Dolmens date back roughly to about 3000 BC and were used to commemorate the dead and also may have acted as centres for various ceremonies in the area. This is the only one surrounded by water to the best of my knowledge and probably due to rising sea levels in this very tidal area.

I can’t remember the first place I saw this Dolmen but knew it would make an interesting subject in the right conditions. I was particularly after some dense fog to try and isolate it from the background as much as possible. Obviously a fairly high tide covering any distractions beneath would also help.

On the day (last year) that I decided to try and capture it conditions looked perfect, dense fog, calm conditions and a rising tide, unfortunately however when I got there the fog seemed to lift enough to reveal the background. Conditions underfoot are very difficult due to the thick mud (dangerous in fact) and you are a little limited in terms compositional choices. Making images from the available angles do reveal the different profiles of the Dolmen. I was lucky with the still conditions which helped with beautiful reflections, which is rare in coastal regions.

I tried to get as high a view point as possible to try and minimise the elements in the composition and remove the background as much as possible. Didn’t quite manage it so there is manipulation in some of these images, mainly to remove the background landscape, just to be completely up front. I did try some other compositions including some of the shoreline (see below) but don’t think they work as well, but do give some environmental context to the Dolmen.

With the perfectly still conditions the reflections were very evident which drove many of the compositional choices for the subject towards the center of the frame, which would probably have been my intention anyway.