Emotional Contrast: The sadness of an infant child seemingly forgotten by the world, combined with the beautiful serenity of an amazing final resting place.
I stumbled on the “Infant Son of Joe & Annie Ward Born June 1943” a couple of years ago while scouting for a location to do some wildlife photography. I have visited the site many times since but never photographed it until now. When I heard you talk about a drama contest on your last contest video, I immediately knew this was the shot I wanted to take and submit. For me, the competing emotions I feel make this the most dramatic place on earth. It's where I often go to feel close to my Creator.
As for processing, I created a mask for the stone. Then, duplicated and inverted to mask everything else. I wanted to play with the stone to bring out the writing as best I could. On the stone, I hit the contrast pretty hard and upped the exposure a bit. For the rest of the image, I reduced the highlights and upped the shadows. I also warmed it a touch. It was shot at 50mm, 1/100, f/1.8 and ISO-160.