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What are your thoughts on family members taking pictures of open caskets and other pics at church and grave-site during the funeral?
What about if your family member child is being baptized, is it ok to stand there and snap pictures with your cell phone during the ceremony and even during prayer? Shouldn't you be in the moment instead of worrying about getting the perfect picture to later share with friends?
It just boggles my mind but maybe it's the way the world is these days and I just need to get with the times.
Last edited by diddlydudette; 02-18-2016 at 11:22 AM..
Where I grew up, taken pictures at wakes and funerals was fairly common. Due to the large number of first and second generation immigrants in our neighborhoods, these pictures were sent back "home" to the rest of the family. Back then, you just didn't phone overseas - and we certainly didn't have any form of "Skype" or email. We used to send air mail letters that looked like this. And the paper was basically onion skin - it wasn't regular stationery. When someone died, it MIGHT warrant a very quick phone call with no details, but pics and the obit, etc. would be mailed later.
So yes, funeral photography is a thing - and I've been around it all my life. There's no disrespect involved, and it's far from new.
ETA That being said, I can certainly imagine it being more of a traditional, cultural or generational thing in that you're not familiar with it.
What are your thoughts on family members taking pictures of open caskets and other sights at church and at the grave-site of the dead and all the family and friends?
I always find this strange. It's not the way I want to remember the deceased, and I can't see any reason why I would want to later look through such pictures.
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What about if your family member child is being baptized, is it ok to stand there and snap pictures with your cell phone during the ceremony and even during prayer? Shouldn't you be in the moment instead of worrying about getting the perfect picture to later share with friends?
It just boggles my mind but maybe it's the way the world is these days and I just need to get with the times.
During prayer? No. But at other appropriate times is fine. I have pictures from my baptism 30 years ago, so it's not really a new thing.
I would never ever want anyone taking my open casket picture and then pass it around for all to see. Maybe I need to put that in my will.....no cameras. I can respect if it doesn't bother others but to me it seems strange and disrespectful. I want all the people around me mourning and too sad to want to snap pictures of my dead body lying in a casket or getting ready to be buried. Just remember me living and in happier times....not dead and cold and hard in a casket or being put underground.
The few photographs that I have seen taken before a funeral or at a visitation, tended to be more of a panoramic view to see all of the floral displays around the casket and not close-ups of the deceased.
When we did that at our parents funerals, it was more for us to remember how loved they were that so many people sent flowers.
People grieve in their own ways. If that involves taking a picture to remember the deceased by, then that's fine.
When I'm dead, I certainly won't care if anyone is taking a picture of me.
I agree, in fact, we can take it one step further into Frank Reynolds territory and they can throw me in the trash when I'm done. But seriously I agree with an earlier poster that it's more of a generational/cultural thing whether this can be viewed as inappropriate or not. I think taking a selfie with a dead person in a casket and a big smile on your face is universally shunned though, I've seen a few with kids doing that with their dead grandparent.
I agree, in fact, we can take it one step further into Frank Reynolds territory and they can throw me in the trash when I'm done. But seriously I agree with an earlier poster that it's more of a generational/cultural thing whether this can be viewed as inappropriate or not. I think taking a selfie with a dead person in a casket and a big smile on your face is universally shunned though, I've seen a few with kids doing that with their dead grandparent.
I would never ever want anyone taking my open casket picture and then pass it around for all to see. Maybe I need to put that in my will.....no cameras. I can respect if it doesn't bother others but to me it seems strange and disrespectful. I want all the people around me mourning and too sad to want to snap pictures of my dead body lying in a casket or getting ready to be buried. Just remember me living and in happier times....not dead and cold and hard in a casket or being put underground.
Not only that but in most cases the deceased doesn't look like themselves at all.
My cousin did this with both her parents. She than sent out the pictures. I was looking through pictures and came across it, her mother looked awful, for lack of a better word "clown like" with the makeup. I ripped it up. Here were all these nice pictures of her parents she sent through the years and than in the middle was this one.
Why would want to have that ingrained in your mind?
Isn't a concern to me, as I've asked to be cremated. But would I ever ever take pictures at such a sacred moment? No. Put the phone away, get off facebook, and pay your respects.
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