I was thinking about this challenge and deciding what photographs to use this week. So I’m going to take you back to 2004 when I first bought a digital camera. A little Fuji S304, cost me an arm and a leg, but it opened up so many new possibilities for my photography. It’s still in working order and this is one of the first photographs I took with it. (I never throw anything away)
I wasn’t experimenting. I took this photograph for a purpose. My wife was working on her family tree and by recording this digital photograph of the gravestone of John Arthurs, her great, great-grandfather, we were able to share it with other family members.
Digital opened up a whole new world, we were able to visit locations where past generations had lived and instantly record grave stones and their location for future use in the family tree.
This is the beautiful church of Saint John the Baptist in Sampford Peverell, Devon and it is where John’s grave is located. I am standing almost next to his grave and by recording this viewpoint it allows others to find the stone should the churchyard get overgrown, as many do nowadays.
Finally I’d like to mention the decision by WordPress to drop the Zemanta Plugin since the start of 2014. For a good few years I have been using Zemanta to point to other bloggers who were taking part in the Weekly Photo Challenge, or articles from the web that were relevant to my post. Suddenly we have lost the facility. No notice, just an arbitrary decision. I am not happy to say the least. The folks at WordPress say that their new in-house Related Posts is far better. I disagree. In fact I would go so far as to say it is totally useless as i only points to posts from my blog and i have no control over what is considered related. At least with Zemanta I could select how many related posts to add and choose what i consider related.
However there is some form of workaround. You can install a plugin for Zemanta into your browser which seems to work except for WordPress related posts. So far I have been unable to get Zemanta to find any related posts for this weeks challenge.
Say It With A Camera 
Hi Mike – a VERY interesting choice for “beginning” – must admit your shot drew me in before I even realized it was you in my reader! Those lucky enough to have real faith will say that a gravestone IS a new beginning for the next life. In any case, very interesting response. Bummer about Zemanta but change is good – I’m sure you’ll find an even better way to link 🙂
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Hi Tina – thought I’d try something different this week, although I must admit I did not consider the “new life” angle. I did rely on Zemanta and so far the plugin is not recommending the links I am looking for. I’ve emailed their tech support but as it’s the weekend I’m not expecting a reply today.
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Using the camera to record gravestones has proven to be quite useful by lots of people. My cousin did the same thing last year as she and I serched for gravestones at three cemeteries. Those old gravesites are very interesting some times.
There is an old saying, “leave well enough alone.” Thus far tech companies, etc have no idea that when something is good there is no need to change. Just as Microsoft went to Windows 8 it all went to hell in a hand basket for many individuals. Windows 7 needs to be brought back and WP needs to return Zementa to its users. Yahoo decided to mess with email and now it is no better but moslty worse. Yahoo also messed with Flickr and I am no fond of the changes there either.
It seems to me that employees come up with radical ideas to justify their job. I saw that happen numerous times while employed by the federal government.
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I’ve installed the workaround suggested by many, Yvvonne, but it’s just not picking up other bloggers who are writing about the Weekly Challenge, unlike the WordPress version. http://about.me/mikehardisty
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nice nice
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I’m glad you liked it and thank you for taking the time to comment
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