camera.
2. Mistake: No Zoom
 If one does not use the zoom function the result is that uneccessary background is included, which distracts from the subject of the photo. A second problem is that the writing on the gravestone becomes more difficult to read. Learning to use zoom effectively is probably the first thing that any photographer should learn, regardless of what one is photographing. The rule is: "THE SUBJECT SHOULD FILL THE FRAME".
Rright: Too much useless background.The inscription becomes too small to read.
The subject fills the frame nicely, with just enough background to give perspective.
3. Mistake: Ignoring context
The view from the gravestone.
Left: The gravestone in its immediate environment.
When photographing gravestones always try to get a few extra pictures of the place in which the grave is, and the setting of the grave. The entrance to the graveyard is a good picture to include, as well as a few pictures that show the view from the grave or graveyard. A photo of the grave with the church building in the background is also a good idea. In this case I was taking photos for relatives who were on a different continent. The graves in the Winsdor cemetery are not numbered and it is difficult to find the grave one wants, and so I decided to take a few photos that include the neighbouring graves. These photos will help the relatives to find the grave more easily.
 Photos of the surrounding graves help to establish the mood and setting of the grave one is interested in. Photos of a nice well kept cemetery are always good to include
4. Mistake: Shooting into the sun
When the sun is directly behind the subject it makes tha photo difficult because the light meter reads the light from the sun instead of the light from the subject. The consequence is that the subject is usually far too dark, and appears as a sihouette. The technique that is used to overcome this is called bracketing. Bracketing means that one keeps all the camera settings the same, but that one takes five identical photos with different shutter speeds: The speed suggested by the camera, two photos at faster speeds, and two photos at slower shutter speeds. Another method is to keep the shutter speed the same, and to bracket by running through a range of five different apertueres.
Bracketing: Too dark, just right, and too light.
In the above three photos the sun does not shine directly into the lens, but is concealed behind the gravestone. The light meter still registers incorrectly because it reads the great amount of light that comes from the sky instead of the shaded side of the gravestone.
5. Mistake: Light and shadow - No umbrella.
 The photo on the right illustrates very clearly what can go wrong when parts of one gravestone are in direct sunlight, and other parts are in shadow. The light meter cannot compensate, and the text in one or the other part of the photo becomes difficult to read because part of the photo will be either underexposed, or overexposed.
The solution to this problem is to take a big umbrella with you and to hols the umbrella in such a way that the WHOLE gravestone is in shadow. Then the camera will read the light correctly and the proper uniform exposure will be achieved.
The importance of taking a nice big umbrella with you must never be underestimated.
With thanks to Garret de Villiers for the photo of the grave of Hilda P Swanepoel, born Greeff, posted at www.eggsa.org.
6. Mistake: Illegible inscriptions.
 When the inscription on a gravestone is not easy to read it helps to zoom in on the inscription, in addition to photographing the whole grave or gravestone. It is amazing to see how often people overlook this simple expedient.
7. Mistake: Failing to upload photos.
If you are going to photograph graves, put the photos where other people can see them too.
There are many sites that collect photos of gravestones. The best in the world is probably www.findagrave.com. This site has several very good features:
1. It collects graves from all over the world.
2. It has an excellent search tool.
3. It has photos and data about graves
4. It is VERY easy to upload photos to the site.
On the very first time that I wanted to upload photos to the web site I discovered that the graveyard I had photographed was not on the site because it was a very small graveyard (36 graves). I very easily created a new graveyard, and uploaded half the graves in the cemetery, as well as some pictures of the graveyard itself, and the GPS coordinates too. Click on the link to see the graveyard:
Kensal Green WWI Cemetery
A second site that is worthy of support is the grave register on the website of the electronic Genealogical Society of South Africa:
http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php?g2_itemId=43
This site has a whole team of volunteers who work very hard to record and upload photos and information about South African graves, and in my opinion they could significantly benefit from updating their technology so that it becomes as easy for the public to upload photos of graves as it is to upload photos to Facebook. The technology exists, so why not use it?
8. Mistake: Not having fun.
Above all, when you are taking photos, remember to look around you. Look at the sky and all the environment, and look for good photos.
