Right,we go to weddings, christenings, parties, club dinners, etc and there is always a photographer there, well I have a fantastic idea.

Funeral photographer. Come on now, think about it, you could have a set of prints to remember your loved ones at their last hours on this Earth.AND, the Leica RF would be the perfect tool for the job, no noise.

Is that a bleedin' great idea or what?

-- Phil the business (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002

Answers

Your fantastic bleedin' great idea is not novel.

I have taken pictures, for hire, at more than several funerals. Some have asked for images of the person who passed on, in their casket, but most have not. I usually take a few anyway (co-ordinate with funeral director), since the first funeral I shot included none of those, and I was asked by other family members later on for one (and I came up short). If they don't ask, I won't present it, and the pictures in the casket are always done before or after the viewing, never with other people and family members around.

The REAL reason for photos at a funeral, is that in many instances, family, friends, loved ones, old school chums, have come from long distances to pay their respects. It is a gathering of people who's common thread is intertwined around the departed. Often, or more like usually, there is just not a chance otherwise to get photos of these folks together, and that is why I have photographed funerals. It is a moving, and touching experience in every case, and in every case, I have been made to feel like a member of the family.

I usually use a Hasselblad 500c/m, 60mm Distagon, and a 12x18 softbox with a 283 in it. Sometimes I switch to the 80mm Planar for better face shots since when you get real close with the softbox it tends to have falloff on the bottom of the image (closer than 4 feet or so).

I usually just mill around in the back of the funeral parlor, and people seek me out, bringing others with them. It works well that way, since I can arrange them on the ample, and stately funiture.

I consider funeral photography a valuable asset to the families of those who have died. I have run into some flack tho, from funeral directors who insisted on a "cut", usually 25 percent, of my proceeds because "their photographer" was not used. The two times that happened, one I ate, and one I had them arrange to tack onto the funeral expense at large. My feeling is that their photographer either did not exist, or charge an exhorbitant fee to cover himself and the funeral home.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 05, 2002.

................that's just sick.

-- Phil me up (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

Well I wasn't gonna add this, then I was, then I wasn't... but what the heck, here goes......

I would be willing to wager that many users of this forum would be overjoyed at photographing "your" funeral, pro-bono even!

Sorry... I just could not resist, damn me to hell.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 05, 2002.

You're right... 25 percent is sickening. We agree about that!

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 05, 2002.

.......oh God, I was only joking.........Charles, please tell me you're joking too?......please.

-- Phil is feeling faint (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

Wishing death on someone, not something I have ever done on this site or any other come to think of it, But hey, If you want me dead then that's fine.

You really are a sick little puppy aren't you Charles?

-- Phil the Living (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

I actually posted a rather long thread on the LUG once about how I felt the Nikon F100 with zoom lens and flash on bracket was the perfect rig for weddings, and the Leica M with a couple of lenses was ideal for funerals. The wedding shots really glow with fill flash, and the big rig gives one a bit of authority in the crowd control department ("O.K., all the bride's family on this side!") In contrast, the M fits right into a discrete, unobtrusive documenting of what is generally a quiet family scene. I can't help but pass on Mark Twain's comment that the reason we are happy at weddings and sad at funerals is that we are not the actual parties involved. ;+)

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), May 05, 2002.

I was at a funeral a few weeks ago that was not only photographed (with a huge Nikon SLR) but also videotaped.

I also remember visiting a distant aunt when I was a kid who had a photo album devoted to her husbands funeral on her coffee table. I recall being particularly creeped out by the pictures (some of which were tightly framed headshots) of the corpse.

And, yes, funeral directors have quite a reputation for being racketeers. One of the reasons I'll be cremated when I check out. No need for a $7,000 casket, a $10,000 plot, and a $5,000 funeral service. I'd rather spend the money on something fun while I'm alive.

-- Luke Dunlap (luked@mail.utexas.edu), May 05, 2002.

Amen to that Luke!

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 05, 2002.

Charles, that was a rotton thing to say. Nobody deserves that, not even the forum's most deleted participant!

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), May 05, 2002.

R.I.P. Wally, Copyright 2001 Jeff Spirer

My wife's grandfather. Every family member has this photo hanging in their hown. It's just one more memory...

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), May 05, 2002.

........I'm lost for words......photographing and videoing a funeral, it's just too American.

-- Phil the sickened (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

the operative word here is "bleedin'".....

-- Phil DeGraves (jerkyboy@floopjack.glom), May 05, 2002.

Friends: Please IGNORE Phil. He is a perpetual nuisance to our forum. Don't fall for his silly threads. Tony will yank him soon.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), May 05, 2002.

