I've been dabbling in genealogy on and off for years, but after finding family grave pics here added by generous strangers, I wanted to give back and pass it on, so to speak.

I made my first attempt to photograph an entire cemetery in June 2014. This cemetery seemed small online and had 14 requests for pictures. I thought while I got my ancestors' grave pics, I could also fulfill these photo requests. Quick and easy work, right?

The limited hours I could spend in this cemetery (975 miles away from home) was complicated by heat, thunderstorms and dangerous lightning the day I was there. Most of the time I juggled an umbrella while taking pics, between mad dashes to the car whenever lightning got too close. The tornado sirens even went off at one point!

The cemetery is much larger than shown online. I wasn't able to get pics of the whole place, but I fulfilled every request I could find.

I have a whole new respect and admiration for photo volunteers now!

I've been dabbling in genealogy on and off for years, but after finding family grave pics here added by generous strangers, I wanted to give back and pass it on, so to speak.

I made my first attempt to photograph an entire cemetery in June 2014. This cemetery seemed small online and had 14 requests for pictures. I thought while I got my ancestors' grave pics, I could also fulfill these photo requests. Quick and easy work, right?

The limited hours I could spend in this cemetery (975 miles away from home) was complicated by heat, thunderstorms and dangerous lightning the day I was there. Most of the time I juggled an umbrella while taking pics, between mad dashes to the car whenever lightning got too close. The tornado sirens even went off at one point!

The cemetery is much larger than shown online. I wasn't able to get pics of the whole place, but I fulfilled every request I could find.

I have a whole new respect and admiration for photo volunteers now!