I have been upgrading my computer system this week, so unfortunately, there will not be a new blog post today.
I was planning on sharing a new Stone Story this week, but with all the latest tech updates, I didn’t get a chance to complete my research. Stone stories can take a lot of time and research to form fully, especially when your reading takes you down exciting rabbit holes.
My fiancé is helping me upgrade my computer, which means I will have more time to focus on writing and photography and less time dealing with technical difficulties. I appreciate all the work he has put in this week, helping me get set up.
That being said, I am still fine-tuning my new setup and getting myself set up with new editing software. I should be back to a regular posting schedule next week.
Can you believe that we made it through another year? 2023 just flew by! I feel like just yesterday it was Halloween, but here we are! It’s been an interesting year, full of ups and downs. So for this week’s blog post, I wanted to carry on the tradition from last year and take a look back at what happened throughout the year.
2023 was unfortunately the year of COVID for me. I managed to catch it twice, first suffering through two and half weeks of the worst head cold of my life. The second time I caught it, it was mild like a light cold. Unfortunately, the second time I caught COVID, I was also suffering through my first bout of poison ivy.
Catching poison ivy, from a cemetery visit (of course), was quite the learning experience for me. It was a hard reminder that you should always dress appropriately when out in the field, especially when exploring overgrown cemeteries. Dealing with my bad case of poison ivy put me out of commission for about a month, in the middle of summer. It was not an opportune time and had me itching to get back in the field.
Even though I had more downtime this year, I still managed to have a successful field season, visiting 113 cemeteries. 103 of those cemeteries were first-time visits. I didn’t take a count of how many new photos I added to my archives, but there is a lot to sift through and edit this winter. I can’t wait to share them on my portfolio page, and also add them to Find a Grave.
This year also marked another new record for the number of cemeteries visited in one day! A friend and I incredibly visited 25 cemeteries during a day trip to Midland. At the time it didn’t feel like we had visited that many, but the photos don’t lie. We’ll see if we can break this new record in 2024.
Highlights
In April of 2023, I had a great opportunity to participate in a juried photography show, Our Story in Black and White. My cemetery photography was proudly hung beside other great works by local photographers; Caio Higa, Debbie Anzinger Mckay, Debby Trahan-Pero, and Rita Vanderhooft at Gallery 6500. The exhibit ran from April 30th to June 30th. After this initial run, the photography show was moved to the South End Pubic Library and ran for another month. Being part of a group show was such a great experience! I hope I can participate in more photography shows in the future.
Another highlight of 2023 was getting published!
I was contacted by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) which was interested in my photography for their online, quarterly magazine, Beyond. A condensed version of my articles about visiting the graves of Tom Thomson was published as the cover story of their October issue, along with some of my photography. That was incredibly exciting, and I hope to work with Beyond and the BAO again the future.
Cover of Beyond Magazine, Issue 7 – October 2023.
Statistics
This year was also a great year for growth. On the website, I had 6,805 visitors this year, with 12,793 views. That’s the highest count, since starting this website in 2018. I will note that I didn’t start consistently posting till 2021. Speaking of blog posts, I posted 42 times this year, with a word count of 29.3k. I have been very weary about calling myself a writer, but after seeing that word count I might have to change my mind. There is still work to be done to upgrade my writing skills, but it is kind of fun to think of myself as a cemetery tourism writer.
I often write articles that I would like to find and read. My favorite articles to write are cemetery tourism pieces, where I talk about visiting cemeteries and related sites. I also really enjoy researching so these pieces are really fun for me to write. I also feel more connected to these sites after learning about them and visiting them in person.
I also have a lot of fun writing cemetery recipe posts. These posts seem to resonate with readers as well, as they are often the most searched-for articles. I do enjoy experimenting with cooking and baking and these posts encourage me to do that, while also having a research element to connect the recipe to the gravestone.
This year the top viewed blog posts are a bit varied, with one post from last year ranking in second place.
On social media, my Instagram account is growing as well. At 2,754 followers, it’s my favorite place to interact with followers and share my photos.
Overall it has been an excellent year, full of growth and adventures. As I settle in for the winter, I will put my hiking boots away and focus more on research and photo editing. The winter break is an excellent opportunity for me to update my portfolio, as well as research and write more in-depth blog posts about this year’s cemetery travels. I am currently working on a few stone stories and have plans to start a new blog series of cemetery stories. I also would like to catch up on my reading and post some more cemetery book reviews.
Of course, I have already started thinking about next year’s cemetery adventures as well, and have started some maps and travel plans. I hope to visit some more unique grave sites, cemeteries, and famous graves next year. Maybe even exploring out of province. The possibilities are endless, and I am always finding new and interesting places to visit when I go down the research rabbit hole.
I want to finish this 2023 recap by thanking every one of you for your support and encouragement.
All the comments, likes and shares do not go unnoticed. I love being part of this cemetery community and have met so many amazing new people because of it. I appreciate all of you, and wish you all the best in the coming new year.
Here is to another year full of curiosity and adventure!
I realize I owe you all a blog post after missing last Sunday, but I don’t have anything that is quite ready to share with you yet. I have a few posts that I have been working on, but more research is needed. So instead, this will be an update, to share what I have been working on and what you can look forward to on the blog in the coming months.
Most recently, I have been working on a piece inspired by Death’s Garden Revisited, edited by Loren Rhoads. My piece is about my own personal connection to cemeteries. After speaking with my Mother about the subject, it created more questions than answers. As we chatted we uncovered our own little family cemetery mystery, which sent me down yet another research rabbit hole. I’m sure you all will find that story very interesting.
I have also been saving a cemetery story, especially for this month, as February is the anniversary of this local tragedy. I need a little more time to work through the research and sort through my photos from last summer’s road trip. That will be another post to look forward too.
Along with writing and creating content for the blog, I have also been taking an online course to sharpen my writing skills. The course is through Atlas Obscura and is called Historical Nonfiction: Research-based writing with Hadley Meares. This 4-week course promises to help you write historical essays using a research-based lens. I am on week 3 of the course and it has already solidified the good writing habits I already had while introducing new habits, methods, and resources to my writer’s toolbox. I look forward to sharing the article that comes from completing the course.
Amidst all this writing I have also been updating the portfolio section of my website. I have posted many additions to my existing web portfolios and have added some new ones entirely. Sorting through, editing, and posting my archive of cemetery photos has been a great way to look back at all the cemetery adventures I have had over the years.
I have also been working on researching some new areas and cemeteries to visit. I have some great cemetery road trips already planned for this summer and can’t wait to get back on the road and photographing. I plan on visiting Owen Sound, for part two of Chasing Tom Thomson, while also stopping in at some fun interesting spots along the way. I also have another trip planned for early spring which will include my first visit to a loyalist cemetery, and seeing table stones in person. I’m pretty excited about that trip.
I have also been busy getting some submissions ready for a local photography contest, and a gallery showing. I am not quite sure how my cemetery work will be received, but I think they could be great opportunities to get my work out there, regardless of the outcome.
Hopefully, some of these upcoming posts sound interesting and will have you coming back to read more. As always, if you have any book or cemetery recommendations, or cemetery stories of your own to share, please leave me a comment or send me an email at hello@chantallarochelle.ca
Cemetery Photography by Chantal Larochelle 