Have a look at Sudek's funeral shots.

-- Jim Shields (jim.shields@tasis.ch), May 05, 2002.

Albert, stop whining you half-wit

-- Phil me in (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

Albert, stop whining you half-wit.

-- Phil me in (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

wow, 2 post, how bizarre? How apt?

-- Phil Phil (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

Phil,how about a more cheerful post!

-- Allen Herbert (allen1@btinternet.com), May 05, 2002.

How about - 'What is the best film for capturing the pale tones of my dead granny as she lies in her coffin?'

-- Phil the cheerful (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

If that is cheerful,lets go for sad.

-- Allen Herbert (allen1@btinternet.com), May 05, 2002.

Phil the Pro,what photography is really all about.What is a good photograph,what sort of impact should it create.Now that would be a interesting post...how about it Phil(honest question).

-- Allen Herbert (allen1@btinternet.com), May 05, 2002.

This thread is dead boring...

-- Yogesh Jeram (Yogeshjeram@hotmail.com), May 05, 2002.

Jeff, R.I.P. Walley is a great & emotionally moving shot. No wonder everyone has it. Really top notch photography.

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), May 05, 2002.

Allen, I've said it a million times, photography is nothing to do with gear or magazines or forums, it's to do with photographs. A single picture can mean a thousand different things to a thousand different people. A good photo to me is one that makes me think ' shit, I wish I'd taken that'.

The only photo that has come close to reducing me to tears is a piture of a starving albino Biafran kid taken by Don McCullin.Most of the photo's on this site have the same effect, but the tears are tears of bordom and frustration. (honest answer)

-- Philing up (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

A good photo to me is one that makes me think ' I wish I'd taken that'

Good answer i agree whatever the photo is about.

-- Allen Herbert (allen1@btinternet.com), May 05, 2002.

Phil, I apologize... I didn't wish you dead, it was a joke (an irrisistable one!). I'm "dead" serious on the funeral photography though. Its a service that is needed, and which the photographic community provides. Heck in N'Orleans they have bands at a traditional funeral!

Once again, I'm sorry for the tasteless joke.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 05, 2002.

What a coincidence!!! My grandmother died this weekend and the funeral is Wednesday. Now I can cash those savings bonds Grammy had given me. As a tribute to her, I'm going to phtotgraph her funeral and create a lasting remembrance of her. For the job I've decided to spend my inheritance on a new M7 and to use it to photograph my granny's send-off. My question is this: SHOULD I GET SILVER OR BLACK?

Please help!!! The funeral is Wednesday. Thanks a bunch, guys.

Dennis

-- Dennis Couvillion (couvilaw@aol.com), May 05, 2002.

I just shot a funeral a few months ago as a favor for a friend's family and the experience was quite unnerving. Flash was out of the question so I used an M6 with 75mm and 35mm 'lux, TMZ (at 1600)and Scala. Everything turned out nicely. CN400 would have been better.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), May 05, 2002.

Dennis: I would go with a black armband, and whatever color camera you would like.

MJ

-- Mark Johnson (logical1@catholic.org), May 05, 2002.

Phil (and others) - rent the video of the movie "The Loved One" for one view of the American way of death - Jeff's picture is, by comparison, a model of propriety, grace, and beauty.

No, it's a model of propriety, grace and beauty - period.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 06, 2002.

...or "Harold and Maude". A young millionaire son has a common interest in funerals with an old penniless woman.

-- Peter Mackay (pm@novonordisk.com), May 06, 2002.

Well, I stand corrected, funeral photography must be the next big thing to cross the Atlantic, I think I'll give it a miss though!

Charles, I forgive you.

-- Phil the boat (philkneen@manx.net), May 06, 2002.

I don't hang out on funerals too often. But about one month ago the husbund of my girlfriend's sister hanged himself. He left his wife (my girlfriend's sister) and three doughters (age 11, 16 and 19). First I thought to report the funeral, but than I decided to leave my cameras at home, because I didn't want to hurt anybody. Well, when I arrived at the funeral the widow herself asked me why I didn't bring my cameras with me. Pretty strange experience for me. Best regards, Michael

-- Michael Wildi (michaelwildi@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

Constantine Manos took photographs of the funeral of a black soldier killed in Viet Nam.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/portfolio/mac/macbio.html

which became an important record of the times. The most famous picture in the set was a close up of a young girl with a tear running down her face taken with an M Leica with 90mm lens. Cheers!

-- Gil Pruitt (wgpinc@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.