[The Madshutter]

The Isle of Arran, besides its amazing geology, has a very rich history. Men lived here since the Neolithic, and they left abundant traces of their passage on the Isle; stone circles, burial chambers, standing stones dot the island with their imposing presence. Machrie Moor is the site of 6 stone circles: Circle 2, here shot at sunset, only has three standing stones left, but these are the tallest of the site.



With the Pentax 645z and the 28-45mm f/4.5. Thanks for viewing, best

Vieri

[bertwert]

Amazing photo!

[LaurenOE]

cool.

[L3 Doddle]

A simplistic composition and wonderful light, make a great image.. Well done..
Thanks for sharing

[lesmore49]

Very nice photo and in view of the ancient history of the Island of Arran, I wonder how many ancient Celts and those before, witnessed a similar scene you photographed ?

Some say that rock / stone set ups, as per your photo, had significant cultural/religious meaning, particularly when linked to the sun.

[jumbleview]

Pentax 645z in the right hands at the right place at the right time. Nothing more to say.

[The Madshutter]

Amazing photo!

cool.

A simplistic composition and wonderful light, make a great image.. Well done..
Thanks for sharing

Very nice photo and in view of the ancient history of the Island of Arran, I wonder how many ancient Celts and those before, witnessed a similar scene you photographed ?

Some say that rock / stone set ups, as per your photo, had significant cultural/religious meaning, particularly when linked to the sun.

Pentax 645z in the right hands at the right place at the right time. Nothing more to say.

Thank you veyr much everyone for taking the time to view and comment, much appreciated!

@lesmore49: probably much more than their modern counterpart, I'd venture saying... As you said, as far as we know (and we don't know too much about them yet) stone circles where indeed made according to the setting / rising sun on particular dates (generally solstices and equinoxes), and they must have carried some very important cultural / religious meaning (perhaps something to do with the cult of the dead) if you consider that it took a very long time (generations, in some cases) to build them, while people were living in wooden houses and dwells...

[itshimitis]

I'm still puzzled why you don't bother with the medium format photos thread. Is it because your signature won't get the clicks there? That thread has over a a million views...

[Ed Hurst]

I must say that I agree. Making no comment about the formal 'rules' of the forum, it does seem perplexing. The thread referred to is certainly good enough for the rest of us. It's hard to escape the conclusion that you are trying somehow to set your work aside from that produced by the rest of us in a way that, if we all did the same, would make this forum rather messy.

No offence meant, by the way. Just trying to encourage you to see it another way. I assure you that the group thread gets a lot of interest and indeed feels like a collection of friendly people with a deep interest in one another's work.

[The Madshutter]

I'm still puzzled why you don't bother with the medium format photos thread. Is it because your signature won't get the clicks there? That thread has over a a million views...

I must say that I agree. Making no comment about the formal 'rules' of the forum, it does seem perplexing. The thread referred to is certainly good enough for the rest of us. It's hard to escape the conclusion that you are trying somehow to set your work aside from that produced by the rest of us in a way that, if we all did the same, would make this forum rather messy.

No offence meant, by the way. Just trying to encourage you to see it another way. I assure you that the group thread gets a lot of interest and indeed feels like a collection of friendly people with a deep interest in one another's work.

Guys, let me see if I can make my point across on this one.

First, let me clear the air about something that really disturbs me. itshimitis accuse me to not post in a thread that gets a million views out of a supposed desire to get more visibility - don't you see the contradiction in that? Clearly this is not the issue, so let's get rid of that once and for all, because it really is not the issue here.

About the thread and Ed's point: it is just personal preference, that's all. Let me see if I can explain. I do believe that the thread you refer too has a lot of good images in it, of course, with a lot of less good ones as well - as it should be, and as it is on every forum, whether it has image galleries or not. So Ed, no, I am not trying to set my work aside, or anything like that. What I don't like about that thread is not its quality, nor its visibility or anything like that. What I don't like about it is simply this: personally, and let me stress that this is my personal preference and your mileage may vary, and that I have nothing against people thinking and doing things in a different way, I think that to view and enjoy an image you have to look at it - and just at it, alone, not scrolling up and down a thread with dozens of images that have nothing to do with one other, which I personally find really distracting and not conducive to appreciating an image. Just my preference, of course. More, I think that if you have anything to say about an image, in order to keep a meaningful discussion going, I like all messages related to that particular image to be in the same place, one after the other, without distractions. In the thread you mention, you have images that have nothing whatsoever to do with one other posted right one after the other, and you have comments related to an image that was posted two pages above intermingled with different images and with comments to different images. To me, and again it's just my personal preference, this is really not conducive to appreciating a photograph nor to discussing it. This of course is just my personal opinion, related to the way I like to look and appreciate photographs, and has no intention to be taken as an universal truth or anything like that, nor it is intended to belittle people that like to do things a different way - it's just the way I like it. Therefore, as long as the forum rules will allow me to, I will keep posting my images in separate threads.

I hope I could make my point across better this time

On a different topic, though related, I really think that the forum would benefit from having a dedicated image section - perhaps the owner will consider it at some point in the future.

[Ed Hurst]

Thanks indeed for the detailed explanation. I really do appreciate it and don't feel in the least that your intentions are bad. In fact I understand what you're saying and feel that you have a point. The trouble is that the site currently does not work as you describe (with an image section) and so, if we all did what you do, we would end up with thousands of separate image threads which, to my mind, would render the site almost unusable. I share your aspiration of clear threads of attention and discourse around a specific image, but see no way, within the current site, to let us all have that without the site disintegrating. So, in short, I think some people acting in this way, which only works as long as only a few do it, is (unintentionally) treating the site as though it is more for the benefit of some than others. I totally believe that that is not your intention, but also feel that that is the effect. For that reason, I believe the equality of the images thread, for all its shortcomings, is the fairest solution currently available consistent with everyone having a fair go and maintaining the usability of the site.

