You REALLY know you're dead when...

Lenny La Rue, IPA

You REALLY know you're dead when...

This is an infra-red edit of the single most humorous thing I have ever seen in a graveyard. I was Sacramento’s (California) Old City Cemetery where countless historic figures are interred when I turned around and saw this sight. I could tell you it was a mother crow feeding a very large youngster; the young are easily as big as the parents while they are being fed outside of the nest. I could tell you that it was “bird season” for crows and this was some sort of bonding ritual between an old couple that had been together for years. Or I could tell you that it was about 10000 degrees in the graveyard when I took this shot and the birds were panting like crazy, especially the ones appropriately dressed (or “feathered”? “Downed”???) in black. But I’d rather say the thought that came to mind as soon as this painfully obvious shot was noticed:

You REALLY know you’re dead when you look up to see two crows on a tombstone with your name on it, singing in harmony. That should confirm it nicely.

THIS PIECE IS FEATURED IN: Amazing Graves. Thank you AG Group for remembering my little shot and honouring it once it returned! Ya’ll rock!

And another round of THANK YOUS for the featuring in Image Writing Group. Woo hoo!

The Necessary Evility
Nikon D80
Nikkor 70-300mm lens
Exposure: 1/160
F/stop: 5.6
ISO: 400 (but I can’t imagine why)
Focal length: 300mm
Metering mode: Pattern
Creative setting: Vivid and actually important since that setting increases sharpness before editing to monochrome
no tripod (Maybe that explains the shutter speed and ISO)
hella hot outside (Perhaps 100 degrees F.)
No crows were not bothered in this shot.
No, I’m not really sure what they were singing; Forgot my babblefish.
Corel Paintshop Pro Photo XI did the editing.
Shot taken due east.

You REALLY know you're dead when... belongs to the following groups:

! ♦♣♠♥Ȃll Things Black ♥♠♣♦ !, ! 100% !, All About Your Best Work, All Animals Great And Small., Amazing Graves, Americas ~ Rural, Urban, Wild, Free, Animal Kingdom, Birds and Creatures of Flight, Black and White Photography, Ebony and Ivory, Funny Kritters, Human. Animal. Nature./Człowiek. Zwierzę. Natura. (2 per day, approval required) , Humour Captured, ImageWriting (2/24), IPA -International Photographers Alliance, Kairos, Live, Love, Dream: , LMAO ART - Your funniest work, Miniatures and Mammoths, Nikon D80 Users, Nikon DSLR Users Group - 2 uploads per 24 hours, No More Color, Northern California Style (4 art per day) , PostCard Style (Describe your image please) Limit 2 per day), Put Out! or Get Out!!!, Requiem, Shameless Self-Promotion, Solo Exhibition, The Graphic Room-Graphic and Digital Art, The X - Human Sentiment, United States, Western United States Artists and Photographers, Who Needs Color For Beauty? - Black & White Art At Its Best and ≈♥≈The Weekend Photographer≈♥≈ Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
You REALLY know you're dead when... by Lenny La Rue, IPA
You REALLY know you're dead when... by Lenny La Rue, IPA
  • MuscularTeeth

    MuscularTeethVoted Most Helpful Bubbler

    ahahaa geat title.

  • KathyT

    KathyT

    LOL. This is Great!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Thank you both very much!

  • Tainia Finlay

    Tainia Finlay

    WOW Fabulous image & title Lenny, top work & into my faves ♥

  • totty23

    totty23

    The crows really give it that finnal touch, wondefull picture!

    sam

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Thanks Sam and thanks for the comment as well as the favouriting Tainia! This image will stand as one of my favourites as well because it really captured a bizarre moment in time. I squeezed off a couple dozen shots and at least 10 are suitable for contest submissions (where I lose the rights) or public domains (where I probably can’t enforce my rights anyway).

    Muscular Teeth, I believe you are the very first Red Bubble staffer to comment upon my art so I’m re-thanking you deeply. Now, can it get a front page on the site with this cool shot or do I need to pay my dues and spend more time snapping and less time verbally flapping? LMAO!

  • Karirose

    Karirose

    Very Edgar Allen Poe but far more artistic. Like it.

  • Caroline Hartree

    Caroline Hartree

    This is great Lenny! Love it!!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Thank you both very much! This is becoming a favourite of mine because I doubt I’ll ever get it again. :-)

  • Ginger Barritt

    Ginger Barritt

    This has just made my night. I had to show all my co-workers!

