A Solid Perspective on the Past

This really is a challenge. Photos demonstrating 3D. Showing the heft, the mass, the solidity of the main subject: putting it in the perspective of its surroundings.

I took myself to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal. Here is an ancient Cistercian foundation, in ruins since the days when Henry VIII called for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Here are Georgian water gardens, developed by John and William Aislabie in the 18th century. And here I found my subjects.

Glance through this arch to see where the monks came, eight times a day, for worship.
Huby’s Tower can be glimpsed through the mighty weathered arches of the now roofless Abbey church.

Much of what you find in the gardens is more playful. This balustrade overlooking the lake, shows icicles. ‘It’s summer now’, is the message. ‘Enjoy yourselves. Winter will be along soon enough.’

This young pheasant has found the Banqueting House. Outside is a lawn cut into the shape of a coffin. The message is similar. ‘Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die’*

And later, explore the woodlands of the High Ride and its ancient trees. Their roots are pretty solid.

2020 Photo Challenge #30

Square Perspectives

* from the Books of Ecclesiastes and Isaiah in the Bible.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

43 thoughts on “A Solid Perspective on the Past”

  2. oh wow I remember reading the 3D challenge, and thinking how on earth do you do that! You’ve done a brilliant job, Fountains Abby to the rescue

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      1. I don’t expect I’ll ever see it again, mores the pity. I know I really struggled 8 or so years ago, as it was such a trek from the car park, I was worn out before I got to wander a little

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      2. These days you can (a) enter from the West Gate, which is a short and level walking distance to the Abbey, and (b) borrow a Batricar. Well, once some kind of normality resumes anyway.

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      5. Actually, would that have been the way I might have entered in the late ‘80s / early ‘90s?? I remember being gobsmacked at the route I had to take on the last occasion

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  6. I don’t think I have been to Fountains, but it looks very interesting. I do like a wander around a ruin. Love the images, the frame provided by the arch and the balustrade are brilliant! You’ll be pleased to hear that next month is somewhat easier 😁

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    1. Jude, I love your challenges. Thank you. I feel as you are speaking to amateurs like me who are slightly dazed by camera-speak, but who’d like to do better. You make me look, and think. Result.

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      1. I am an amateur too don’t forget! These have been set up to challenge myself to think differently. Not working as I’d hoped due to the curtailing of travelling, but at least I have been able to look at older photos with a different perspective. I appreciate it that you are willing to have a go too 🙂

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  8. A place that has been on my wish list for so long; your virtual visit has made me all the more determined to get there one day. That tree stump is remarkable. My favourite shot though, which convinced me from the off that you you had cracked the 3-d challenge, is the first one. The solidity of that arch, the epochs it suggests … A fourth dimension captured there I think! 👏👏

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    1. Thank you so much. I was pleased with that photo too: that solid arch, so beautifully weathered through the centuries tells a remarkable story. Do come to Fountains Abbey. I’d love to meet you there: if such innocent pleasures are ever allowed again.

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  16. All of these photos convey the 3-D challenge really effectively. I can’t decide which is more impressive, the weathered and beautifully coloured stones of the arch in the first photo, or the powerful and gnarled roots of the ancient tree in the last photo.

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  17. Lovely photos of a place I know and love well. Hope to be able to get there again in the next couple of years or so – who knows as we won’t be travelling anywhere soon out of Australia.

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