Like I said, I don't doubt your intentions or motives. Merely challenging what I think are unintended consequences of your actions, should others do what you do. And if it only works as long as others don't avail themselves of the same opportunity, I feel that should cause you to wonder if it's quite fair.

Just a personal view :-)

Best wishes,

Ed

[The Madshutter]

Thanks indeed for the detailed explanation. I really do appreciate it and don't feel in the least that your intentions are bad. In fact I understand what you're saying and feel that you have a point. The trouble is that the site currently does not work as you describe (with an image section) and so, if we all did what you do, we would end up with thousands of separate image threads which, to my mind, would render the site almost unusable. I share your aspiration of clear threads of attention and discourse around a specific image, but see no way, within the current site, to let us all have that without the site disintegrating. So, in short, I think some people acting in this way, which only works as long as only a few do it, is (unintentionally) treating the site as though it is more for the benefit of some than others. I totally believe that that is not your intention, but also feel that that is the effect. For that reason, I believe the equality of the images thread, for all its shortcomings, is the fairest solution currently available consistent with everyone having a fair go and maintaining the usability of the site.

Like I said, I don't doubt your intentions or motives. Merely challenging what I think are unintended consequences of your actions, should others do what you do. And if it only works as long as others don't avail themselves of the same opportunity, I feel that should cause you to wonder if it's quite fair.

Just a personal view :-)

Best wishes,

Ed

Hello Ed,

thank you for your message, I am glad that I could make myself and my intentions clear. On my end, while I do see your point re: unintended consequences of someone's actions, I must disagree with you on your conclusions - let me try and explain with the help of a couple of hypothetic scenarios.

Scenario nr. 1. Let's say that I am, if not the only one, at least part of a very small minority of people that do not like the general image thread. In this case, your worries would be unnecessary: it would mean, in fact, that me and a couple more people will post a couple of images from time to time, with no disrupting of the forum's usability nor with any disintegration of the forum. In this case, I am sure you'd agree that I could just keep doing what I do without creating much trouble for others.

Scenario nr. 2. Let's say, on the other hand, that you are right in thinking that everyone (or at least a large majority of people) in fact feel like me and, following in my footsteps and inspired by my continued devilish example (very much tongue in cheek here ), if I kept doing things this way then everyone else would also start posting their own image threads. Well, in this case one has to wonder why, so far, nobody has said or done anything in this direction, expressing their dissatisfaction and their needs to the forum owner. If this were the case (people feeling like I do but keeping silent), there might be many reasons for people not to say or do anything, and I am certainly not going into these hypothetical reasons for an hypothetical behaviour, reasons which (if in fact present) I'd respect in principle whatever they might be; but (again, if in fact all the above is true) that doesn't mean that things have to keep working in a way that dissatisfies everyone. Perhaps, one could argue, if everyone felt like I do but everyone kept doing things as they are now, the forum owner would never hear of such a dissatisfaction or need, nor take it seriously if expressed to him in a personal message by a single person; whereas, if people would feel like I do and post their images in single threads, perhaps this would point the existence of such an issue of to the attention of the forum owner, who might not otherwise have been aware of it and therefore not been able to address it. If all this was the case, people posting would have as a final result of this (very hypothetical) chain reaction that he could get acquainted with an issue and, subsequently, take action in one of two directions: either creating a gallery section of sorts, or enforcing a rule where people had to post images only in a certain thread in the existing forum.

So, I see no harm done in keeping posting my images, in the large scheme of things

Thank you for giving me the chance to express my views on image fruition and for a very civil debate, which I really appreciated. Best regards,

Vieri

[Ed Hurst]

What about another hypothetical scenario: that everyone is happy enough with using the images thread (not perfect, but content) as long as everyone else does so too, because then all images have the same opportunity, but end up unhappy if someone else has their own threads? That would mean that what was once a reasonably happy crew is then discontent both with what they have and the alternative being offered.

What then? :-)

[The Madshutter]

What about another hypothetical scenario: that everyone is happy enough with using the images thread (not perfect, but content) as long as everyone else does so too, because then all images have the same opportunity, but end up unhappy if someone else has their own threads? That would mean that what was once a reasonably happy crew is them discontent both with what they have and the alternative being offered.

What then? :-)

What if, instead, after perhaps a short period of transition when some people might be less content than they are now, this would bring to a final solution that would be much better for everyone? Wouldn't that make what was a barely content crew into a happy one? :-)

Honestly, all things aside, I don't see why people is so afraid of "different" and "change", isn't that a bit strange that people wouldn't want things to get better?

[Ed Hurst]

Perhaps you should propose to the site admin that we have a poll on the creation of a gallery, use of the images thread or people being free to post threads with single images? Then we can know a) what is possible on the site and b) what people want of the available options.

---------- Post added 01-24-16 at 10:38 PM ----------

While I can see your argument, assuming we stay with the status quo, I ask you to consider the possibility (just as consistent with the facts as we currently know them as your proposed hypotheses) that in fact people may prefer the status quo to people having separate image threads and that doing that within the current site might spoil the balance of the site for others, unless a gallery or something similar is created.