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Author Topic: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone  (Read 5337 times)

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« on: October 26, 2013, 01:21:25 pm »

From last week at Callanish on the isles of Harris and Lewis, as we toured around the Islands and Highlands for a couple of weeks.

 ;D

Dave
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degrub

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2013, 04:22:25 pm »

the land impaled on
the dragon claw points
accusing the high heavens
obscured by cloudy cataract
slumbers under green.
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batmura

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2013, 04:27:17 pm »

Great image. Greart processing, too.
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ned.ward

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2013, 05:19:39 pm »

Beautiful, and this may be an odd question but have you ever encountered grafitti on standing stones? I haven't, just piles of rubbish around and muddy footfall.
Ned
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kencameron

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2013, 05:56:40 pm »

I love the front-on composition, but the image is a bit over-processed, for my taste, or at least, the processing isn't conveying a clear emotional tone (which for me can justify any amount of processing). These things are of course so very subjective. What I am offering is a description of my actual response and not a criticism of your photograph.
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Ken Cameron

thierrylegros396

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2013, 03:23:00 am »

Shark's fin ?!

Any shark in Scotland :D ;) ;)

Thierry
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Seoonmie

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2013, 04:24:32 am »

Well, that certainly hits my soft spot, namely Scotland. Beautiful.
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jjj

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2013, 07:38:02 am »

the land impaled on
the dragon claw points
accusing the high heavens
obscured by cloudy cataract
slumbers under green.
Nice description of the shot.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone (Cnoc Ceann a' Ghàraidh)
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2013, 07:59:42 am »

Thanks everyone.
..but the image is a bit over-processed, for my taste, or at least, the processing isn't conveying a clear emotional tone (which for me can justify any amount of processing).

Yes after reading Steve Gosling's piece the other week, it put me in the mood to have a go at the dark and grungy style myself, with lots of grain and deep vignetting, but I realised half way through working on that particular version of the image, that it just wasn't my thing, so I started again and tried to be only a little bit leaning towards creating a darkness in the image, because the wind swept look of the shot and the dark menacing skies seemed to be saying that to me. Also I don't do B/W that often, but again this seemed to be how the scene made me feel. So I suppose I started processing the image going towards a preconceived idea based on Steve Gosling's work, but then ended up processing it to reflect my remembered emotions of when I was there.

the land impaled on
the dragon claw points
accusing the high heavens
obscured by cloudy cataract
slumbers under green.

Beautiful words, are they your own, I am mightily impressed  :)

Beautiful, and this may be an odd question but have you ever encountered graffiti on standing stones? I haven't, just piles of rubbish around and muddy footfall.
Ned

There is no graffiti that I am aware of, anywhere on Skye or in the surrounding area where I live or on the nearby Islands, I am sure there must be somewhere, but we just don't get crime and vandalism etc up here, the locals laugh at me when I lock the car door, they don't even take the keys out of their cars, or lock their front doors or anything, no one has burglar alarms or security systems, it takes a bit of getting used to actually, coming from an inner city upbringing like we did.

Shark's fin ?!

Any shark in Scotland :D ;) ;)

Thierry

You know what, that is exactly what I thought when I walked up to the stone circle and why this particular stone intrigued me so much, and perhaps is the same thing that the people who erected it all those thousands of years ago thought as well, as we do get Orca's around the Islands quite often, I know because I have seen them hunting - the Construction of these stone circles took place between 2900 and 2600 BC.

Go here if you want to learn more about these stones and the many stone circles in this area on the isles of Harris and Lewis. This stone forms part of Callanish II stone circle, which is called Cnoc Ceann a' Ghàraidh, but don't ask me to pronounce it, as the words written in Gaelic, do not sound anything like they look, the letter 'd' for instance, has three different sounds depending on where in the word it is located, front, middle or back.

 :)

Dave
« Last Edit: October 27, 2013, 08:13:11 am by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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mattpallante

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2013, 02:53:58 pm »

Beautiful and powerful image to me. I love what the sky adds, too, Dave.

Matt
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john beardsworth

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2013, 04:45:33 pm »

I think I know that particular stone, Dave, and Callanish is certainly a magical place!

I like the picture and don't think it's overdone. If anything, I wonder if the stone might be lightened to draw attention to it - at the moment the clouds are much lighter and seem to dominate.

John
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sdwilsonsct

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2013, 05:22:50 pm »

Wonderful stone, well-presented. But I would like to see some more landscape around it.

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2013, 08:54:12 pm »

Thanks again everyone.

Wonderful stone, well-presented. But I would like to see some more landscape around it.

I think I did post another colour shot of the Callanish I standing stones a while back on Lula, but for the life of me I cannot find it on here, so perhaps I didn't, so here is a low res version I have just downloaded from my website, so not the highest quality version to look at I know, but I can't get to the PC at the moment, as we have people in-house and it's a bit late at night to be wandering around and making a noise.

I think I know that particular stone, Dave, and Callanish is certainly a magical place!

I like the picture and don't think it's overdone. If anything, I wonder if the stone might be lightened to draw attention to it - at the moment the clouds are much lighter and seem to dominate.

John

Leave it with me and I will have another go at it tomorrow if I can  :)

Dave
« Last Edit: October 27, 2013, 08:57:37 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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rgs

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2013, 11:24:38 pm »

Beautiful, and this may be an odd question but have you ever encountered grafitti on standing stones? I haven't, just piles of rubbish around and muddy footfall.
Ned

Realizing that some graffiti is very obtrusive, I have often wondered if the difference between cave art and graffiti is just time.
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jjj

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2013, 05:28:58 am »

Realizing that some graffiti is very obtrusive, I have often wondered if the difference between cave art and graffiti is just time.
I think it may well be.
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2013, 07:47:28 am »

It´s a very nice photo, with lots of textural detail on the rock.

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2013, 06:32:22 pm »

Here's the latest version, I haven't gone mad with it, just tweaked it a little here and there  ;D

Dave
« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 06:33:59 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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john beardsworth

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2013, 06:07:58 am »

Maybe push it a bit further, Dave? Maybe it would benefit from brightening the stone so its lightest areas are a touch lighter than the clouds?

Hopefully you won't mind, but this is what I'm thinking, and to my eyes it brings the attention to the stone without compromising the interest in the sky.

« Last Edit: October 29, 2013, 07:04:46 am by johnbeardy »
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wolfnowl

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2013, 08:15:42 pm »

Beautiful work, Dave.  John's version is well done too.  Tough to decide between them.

Mike.

P.S. I'm pretty sure that if you tried to paint graffiti on a standing stone you'd find yourself by a large crowd of angry faerie folk who'd take the spray can and, well, you'd never be seen again.
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If your mind is attuned t

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Isle of Lewis - Standing Stone
« Reply #19 on: October 30, 2013, 07:59:48 pm »

Maybe push it a bit further, Dave? Maybe it would benefit from brightening the stone so its lightest areas are a touch lighter than the clouds?

Hopefully you won't mind, but this is what I'm thinking, and to my eyes it brings the attention to the stone without compromising the interest in the sky.



I can see your point John, yes that looks does look very good  :)

Dave
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