  • josiem

    josiem

    Beautiful b&w with a great title!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Thanks much! :-)

  • Jill Sprague

    Jill Sprague

    Brilliant shot. I’ve been dying to add a cemetery shot with black crows to my portfolio. Awesome work!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I sincerely hope it was just a figure of speech that you mentioned you dying and cemeteries in one sentence. :-D But thanks for the kudos. I don’t know where you live but here in Sacramento, CA, we are known for or huge winter crow population. Now I see they don’t really ‘come and go’; they just gather in different areas at different times of year. One of the places they gather in summer is the cemetery for some unfathomable reason. LOL!

  • macabrecat

    macabrecat

    I love this photo;)

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thank you! With a name like “macrabrecat”, two birds in a graveyard just HAS to be bliss. LMAO!

  • macabrecat

    macabrecat

    :)

  • salsbells69

    salsbells69

    Great shot..wonderfully interpretated..or is it? Um..going now..lol

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thank you! LOL! Just don’t look up! Hehehe!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    LOL! Thank you but if I see them again, I’m going to walk the other direction – quickly.

  • invisible

    invisible

    VERY CREATIVE ! CHAPEAU !

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I thank you very much! :-)

  • Angel Gold

    Angel Gold

    Love this

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thanks! It was so funny when I saw it I could have missed it. LOL!

  • Rebecca MacNaughton

    Rebecca MacNau...

    This is just the most poetic, beautiful and dramatic graveyard image ever. It is absolutely cinematic!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA

    Lenny La Rue, IPA

    I thank you very much, Becca! In infra-red, it does look a bit like a shot from some old horror movie. :-)

  • CrimsonLotus

    CrimsonLotus

    Hilarious! I’m never so happy as when I’m in a cemetary with my camera. I recently said to a friend ‘Oh, I could happily spend the rest of my life in Rookwood Necropolis’, to which he replied deadpan ‘I can arrange for you to spend a lot longer than that if you like’. If you don’t laugh you die!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    LMFAO! This is an all-time favourite of mine and judging from the hits, many other people like it too. It will have to grace the cover of my Birds calendar (when I get around to making it)! :-)

  • angelfeather

    angelfeather

    too cute love it!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thank you. :-)

  • navybrat

    navybrat

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Waaaaaaay cool! Thanks!

  • mekea

    mekea

    Congrats on the feature! Awesome capture!! :)

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I thank you and WOO HOO!!!! :-D

  • jacqi

    jacqi

    Love this shot! Congrats on the feature

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I thank you and I thank you again! :-D For a complete “throwaway” shot that had absolutely nada to do with why I was there, it was a very fortuitous capture. And since I learned the lesson early using digital cameras, I’ve got a few more images with their own digital coding so I’ll be able to do whatever with a few of them and still have one that’s MINE, ALL MINE!!!! LOL!

  • Connie Thomilson

    Connie Thomilson

    What a sence of humor this one has….congrats on the feature!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I thank you muchly! And being featured is icing on the cherry on the cake! Yummmm! :-D

  • shakey

    shakey

    Great work.

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thanks much! :-)

  • Rebecca Bryson

    Rebecca Bryson

    This is fantastic and humorous to boot with the commentary you added with it :)

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thanks and thanks! I had to work to get the writing; the shot was easy. LOL!

  • E.R. Bazor

    E.R. Bazor

    Cool shot!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thank you! I got a dozen or more in the series so I’ll probably make some weird greeting cards (or sympathy cards :O ) with a few of them. I’ll probably get slammed for being politically incorrect but DUH! I am, right? ;)

  • jenxie

    jenxie

    Very Poe’ish (not a real word I am sure). Has a dark feel but also humor shows, many layers here.

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    I agree. If you just look at the shot, “Nevermore” comes to mind, even if it’s being said twice and by the birds. LOL!

    In my cemeteries series, I tried to honour the deceased with black and white photography that offered a more somber tone to the pieces. This one was no exception but I had to slip something in the text or it would just be a bizarre picture. :-D

  • joyousmoon

    joyousmoon

    Nicely done…Congratulations on your feature!

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    Thank you and I’m pretty proud of the feature in Amazing Graves. :-)

  • E.R. Bazor

    E.R. Bazor

    Congratulations on the Feature!
    It does look like the crows are sitting there telling a good joke.

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied

    :-D Thank you! If only I could have listened in. LOL!

  • Anne-Marie Bokslag

    Anne-Marie Bok... 17 days ago

  • Lenny La Rue, IPA replied 16 days ago

    Woo hoo! I thank you so much. :-D

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