St. Finian's Abbey Photo

Photographer’s Note

Founded on Skellig Michael in 560 AD. Skellig Michael is 8 miles off the west coast of Kerry, and known throughout the world of archeology as the site of a well-preserved monastic outpost of the early Christian period. It's now designated a World Heritage Site.

What you see on the picture, are the beehive huts in which the monks lived. These dwellings are virtually intact and still watertight to this day because of the method of stone stacking construction used, known as corbelling. No mortar is used.
The bigger one on the top left was the chapel, and in front of the chapel, is a small cemetary. It's a wild and cruel place, and even the monks didn't stay there yearround.
The island is dedicated to St. Michael, guardian against the powers of darkness and patron of high places.

The island rises up from the ocean about 600 feet, and from sea level a steep staircase leads you to the top.
During breeding season beautiful 'puffins' can be seen there. The rest of the year they are out on the ocean.(I've seen 3, but did not manage to get a good shot). ;-(

Cloned out a person head, auto-levels, cropped and a frame added.

avigur_11, Hanssie, bertolucci, JudyH, sunny, torben, nwoehnl, cmartos, ydavid, technogran, pamastro, taivo, Kenny10pin, Jeppe, Georges, Spoony, joseelias, regali, tof, naxius, sn00zie, sleon has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

avigur_11 (21271) 2004-05-24 16:15

Rinie, I love your shots from Ireland. This green grass looks very Ireland to me, and this stone huts are wonderful, taken from a very nice angle, with the ocean as a background. Excellent sharpness and clarity, very well done.

bertolucci (11976) 2004-05-24 16:26

Excellent work here, Rinie. I love the graphism of the corbelled stones and the waves. With your POV you took great advantage of this. The tight and diagonal composition is also great. Love this crisp shot, it's really excellent!

JudyH (700) 2004-05-24 16:29

Great shot Rinie! I've just posted some wierd architecture taken in an odd little town I live close to. I haven't seen anything like these behive huts there ... yet!! It looks very forboding, and I'm glad I don't have to live like that. Tech: Great composition and superb colours. Well done!

torben (3084) 2004-05-24 16:40

Pleasant shapes and color. You show the character of these constructions very well including their placement by the sea. Well done.

nwoehnl (118) 2004-05-24 16:44

Oh, there's the next one :-)
Very interesting site, Rinie. A fine graphical effect from the "beehives", and the textural detail of their stone construction is very well rendered. Great perspective towards the blue ocean in this well composed and crisply sharp shot. Well done, thanks for sharing!

ydavid (294) 2004-05-24 17:18

Interesting houses with no windows, very good POV which shows very well how these strange houses look like. The sea adds a lot of color to the picture. Very useful note. Nice job Rinie!

technogran (1339) 2004-05-24 20:47

Very interesting structures, I like the angle of the stone wall across the composition. The colours of the sea and grass are a great background for the flinty stone colours of the huts. Great composition.
I am going on a tour of Ireland at the end of June. Hope I am as lucky as you were with the weather.

pamastro (7213) 2004-05-25 2:12

Great point of view. I feel high above the water here. What a great lookout point. The colors are great, too. The textures of the buildings are nicely seen. It's really impressive. So steep and so rugged. Even without seeing the horizon I feel like this is the edge of the world. Great job.

maciekda (19587) 2004-05-25 2:30

nice picture Rinie, nice point of view here, wonderful colors, interesting place, good shot

cmartos (6086) 2004-05-25 3:03

Hi Rinie, Another excellent shot from your Ireland serie, love it. I discover these stone huts, never seen or knowing them before. Thanks for the very interesting and useful notes indeed. A very clever and nice angle you choosed here. The sea as background is just perfect. It gives the scale of the rise and makes a very nice colored background to counterbalance these grey stone huts. The green is just irish, so beautiful. A really nice catch, very well composed. BTW how is it inside these huts?

sunny (3068) 2004-05-25 3:26

Wonderful combination of textures here, Rinie - thus, in a fine diagonal position! :-) The contrast in colours is great too, as gives feeling of divided areas in the shot. Thanks to your notes the beehive huts look even more interesting. A picture definitely in TE spirit and with excellent sharpness and clarity. Great shot indeed!

taivo (1840) 2004-05-25 4:22

Peculiar structures but very interesting. My eyes are actually focussed on the sea, both the colors and waves are very nice. The diagonal split between sea and land is great.

lost (694) 2004-05-25 10:19 [Comment]

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Kenny10pin (19301) 2004-05-25 10:31

great stone objects and the sea is great too in the picture. good details too

well done

Jeppe (18623) 2004-05-25 12:38

Very well spotted this fine old architecture - Could this be a place where my forefathers the vikings came some 1000 years ago- I like the texture of the stone wall and the angle of you fine capture - thanks for sharing Rinie.

cdewet (0) 2004-05-25 13:40

Very nice, very TE. Ek hou van hierdie klip igloos, Rinie. Verstaan jy as ek Afrikaans skryf? En ek is groen oor die puffins, one of my wishlist birds.

Georges (11183) 2004-05-25 13:47

Trés joli contraste qui donne une belle profondeur a l'image.
Le melange des couleur vert\bleu sur le cliché est du plus bel effet.Bravo Rinie

Spoony (3539) 2004-05-25 14:29

First of all: AMAZING COLORS AND LIGHT here. No doubt. Absolutly fantastic.
Very good composition about an interessant place.
Very, very well done.

Hanssie (9133) 2004-05-25 14:31

Nice bright colours in a beautiful composed picture with the sea as a background !
Nice one of Eire again, Rinie and I like
the interesting notes.

clodreno (0) 2004-05-26 0:42

such a nice place , I love Irealnd and county Kerry. a very nice picture.

joseelias (367) 2004-05-26 8:19

Very, very interesting place! Didn't know it existed. Excelent colors, clarity and details. I believe this place also deserves a shot from the lower part with the sky on top.

dominique (11403) 2004-05-27 14:31

Vraiment intéressante cette architecture , j'aime le contraste avec la mer , le cadrage est parfait et l'image est tres nette , beau travail .

naxius (16679) 2004-07-26 13:45

Thank you very much for your note that is very interesting...
You picture is aslo very nice and I like all the contrast we can have here...The stones, the see and the grass.
Very well frame as well.
Thank you.

sn00zie (2384) 2004-09-15 13:28

very interesting picture. nice pov and a useful note.

the colors in this picture are very nice.. and so is the clarity. great job!

Leonie (8627) 2005-03-09 18:30

And also you are very lucky because you have been on the Skellig islands! They looks so fascinating from the coast! I haven't had the occasion to go yet... but some day hopefully!

Cheers, Léonie

sleon (9350) 2005-08-11 4:09

Hi Rinie
A striking and fascinating scene, with a good explanatory note. I like the sharpness throughout and the limited use of just 3 colours which makes the scene bolder.
Regards, Susanna