The Ghosts of 1300 Men

amcinroy

Tonight I stood somewhere very special.

I jumped the barrier at the Giant's Causeway and followed the old crumbling path east. The path was closed in 1994 due to slope failure but it is still walkable with care. I walked round as far as Port na Spaniagh, Spanish Port. It was here that 1300 men of the Spanish Armada warship, the Girona, lost their lives.

This photo shows the actual talon of rock that the Girona foundered on, Lacada Point. The wreck of the ship still lies below the sea on the right of this photograph. On that dark, cold and stormy night, all but 5 of the 1300 men died in the freezing waters at this spot.

The place was eerie and there was a chill wind wipping in from the north.

AlmightyCushion

Cool photo!

Dodgykeeper

Amazing, its so haunting!

Balfey1972

colours really capture that chill. very nice andy. hope you had enough daylight to get back to the car...

shepthedog

Fantastic.. The story behind it really gives the image meaning.. Your work continues to go from strength to strength

0utpost31

que bonita la foto!

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

challengemaster

shepthedog wrote: »

Fantastic.. The story behind it really gives the image meaning.. Your work continues to go from strength to strength

Image should have meaning without a write up on it..tbh..

I do like the photo, but if it cant stand on its own mounts without a blurb..

murpho999

challengemaster wrote: »

Image should have meaning without a write up on it..tbh..

I do like the photo, but if it cant stand on its own mounts without a blurb..

This comment seems very harsh to me.

On it's own I think it's a great shot.

However, the photographer felt a connection with the history of the place and as the wreck is not sticking out of the water and nor have the local history board placed a big sign explaining what happened there (which would have ruined the photo) then it is quite correct to add a description. Otherwise how would we know where the place is or what happened there and adding the story has given the shot a greater emotional impact.

If we were to follow your logic then photos shouldn't have titles either.

sineadw

beautiful shot, and the story gave me goosebumps...

amcinroy

Thanks everyone,

Challengemaster, I understand your point of view. The photograph has to stand on its own two feet of course. But I do think some historical commentary can give an extra dimension to any photograph and it perhaps helps you to understand why I took it.

Recently, I have enjoyed the storytelling aspect of photography and have tried to link the rich history of the north coast landscape in with my photographs. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to photograph places where great events have happened, particularly if they are places which are rarely visited.

Cheers for all the comments.

oeb

TBH there is nothing wrong with using a story to illustrate a photo, or a photo to illustrate a story. Otherwise news papers would either have no stories or no pictures

Fantastic shot Alan. It may be this monitor but I think if the image was the tinyest bit lighter it might be better (Just to bring out some of the detail on the rocks, the big black spot in the middle looks too 'empty'

CabanSail

Have you cropped the image?

I can only count 1292 of them.






Sorry couldn't resist. Nice enough shot but the story does give context as to why this place is special.

Teferi

Even without the story of the dead lads I would think that the whitewash to either side of the rock looked like spirits or ghosts. Nice picture.

Dragan

challengemaster wrote: »

Image should have meaning without a write up on it..tbh..

I do like the photo, but if it cant stand on its own mounts without a blurb..

Heaven forbid that someone should take a photo just for the enjoyment of the story behind it, or the connection with a memory.

corkandproud

How was it taken, can you give us details

amcinroy

This one was shot using my Pentax 14mm DA lens on my K10D.

The shot was taken from a tripod at F22 for 6 seconds.

I used a 3 stop neutral density hard graduated filter to balance the exposure between the sky and sea.

I also used an additional 3 stop neutral density filter to slow down the exposure from 0.7 seconds to 6 seconds.

ISO100 of course.

I hope that is of interest.