My cemetery photo “competitor”
It’s not really a competition….but motivation to keep posting photos. Right?
During the pandemic, when my boyfriend and I were looking on Google Maps for nearby cemeteries to explore, I noticed a certain person’s name was popping up with increasing frequency. Some guy named Ryan was apparently doing the same thing we were—and posting photos before I did.
At first this annoyed me a tiny bit, because it had taken me some time and aggravation to learn workarounds to post photos on Google Maps entries, when the “add photo” icon was not visible and no photos had ever been posted before. It was a point of pride with me to be the first to post a photo on a Google Maps entry. “Damn,” I would say to myself when looking at the photo contributor, “Ryan got here first again.”
But I knew I was being silly, because first, it isn’t a competition, and second, Ryan’s photos gave us an advantage, showing us that it was in fact possible for us to visit a specific place.
I was curious about Ryan because c’mon, let’s face it, a lot of people would think it’s “weird” to visit cemeteries and be a tombstone tourist. So I did a little bit of googling* and didn’t learn much about him. My boyfriend found an email for him, so I sent him a nice message saying thanks for the photos, it shows us there’s something there to visit.
Ryan replied and told me he visited pioneer cemeteries as they were one of the few places not locked down during Covid.
“I started to see the need to add missing locations,” he added. “I enjoy reading the marker stones and pondering the names and lifes of the people there. I try to make a point to read the captions of the markers and any historical information given.” And he told me to keep up the good work with adding my own photos.
Right on! So see, I’m not the only tombstone tourist around here.
Although Ryan and I have some similar motivations for visiting cemeteries, we’re also different in our travels. Ryan’s visits are mostly based from the Portland, Oregon metro area, whereas I range a bit further afield into Washington and the Willamette Valley. Ryan doesn’t seem to contribute photos to Findagrave, and I do. I don’t get the impression that Ryan makes a point of visiting cemeteries wherever he goes, whereas I usually do. And while Ryan has posted some photos of zinkers, he doesn’t seem to share the same fascination with them that I do. Nor does he appear to have a blog about his visits, like the one you’re reading now, although I could be wrong about that. It’s interesting to see what someone else notices about the same places I visit.
So while this isn’t a competition…I can’t help but notice that Ryan is now a Level 8 contributor to Google Maps, like I am. He’s little behind me in points, so I better start getting caught up with posting my backlog of photos. Call it motivation, not competition. Right?
Stump and Lamb explores personal growth and meaning via travels to pioneer cemeteries of the West.
This post was originally published at michellerau.com.
Originally published at http://michellerau.com on July 10, 2023.
