10 Best Photographs: Magnolia Cemetery Early Bird Outing

With my trusty Canon SX 50 mounted on a monopod

Up before the crack of dawn on a Saturday? There had better be a good reason!

And indeed there was when Beverly Donald, longtime Magnolia Cemetery superintendent, opened the gate super early so she and fellow members of our Carolinas' Nature Photography Association (CNPA) club could come in to take sunrise pictures.

I rolled in around 6:20 a.m. and had time to grab a selfie in front of a favorite Magnolia Cemetery sculpture- the girl with no hands. She, of course, used to have hands. In fact, she was holding a Bible, but some years ago vandals amputated her arms and the Good Book. There's a special place in you know where for such people!

Harvest Moon in Full Glory

I was excited in early October (Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m.) to take these photos from my driveway of this gorgeous Harvest Moon.  I shot with my Canon PowerShot SX 50 HS "superzoom" camera. 

I was thrilled with the detail achieved when I zoomed in all the way

After all, the moon is 238,900 miles from the Earth! 

Still stunning to think that man has walked on the Moon!