Toowong Dawn

My entry in The Restless Photographer group competition, New Beginnings.

This image was taken in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane at dawn on Good Friday (14/04/06).

New Beginnings? Well, it's dawn for a start. I've NEVER been up so early for a photograph as I was this morning as I had to drive a long way across town to get to this gigantic mountainous cemetery while it was still dark. Further, even if you don't believe in an afterlife, death does herald profound new beginnings for those left behind. And for Christians specifically, the cross symbolises the death (on Good Friday) and, moreso, resurrection of Christ and the beginning of both the the Christian church and the promise of "everlasting life".

Confession: When I got there it was so dark I was quite spooked to be there on my own. A few mediocre bulb exposures of the full moon setting over the graves helped me settle down until a guard came by and told me he'd opened the vehicular gates, allowing me to drive rather than walk around in the dark.