How long does it take to make a picture?

[Donald]

In this case, about 3 years. 2 years 50 weeks to think about it and envision it, one week at the location to try and capture the photograph and one week to carefully and slowly do the post-processing.

I don't know how much technical ability is in this image. I do know there is 100% emotion and passion in it.

For those not familiar (and that will be 99.99% of those reading this) with the community buy-out of the North Lochinver Estate in 1992/93 and/or who do not believe in the desperate need for land reform in Scotland, this image might not mean a lot. For me, it's been an image I've had in my head for about 3 years and I recently got the opportunity to make it. It's an issue that's burned in me for many years.

Many of us believe that the system of land ownership in Scotland is rotten to the core. So much of our land is in the hands of anonymous and/or absent landlords who treat the land as their playground ... and then call foul whenever that position is challenged.

When the North Lochinver Estate was put up for sale, having been owned Lord Vestey (and advertised as a wilderness sporting estate - that means shooting and fishing for friends and very wealthy clients ... not local people) and then a Swedish company that went bust, the people who have lived on the land for generations decided to challenge centuries of history and seek to buy the land themselves. With financial support from all around the world, they succeeded. On the evening of December 8th 1992, Allan MacRae, who died in June 2013 and who was one of the driving forces behind the bid, stood up in the community hall in the township of Stoer. He said:

“lt seems we have won our land. It certainly is a moment to savour, but my immediate thoughts are that some of our forebears should have been here to share it. It is an historic blow for people on the land throughout the Highlands and Islands.”

This image is my tribute to/honouring of, him and the people of North Assynt, past and present, and my call for land reform in our country.

The Graveyard at Stoer


40D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 40mm. ISO100. 1/4@f16

[deetheturk]

Wonderful image and a wonderful Historic story to go with it, Donald, well said!

David

[TonyW]

It so happens that my wife's maternal great grandmother, maiden name Mackenzie, emigrated to Sydney at the age of 10 with her parents from Lochinver in 1839. My wife had read of the land acquisition.

[Donald]

It so happens that my wife's maternal great grandmother, maiden name Mackenzie, emigrated to Sydney at the age of 10 with her parents from Lochinver in 1839. My wife had read of the land acquisition.

My goodness. Well, Tony, please tell her that what struck me when walking around that graveyard, were the number of people named MacKenzie who were buried in it. Not a great surprise given that this is, historically, MacKenzie clan lands. This graveyard may well contain some of your wife's ancestors.

[JBW]

In Canada I lived on an Indian reserve for about 5 years. 20+ years ago I married a Filipina and have resided in the Philippines for many years. I appreciate what it can mean when someone else claims ownership of someones roots. This picture talks to me on many levels.

[Donald]

Thank you, Brian.

I accept that many people will not 'get' this picture. I appreciate that you do.

[John 2]

Thank you, Brian.

I accept that many people will not 'get' this picture. .....................................

You are almost certainly right n what you say Donald but your story and the image will take their education a step further.

[IzzieK]

My three children are from the MacRae clan. I took them to Scotland to see the MacRae castle when they were all teenagers. They collected historical brochures and many other stuffs from Scotland and very proud of it to this day. I am very sure this will add to their collection. Very nice...

[Mike Buckley]

This is such an incredible story. I wish I had known about the land-ownership issue years ago during my very enjoyable visit to Scotland.

Despite the time that you already spent making this photo, hopefully it gives you great pleasure to anticipate making many more photos of not just the area but also perhaps this exact scene.

[davidedric]

Hello Donald,

I've been looking at your image off and on all day, and I think it is stunning both in conception and execution.

No I didn't know about North Lochinver, but I find it hard to see how anyone in touch with the history of these islands, or their own history of course, could fail to be moved by it.

My own family history is that of south east Lancashire, and the economically forced migration of the people into the towns and cities to work in the mills. I don't know of an image I could take to illustrate that, most of the mills are long gone,but LS Lowry's "Coming from the mill" sums it up, as does the poet Harvey Kershaw's "Street Scene". One of my earliest memories is taking my granddad his lunch in the mill lodge, where he worked as a roller coverer.

Dave

[Donald]

John, Izzie, Mike, Dave

Thank you for your comments.

Despite the time that you already spent making this photo, hopefully it gives you great pleasure to anticipate making many more photos of not just the area but also perhaps this exact scene.

