Announcing the Megalithic Portal photo competition winners for June to Dec 2018

Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 01 June 2021 Page Views: 1468

**Callanish I** submitted by h_fenton : Callanish I from the south, showing the small hilltop which overlooks the stones. A low level Kite Aerial Photograph 7 September 2018 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Continuing the catching-up of our photo competitions, we are delighted to announce the winners for the best images submitted to the Megalithic Portal in the second half of the year 2018 - voted for by you our visitors and contributors. Votes are still being counted on all photos submitted since then and we will be announcing more winners soon.
1st Prize: Callanish Kite Aerial Photograph by Hamish Fenton
2nd Prize: Cuween Hill by Connor Motley (Coin)
3rd Prize: Pisidian Antioch by David Morgan
View the photos below, along with a special tribute to Pete Cork (Umbra-Man) who is sadly no longer with us.

1st Prize: Callanish Kite Aerial Photograph by Hamish Fenton

2nd Prize: Cuween Hill by Connor Motley (Coin)

3rd Prize: Pisidian Antioch by David Morgan

Congratulations to all, as well as the kudos of having won out of all those images, they have each won an exclusive Megalithic Portal T shirt or book from our Online Shop.

Highly Commended

Photo competition organiser Peter Boyle writes: Two of the top-rated potentially winning images from this six-month period were submitted by ‘Umbra-Man’ (Pete Cork), who sadly passed away last year.

Pete described himself as a "Citizen Archaeoastronomer" - he spent a lot of time at Easter Aquhorthies over a few years, observing mainly the cycles of the sun and moon and the shadows the stones cast at different times. His aim, to try and determine how the people who built it and used it would have interpreted what they saw there and incorporated that information into their lives. In his own words, "All of this is there for anyone to observe, what they may conclude is a matter for them. But you gotta think the picture evidence makes for interesting speculation"

So, although Umbra-Man is no longer with us to be able to receive a prize, we wanted to share these images by way of a tribute to his contributions and enthusiasm for the Portal. With thanks also to Rune for her assistance with this tribute. You can look back over Pete's other photos and forum posts here.

Easter Aquhorthies by Umbra-man

Submitted on 21st December 2018, showing dawn on the Winter Solstice at this beautiful stone circle in Aberdeenshire.

Umbra-Man chose these lines by Margaret Atwood to accompany this photo:

“...This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar...”

Easter Aquhorthies by Umbra-Man

Submitted 4th December 2018, a beautiful image showing Orion over one of the stones.

Thanks as always to everyone who voted and entered and of course to Peter Boyle (PAB) for organising the competition. Just as a recap, all the images submitted to the Megalithic Portal have a chance to win by being voted on by you, the Megalithic Portal visitors and contributors.

PLEASE VOTE!

There is still time to vote in the next photo competition. You can browse and choose photos to vote for in our Photo Gallery. See the drop down box near the top to select photos from recent months, then click "Update". You are very welcome to browse back further to previous years and vote on any photos you like at any time. We will be announcing the results of the next competitions soon.

Please do vote and comment on any photos that particularly catch your eye. You can score photos for visual or archaeological merit or for any other reason you like. A vote from any person will start off the scoring. You are allowed to vote for each of your own photos once if you would like to put them forward. Equally you do not have to have your photos rated or voted on if you don't want to. Please contact Andy B via the 'Contact Editor' link if you do not want to take part.

More details on our photo competitions are here.

* Although we say 'photos' we also include other types of image relevant to our subject such as diagrams, paintings and other artwork that you have created.

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