The Calanais Standing Stones

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One of the 'Must See' items on our weekend on the Isle of Lewis was a trip out to the Calanais Standing Stones, an ancient monument that predates Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids.  

 There are several groups of stones on the west side of Lewis but the main monument is extraordinary, which is the site we visited.  

An 83m avenue of stones with a circle of tall stones at it's centre and within this is a chambered tomb. At its heart stands a solitary monolith 4.8m high. Lines of smaller stones radiate from the circle to east, west and south.   When you consider that the site is at least 5000 years old, the effort to move these stones to the position on top of the hill must've been enormous.

Because there were quite a few visitors when we were arrived at Calanais I decided to take the tripod and take some 90 second exposures using the Lee Big Stopper so that anyone wandering into the shot would either not appear or be recorded as a ghost image.  With the fast moving clouds above the hill, a product of the changeable weather that was over the Outer Hebrides on Sunday, were also recorded as moving thanks to the long exposure.  


I also took so other shots on the X-Pro1 of the stones using a faster shutter speed and waiting until the other visitors were out of shot, or hidden by the stones, before I pressed the shutter release. 

All of the images were converted to Black and White using Silver Efex Pro2.

 CLICK HERE for the official Calanais Standing Stones website.  Because we visited on a Sunday teh Visitor Centre was closed as the Sabbath is observed on Harris and Lewis.  Entrance to the Calanais Stones is FREE.


The view from the top of the hill with the Visitor Centre at the bottom
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Comments

  1. Steve14 August 2015 at 02:41

    that's a great tip about long exposures to eliminate people in the picture. Things to visit on my next trip. The effect on the clouds is wonderful - well done!

    ReplyDelete

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