Mike - Oh, if only I had the chance. You could spend every hour of daylight for at least a week in that spot and no two shots would ever be the same. Sitting as it does on the edge of the Atlantic, the clouds and the light change by the second.

[JBW]

John, Izzie, Mike, Dave

Thank you for your comments.


Mike - Oh, if only I had the chance. You could spend every hour of daylight for at least a week in that spot and no two shots would ever be the same. Sitting as it does on the edge of the Atlantic, the clouds and the light change by the second.

In my head I see this shot being lit by the moon?

[Mike Buckley]

no two shots would ever be the same

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. There would be no reason to visit the scene in my mind if the shot was the same; the only reason to revisit the scene would be to capture different light or to be inspired by a different way of capturing the overall scene.

[FootLoose]

That certainly is rugged-looking country, Donald. I find my attention is taken more by that captivating background than the graveyard, though that could be because the landscape is foreign to my experience.

I don't know how far the graveyard extends to the left, but I wonder why you cut the right hand corner off. As I move the picture around in lytebox I wonder would this composition be more effective as a landscape, cropped about the level of the house? That would focus attention more on the cemetery.

Or perhaps if you tweaked the tonality so that the upper section wasn't brighter than the foreground subject?

I think it is a great concept, Donald, but it just isn't quite working for me at the moment.

[ShaneS]

Donald...what an awesome responsibility your soul put upon you to capture and image such as this.

Your image indeed honors the the memory of Allan MacRae and is truly the visual companion to his words:

“lt seems we have won our land. It certainly is a moment to savour, but my immediate thoughts are that some of our forebears should have been here to share it. It is an historic blow for people on the land throughout the Highlands and Islands.”

Like Greg, I too wondered at your choice to present only a portion of the cemetery and would have liked to see it as an island amongst all of that glorious land. I, however, would have left the sky in place.

[Donald]

I don't know how far the graveyard extends to the left, but I wonder why you cut the right hand corner off.

Like Greg, I too wondered at your choice to present only a portion of the cemetery and would have liked to see it as an island amongst all of that glorious land.

Two really interesting comments. Why?

Because I had two frames that I debated over for hours. This one and one that takes a wider view and includes all of the cemetery. The other one was my original choice and intended composition. But the more I looked at this one, the more I felt it to capture a better 'mood'. I think it was because this one, for me, put the cemetery as part of the landscape: We don't know where the edges of it are and it just is 'of the landscape', whereas the other one sat in or on the landscape, because the landscape was all around it.

Maybe that one was the better composition, as it had the graveyard being enveloped by the land.

I need to go back and look at the TIFF again.

Re Greg's comment about the crop and excluding the sky - I never thought about or 'saw' the image without the ridge line of the hills and some sky included. But what Greg suggests is another way of 'seeing' the scene.

[ShaneS]

Without seeing the other image Donald, please let me add some grist for the mill to your thought process as you take a second look at it.

Not knowing the history of Scottish land rights or the area in particular I thought that the concept of an island would better represent a small (assumption on my part) but determined lot of people that took a stand and succeeded against what seem to be some mighty odds and centuries of 'tradition' in terms of what the landowners felt were their rights.

This might be a more stereotypical, in your face, composition and less nuanced. Someone from the area with knowledge of the are would be more likely to pick up on from the image that you have shown.

[Doorstop]

what a superb background to your image

[Donald]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. There would be no reason to visit the scene in my mind if the shot was the same; the only reason to revisit the scene would be to capture different light or to be inspired by a different way of capturing the overall scene.

I understood your point, Mike. And, indeed the great pleasure would be to have the time to just be there and watch the changing scene. And you are right, too, in saying that you could work this location almost without end to find different angles and lines. For example, I do have one from inside the cemetery looking out to the hills and the Atlantic. And it's a got a sky full of billowing clouds. I must go back to it also and look at it again.

Now - if only my employer would agree to an early retirement package and I could get the time ..........!

[AB26]

Donald,

Using the 24mm end of the lens would probably have given you a better perspective on the graveyard (the main subject in the scene). It would also have shown more of the land in the BG (the land that was so important to the people buried in the graveyard).

The square crop leaves the edges of the graveyard out of the picture with too much empty sky.