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Necropolis - City of the Dead
Sometimes I forget that I don't always need to go to some far away location to find good subjects for photography - often, there are plenty of great places much closer to home.
The trick is having an idea of what to do with those places, what type of treatment suits the images that can be made at them. And so, on a bright Sunday morning, I decided to go into town and wander through the Necropolis, the 'City Of The Dead'. Perched high above Glasgow, the Necropolis is located in the oldest part of the City and draws tourists from across the world - today, there were Italians and Americans in abundance. Most of them with cameras in hand. Apart from the tourists, there was no-one else there, the residents of the place excepted.
The Nectopolis was built in an age when it was crucial to be appropriately remembered - and great wealth allowed great exuberance in the construction of ornate and elaborate tombs; those same mausoleums now lie in the shadows of the trees which have grown around them and amongst them. Many of them are partially ruined, an echo of an age now long gone.
These two are my favourite images of the trip.
The bottom image is named 'Faded Elegance' - this seems to sum up the feel of the place, where time has taken it's toll even on the solid marble columns and majestic capitols of the tombs, aided and abetted by a variety of shadowy figures over the years.
The upper image was taken while I was standing on the roof of the tomb in the second image. This viewpoint allowed me a wonderful view across the Necropolis, toward the ancient Cathedral and with the Royal Infirmary buttressing it to the right.
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This image was an HDR composite of five seperate exposures, allowing a far greater range of colour, luminosity and tone than any single image could have done. This approach seemed to favour the vivid copper tones of the Cathedral roof (which really is the colour it appears here) and the stonework of the Infirmary beyond it.
These two very different images summed up, for me, the decadence and decay of the City of the Dead, a place I will return to again.