View Full Version : All Saint's Day in the Woodland Cemetery - Stockholm, Sweden


Chris Bennison
November 24th, 2010, 06:11 AM
All Saint's Day in The Woodland Cemetery on Vimeo

Allhelgona på Skogskyrkogården
An UNESCO World Heritage Site.
November 6th, 2010 - Stockholm Sweden

Canon 7D
Canon 17-55mm 2.8 IS
Sigma 30mm
Glidetrack Shooter
Zacuto Z-Finder

christopherbennison.com

Background Info:

As dusk falls on Saturday, All Saints Day, Swedes stream towards the country's graveyards armed with candles, matches, wreaths and flowers for the graves of their loved ones.

The beauty of the candlelight blended with a soothing melancholy creates an emotionally-charged atmosphere. Small rural churchyards are visible across fields, dotted with flecks of golden light, while in towns and cities people murmur hushed greetings to those visiting neighbouring graves.

Probably the most spectacular place to witness the festival is the massive cemetery of Skogskyrkogården in the south of Stockholm. Chatty crowds drift from the train station, past hot dog vendors and candle stalls, as if to a football match.

But as they enter the cemetery they are greeted not with the roar of a stadium but with a silence almost as overwhelming. Thousands upon thousands of marshal lights line the winding road into the churchyard, the glare becoming more and more intense until at the top of the hill in the centre there is barely space to walk between the rows of candles.

Chuck Spaulding
November 26th, 2010, 11:42 AM
Great use of timelapse.

Nicely done.

Alan Melville
November 26th, 2010, 05:04 PM
Chris,

As Chuck said, nice use of time lapse.

A personal suggestion, I'd have used a fading folding page effect, possibly right to left, I think this would have fitted in with the theme of both the subject and song, [which, incidentally, I thought suited very well] rather than straight cuts between scenes. I feel the cuts are too 'Hard' for the subject.

I enjoyed it though and it reminded me of the "Day of the Dead" celebrations in Mexico, although the Mexicans are probably a little more 'celebratory'.!!!

Al