Stargate - Legananny Dolmen Photo

Photographer’s Note

Legananny Dolmen:
This was a series of 30 sec exposures lasting about 40mins then blended in Startrails software. The first few frames was a case of painting the dolmen with the light torch which was tricky trying to get this right because farm yard lighting was casting a mesh shadow from the wire fench behind me onto the dolmen.

The Legananny dolmen is a neolithic portal tomb, built between 4000 and 4500 years ago. The word 'dolmen' was used by early studies of antiquities and comes from the Breton word 'tolmen' which means 'stone table'.

Sistercosmo, CLODO, jbemmels, whereami, Silversnow has marked this note useful

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mar294 (34) 2009-06-26 14:59 [Comment]

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Sistercosmo (2477) 2009-06-26 15:24

Hi Steve,

Cool effect that you got here. I can imagine that it wasn't easy. Great job!

Hope all is well with you! Take care!

Linda

gneufeld (14959) 2009-06-26 18:29

Hi Stephen,
A highly technical image perfectly executed. Awesome light, colors, and the circular star tail are amazing. TFS. Gerald

CLODO (3938) 2009-06-26 21:30

Hi Stephen
Like a painting and thank you for your technical explanations.
Impressive work you have done with shadows giving the third dimension
Hats off
CLODO

chawax (5681) 2009-06-26 23:58

Hi Stephen,
I saw this dolmen a few weeks ago during my trip in Norhern Ireland. A very impressive one ! And an outstanding view on Mourne Mountains from there ! I could see too it is not very easy to photograph because of gates that reduce the point of view you can have on this dolmen. I think the point of view you chose is the best you could have. The light behind you creates a great atmosphere. Very well done !
Regards,
Olivier
PS : "dolmen" is the breton word, not "tolmen". It is composed with "taol" which means "table" and "men" which means "stone". The "t" turns to "d" because of strange breton grammar rules ! "Menhir" is also a breton word, composed with "men" and "hir" which means "standing".

BennyV (4429) 2009-06-27 2:21

Hi Stephen,

Excellent technical job here, the effect contains some magic. I like the low lights, especially.

Benny

jbemmels (327) 2009-06-27 8:50

The atmosphere of your photos is going to make my brain implode one of these days! Well. Done.

Jordan

arnabchat (6958) 2009-06-28 7:38

wow! the start trail looks definitive, while the light in the foreground looks quite impressive.
greetings from Trieste,
Arnab

scalerman (25593) 2009-06-28 20:46

Stephen: an absolute stunning nighttime study. So many aspects converge here to make this a superlative canvas. sincere congrats on this one! c

bartekp (857) 2009-07-01 15:24

Hello,

Another superb photo from You...Light is the best and that circular ring.

Bravo Regards

Bartek

Silversnow (2057) 2009-07-05 6:58

Wow, another impressive "Startrail" photo of an ancient monument :-)
You are quite lucky to have such dolmens lying around, and quite patient to setup those technically difficult yet so satisfying shots. I love the colors, the exposure, the startrail, even the fence adds a bit of modern detail to protect this site.

rlrad (1187) 2009-07-05 7:19

Hi Stephen,

Extremely impressive. I got here from your Ballycopeland shot - a similar effort, but I think far inferior to this one. I have to look back in your archives to see what others like this you have done. Maybe it is the subject matter, perhaps the lighting that make this one so much better to me. It takes a lot of thought and planning for such an effort, I would have forgotten something - perhaps the torch to light up the dolmen.

Anyway, this one is so cool that I had to save it as a favorite to come back and ponder. What a shot!

Thanks Stephen,
Reed

codiac (3732) 2009-07-05 7:25