Grace Smith was one of the earliest buried in this cemetary, which was founded in 1900. The Smith family was probably the wealthiest in the area. Poor Grace died at age 19, so has been stationary far longer than she was moving.
Early morning shot (5:40 AM), but still required some fill flash to keep the sky from blowing yet have a readable tombstone. The picture is straight -- the tombstone is tilted.
In post processing, I cropped out the ugly base and some distractions on the left edge. Some curves, a color shift of blues toward magenta to improve the sky color.USM for contrast. Picture kept low key for dramatic emphasis. Resize and final USM for sharpness.
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A really tough technical shot, so don't feel bad that it didn't come off.
You mention trying to keep the sky from blowing, but unfortunately you didn't succeed. At least on my monitor there is no detail. A graduated ND filter would have helped, but you have the issue of the tombstone sticking right up into the middle of the sky, so I don't know how it would have ultimately come out. And while Oregon rocks for its beaches, I have a really, really hard time making fir trees look good on a picture. Here they sorta look like a blurry blob. Blech.
The fill flash was a good idea, but I wonder if it wasn't too strong. Personally if I can, I use flash as little as possible. I often try to light with natural sources like candles or such. The color hue is so much prettier. Speaking of color, since there is so little, I would have gone with B&W here. Or even sepia to try to give that old look. I pulled your pic into PS and it looked like the blue channel made the tombstone more contrasty than it is in color.
Keep trying. If I come up with an answer for those fir trees, I'll let you know. The best I can do so far is sharp sillouette. You could have tried that here by upping the aperture to f/16 or f/22 or something. (you would have needed a tripod then.
The flash shadow puts me off this photo, and it kills (pardon the pun) what could otherwise be a good idea.
Also, the column of the headstone would benefit from being pictured straight on. The skew angle is off-putting.
Other than that, it also seems slightly over-sharpened.
But good luck none-the-less.
The hint of color in the treeline begs for this image to be in B&W. It's a nice shot as is but it doesn't produce the emotional attachment it should. 5
It's ok. Might have worked better to get this shot with either early morning or late day sun instead of having to use a flash. The sky probably could have added some interest then as well.
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