Whether a photo is taken and placed on the web is really not an issue when common sense is used. The reason people take photos it to record history. In this case history of a person(s) What about all the information placed in newspaper. Births, Marriages, Deaths. Etc.? Would we want people to be prevented from gaining knowledge of these events? Most people are grateful to have a photo taken of a loved one's tombstone. What joy it would bring, for them to find a lost family member though the viewing of a photo. If we are in doubt about taking a photo, edit the photo and leave out the surviving spouses' information out. My motive as well as most others of placing a person tombstone in the web to view is for genealogy purposes. All we need to resolve this issue, is to have your e-mail listed on the website, so if a person chooses to have a family tombstone removed, this can be done. By the way, when I take photos of a cemetery (that is not closed), I always try to check with a cemetery board member or with their Church. You would be surprised how helpful the Minster of that church cemetery will be. In fact one a minister took me for a tour of the cemetery. In another case, the ladies in charge of a cemetery offer me records for stones not readable. In all dealings, I have been up front about what my reasons were, that I was doing this for free and always took with me the OGS publication of that cemetery as guide. "Ask and yea shall know , search and yea will find" Sheila

I look at photos of tombstones in a historical sense: some stones deteriorate very fast. A timely picture captures the stone in its finest. Sadly, the photographers are not in abundance or in time to capture the stone in its prime and some of our pictures show what time and weather have done.