DRAMATIC SETTING ON THE STONES

(Correct name for the stones is Callanish Stones)

These stones are situated on the Isle of Lewis, which is part of the Western Isles of Scotland and they are one of the most complete historic stone circles in Europe.

About two million years ago the ice age came to Lewis. Glaciers engulfed the land and the sea, forming the smooth rocky landscape you can see today. When the ice melted twelve thousand years ago, the sea level rose – flooding river valleys. As the climate improved the land became alive, soil formed and plants and woodland returned. Peat developed on the poorly drained ground and extended upwards and outwards to cover large tracts of land. It buried natural rocks and the stone monuments that had been erected by early settlers. The layout is shaped like a distorted Celtic Cross, with five rows of stones radiating from the central circle.

Callanish is often called the “Stonehenge of Scotland” – but in actuality the persons who built Callanish simply didn’t have the resources that were used in the building of Stonehenge – but it has become obvious that they had a great understanding of the skies. The construction may have begun as early as 1800 BC – generally it is thought though to have been during the Neolithic period of between 2600-2900 BC. Unlike Stonehenge the circle is not “roped” off and it really is lovely to be able to be so close to it and even touch the stones and feel the atmosphere.

It was really an experience to be engulfed in this situation, every stone has a feature and with the lighting in that part of the world changing continuously the patterns changed dramatically on them. It does have a tendency to rain a lot in that area and you have to run for shelter quickly, sometimes behind one of the stones, covering up all your equipment. Then immediately the rain goes off, usually as quickly as it had come on, the lighting is so dramatic and the patterns in the stones have changed yet again. One would always like to get into a position where you can separate the elements of the stones but that is not so easy in this circle of stones but the variety of angles you can achieve with the stones is fantastic (beware you may be fed up looking at all my different approaches to these stones by the end of the year).

The skies in this part of the world are also continually changing giving different and dramatic formations all the time. I used graduated filters a lot on this trip, ranging from 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9, which gave great balance and contrast in the landscape.

This image was taken with the D800, 28-300 lens at 34mm, 1/500 sec., F/11, 320 ISO and on a tripod.

EVELYN GIBSON (FPSSA,EPSSA,AFIAP,ARP)
For more photos by Evelyn go to her web site: Click Here