Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Lochannan Lacasdail near Tarbert, Harris.

(Download)

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Beautiful.

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

The exposure is spot on, the colors are vibrant and the sky is also very nice. I like it.
Erich

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Excellent capture, Graham!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

There are many such corners in the Hebrides and west coast, and all that remains is for somebody to do a good job of capturing them - which you have done.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Graham, this is beautiful. First, it's a lovely scene that I enjoy looking at carefully. There's nice, interesting foreground. There is interesting stuff that carries me through to the furthest hill. Your DOF is perfect. Wonderful!

RichieC Loc: Adirondacks

So what happened to the trees? I know there must have been some at some time in history- I know it takes a decent sized forest to build a ship, and England had the greatest wooden navy by far back then.... are there even stumps or anything... a hint or whisper of them... anywhere?

Easter Island(s), where the Moai statues are, were covered by trees, they can tell by pollen in excavations- the people cut them all so completely, there were no seeds to replant- they are bare- and remind me of these. Then their civilization perished. So I wonder why people didn't seed them back in Scotland- where expansive gardens and parks are so well kept and admired. By now the forests would be thick and everywhere, and the animals that live in them!

While beautiful, accessible and defiantly tidier, I find these bare hills hauntingly sad and some how apocalyptic.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

From National Geographic News, Feb 7, 2003: "The ancient Caledonian Forest once covered the Scottish Highlands. Home to bears, beavers, and wolves, its destruction began before the Bronze Age. The forest began to fall to the scythe of climate change and the activities of primitive tribes from pre-Roman times. Subsequent terror campaigns launched by marauding Vikings burned down large areas of forest. Later, farmers and fuel gatherers cleared away most of what remained."

Also sheep rearing is and has been for years a vital part of Scotlands economy. Sheep and saplings don't go hand in hand. The Scottish landscape is very much a working landscape and little of it is not farmed in some way or other.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

And because we killed off the bears and wolves, deer have been allowed to proliferate. Whenever they want to restore an area to its original Caledonian forest state they have to put up deer fences to stop the deer from decimating the saplings.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

and of course, they don't want trees on the grouse moors.