Signs in a Graveyard

My conscience has been bothering me.  Now I am publishing pictures of gravestones on the blog, the question arises, is it right?

When we were in Whitby I saw a sign in a graveyard for the first time, reading, "photos prohibited".  No doubt it was aimed at goths, and said remember these are real peoples' graves and memorials, and family come to visit them, and they don't need you taking photos like they are an attraction.  We have always visited graveyards when out and about:

A cool gravestone in Scotland

But so far, we have just enjoyed the images ourselves.  Now I am publishing them, my conscience has been awoken.

 

Miss Aimson has always taken a lot of photos in Christ Church graveyard, down the road from Aimo's House.  One time, a woman tutted at her, but then as Miss Aimson pointed out, that lady was walking a dog in the graveyard, which signs specifically prohibit.  Miss Aimson is fascinated by a sign at the church, stating "Do not injure the flowers or shrubs, they are sacred to the dead", mostly because she first read it as "Do not injure the flowers or shrubs, they are SCARED OF the dead".

 

Does the passage of time make photography acceptable?  Even if sites like this:

 

 

are memorials to the dead, is it acceptable to photograph them because the people are so long dead?  Or is it acceptable to photograph any memorial, however recent, because memorials are there to make you think of a person, so looking at them is fulfilling their purpose? 

 

I suppose it depends how private you think graveyards are.  Are they there purely for family, or are they for the public as a whole?  Is it just respect for people, living and dead, that matters?  I don't know, but I'm not sure how much longer I will be photographing graves.

 

Update on post: The Grey Dagger, I have looked at tortoiseshells and painted ladies side by side on the buddleia bush, and I can tell them apart.  So that's five different types of butterfly in Aimo's Garden so far...