Using flash photograpy at night also creates very good photos because only the gravestone appears in the picture, and no light bounces back from the background. Here, below, are the same two gravestones, with flash, at night:
Here is a photo, by Eileen Russell, that appeared in the June 2008 edition of The Greeff Genealogy Journal:
A farm gate in South Africa.
Everyone should go out and spend a day photographing graves at some time or another. It does one no harm to stand there, to look around yourself, and to realize that you are better off than all those around you - and they are not complaining!
A few months ago a friend offered to photograph some graves for me, and asked for a few pointers on how to go about the task. My reply was in Afrikaans, to match the request, and it appears that the letter got itself forwarded a bit. In time it came back to me, in English! Here is John Schwartz's translation:
SNIPPETS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ADVICE
By Francois Greeff (Greeff@Greeff.info)
(Translated from the Afrikaans by John Schwartz.)
- Take digital photos; NOT film. It costs nothing to be ‘trigger-happy’.
- Take photos in JPEG format.
- Make your photo file size approximately 1Mb, and preferably not larger than 2 Mb. If photo files exceed 2 Mb, it becomes a very tedious task to reduce the size, and causes double work.
- Photograph the whole headstone; NOT the whole grave.
- Take only the headstone, without any background. In other words, zoom until the headstone fills the whole screen. This makes the photo more readable.
- If you want to photograph the whole grave and the flowers and the dam and the cows in the meadow in the distance, by all means, do so. Everyone enjoys a well-composed photo, but, DO IT ON A SECOND PHOTO. Your first photo should always be just the headstone.
- Take one photo of each headstone. (Take a second photo of a double grave and a third one of the whole plot if it is a family plot, if you so wish.)
- Use a tripod. If you do not possess a tripod, use a broomstick. It helps to steady the camera and improves the detail of the photo. Of all my advice, the use of a tripod or broomstick is THE most important.
- Be careful to frame your photo correctly so that you do not end up with skew photos. Take the photo straight from the front. This is hard work if you are tall, because the camera should preferably be held at a height of about one metre above ground level.
- All photos should be taken with the sun or the main source of light behind you. Avoid taking photos facing a sunset – the camera will measure the light intensity of the sun, and not that of the headstone. The result will be a silhouette of the headstone against a beautiful sunset!! If you have an assistant, have him/her hold a large black umbrella high in the air (i.e. out of sight of the camera lens) so that the shadow of the umbrella falls on the camera lens.
- Pack a picnic basket with bread and six kinds of cheese, and prawns and cold lobster tails, and two bottles of ice-cold white wine, as well as REAL plates and glasses. Don’t hurry over lunch. Take the time to enjoy life!
- Make sure that your own shadow does not fall across headstone. If the stone is partially in shadow and partially lit by the sun, use your umbrella to cast shadow over the entire stone – your camera will read the correct light intensity.
- Where stones are difficult to read, write down what you can decipher – the object of the exercise is to obtain information.
- Take a photo of the entrance to the cemetery, as well as of any memorials or monuments that there may be. Also include a view over the whole cemetery and a view from the cemetery entrance in your portfolio. If you can obtain an aerial photo from the internet, this should also be included.
- Take ice-cold water (or hot coffee in winter) and toilet paper with you.
- Check on a map to confirm which cemetery you are about to record. If possible, check the GPS coordinates on Google Earth and record them in your portfolio.
- Major problems and duplication of work can occur when photographing gravestones: we are all part of a worldwide photo project, recording gravestones. All your photos will become part of an international database of photos, and will become available worldwide, on the internet. Problems arise where a person chooses to only photograph a section of a cemetery. It means that someone is required to record the balance. If this person, in turn, only records a section, the problem is compounded and eventually no-one really knows whether the whole cemetery has been recorded or not. Always endeavour to photograph the entire cemetery.
- Before embarking on a photo-recording session, first check the eGSSA site for an existing recording.
- PEOPLE TO CONTACT RE EXISTING RECORDINGS:
Peter & Beverley Moss – Document Coordinators, National Cemetery Recording Project of GSSA. peter.moss@mweb.co.za
Hendrik Louw loogkolk@gmail.com
Alta Griffiths alta@pinnaclespot.co.za
- Transfer your photos from your camera to your PC and retain the photos on your PC for at least 6 months, as a backup. Also make a CD or DVD of the set of photos and post it to:
Peter & Beverley Moss
2O Moodie Street
RYNFIELD, BENONI
1501
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