Ancient Coastal Watchtower

The title really intrigued me, even though there was relatively little to see on the thumbnail.  The photograph, even when viewed large, still conveys relatively little about this place; all I can see is a small monument (presumably) of some kind and a faint line of white stones (presumably) on the right, and both of these features appear to be at the crest of a hill.  That's about it.  If a photograph should be able to stand on its own without explanation, as some suggest, I'm afraid this one would have difficulties.  That's a challenge for photographers:  how to compose a photograph so that the image alone really says, as the cliche goes, a thousand words.

Hi Stephen,

thank you very much for your thoughtful critiques and comments.

Yes, there isn't very much to see on this image, apart from that stone wall - the landscape around this place is full with them & they must have cost an enormous effort to build them in times, when only handwork & horse traction was available - and that tower, built for early detection of invaders from the sea.

What impressed me was the bleakness of the landscape & the futile-looking efforts by man to make it useful & defended against aggressive fellow man & nature's forces, like high winds, plus the need to restrain cattle from escaping the properties under a micro-climate where hedges & trees grow not or only with great difficulty, hence the need for the cumbersome stone wall construction

These two last paragraphs contain 121 words! A wee bit less than the proverbial thousand ;-)

Hope you're satisfied with my explanantions which weren't clear automatically by only viewing this minimalistic image.

Cheers

Sam

Sam, I can understand your thoughts about this place.  I think we photographers will always be challenged, because we were at the places we photographed.  We saw much more than is present in our photographs, we saw the larger context, we felt the wind and the temperature, we felt the terrain, and we heard the birds or the waves or the wind blowing across the landscape.  All of these things made an impression on us and registered in our memories.  When we look at our own photographs, all of these memories come back and are attached to what we see in the photograph.  A viewer, however, does not have those memories; a viewer has only what is seen in the photograph.  It's a real challenge to provide enough information in a photograph that the viewer will begin to understand and have some of the feelings about the landscape in the photograph that was experienced by the photographer.  Sometimes the challenge is so great that I just give up, I don't even try, and I just enjoy the moment.  But the times when I might be even partly successful in conveying something in my photographs to a viewer are very special and enjoyable.  I think that's true for all of us.

Stephen, I fully agree with you!

Thanks very much for listing all the considerations which play a role.

cheers

Sam