Scale..., a photo from Argolis, Peloponnesus

Photographer's Note

The young girl was standing against the circular interior wall of the Beehive tomb in Mycenae ostensibly to provide scale for her father's photo. I took advantage of the fleeting moment to take my own photo.

Such monumental Bronze Age tombs originated in Minoan Civilization in Crete around 1600 BC and spread quickly through the middle east. This particular beehive tomb, the most famous tomb in Greece, is known as the "Treasury of Atreus" (sometimes called the Tomb of Agamemnon). It was constructed around 1350-1250 B.C. From its imposing size and the precision of its masonry, it is believed to have been built for a king and buried with treasures and weapons of the king. But none has survived.

The diameter of the tomb is almost 15 meters (50 feet); its height is slightly less. The enormous monolithic lintel of the doorway weighs 120 tons and is 9 meters (29.5 feet) long and 5 meters (16.5 feet ) deep. The entrance features a relieving triangle decorated with relief plaques. The mathematical description of the shape is probably closer to a paraboloid of revolution.

The discoverer of the tomb is almost as famous as the ruins of Mycenae. In the second half of the 19th century, the German businessman and amateur archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, had already discovered Troy, and as an encore discovered the ruins of Mycenae.

In order to capture the full height of the tomb, along with the young girl, I used my iPhone 6 Plus in panoramic setting and panned vertically. This avoided the distortion that would have been introduced by a wide-angle lens.

daddo, ikeharel, snunney, jhm, danos, worldcitizen, alvaraalto, delpeoples, mcmtanyel ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

lousat (138599) 2016-06-06 15:28

Hi Bulent,very impressive and very big this tomb,the girl inside the composition give us the exact idea of the big dimensions.An excellent capture despite the difficult light and interesting note too,i like it! Have a nice day and thanks,Luciano

daddo (28748) 2016-06-06 17:25

Merhaba Bulent. Incredible place, I had no idea it exists although i do know something about the Mycenaean civilisation. How much they learned from the Egyptians is open to debate. Impressive structure and well seized moment. Regards. Klaudio.

ikeharel (112419) 2016-06-06 21:27

Hello Bulent,
The young lady for sure gave excellent scle to appreciate the size of this tomb.
Indoor's photo well managed with the low light available.
Best regards,
Ike

Tue (91564) 2016-06-06 23:09

Hello Bulent,
The tomb looks really impressive, especially compared to the girl, who adds a perfect sense of the scale of the place. The texture of the ancient stones is well captured and you managed the light perfectly.
Lars

holmertz (101980) 2016-06-07 1:06

Hello Bülent,
The girl looks a bit stiff, but the note explains why. You used the opportunity well to include her, because she means so much for our understanding of what we are looking at. I love the many tones of brown of the huge stones, but above all this is a photo, along with the note, that sets my imagination in high gear. How could this have been done 3300 years ago? What were the thoughts of the architect? What did the workers talk about?
Kind regards,
Gert

snunney (130967) 2016-06-07 2:00

Hello Bulent,
The girl is a key element in the success of the composition. Well managed the low light, enabling us to fully appreciate the detail to be observed in the stonework. Useful and informative note.

jhm (211734) 2016-06-07 4:54

Dear Bulent,

You found a nice young model for take a picture against the big wall.
Indeed wonderful for the scale against the big stones.
An excellent composition, nice presentation too.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John.

Sergiom (117241) 2016-06-07 5:44

Bonjour Bulent,

J'aime beaucoup cette photo. Une chance que cette jeune fille prenait la pose pour donner la relation dimensionnelle avec ce dôme de pierres des plus impressionnants.

Amicalement

Serge

gervaso (28177) 2016-06-07 5:47

Hello, Bulent!

Very interesting place, and the girl is really important to give scale to the image! The light seems to be difficult here, but it was very well managed! Beautiful job!

Nicou (193806) 2016-06-07 7:12

Hello

la jeune fille donne bien l'échelle quelle compo et image quel rendu sur la pierre et ces traces sur la pierre quel effet et architecture superbe compo.
Bravo et amitié
Nciou

No_One (4) 2016-06-07 11:48

Hi Bulent,
A perfect moment to capture this photo, the girl offers perfect scale and the size of this ancient tomb is indeed really impressive. Hard to believe something so perfect could be so ancient. Thanks for an excellent note, and thanks for the photo tip too, great idea to take with the iPhone.
Cheers
Noel

P.s. greetings from Ahakista in Co cork. I've travelled down here to photograph the air India tragedy memorial.

danos (110407) 2016-06-08 23:34

Hello Bulent,
very nice the view of the interior of the 'Treasury of Atreus' with the young girl to adds scale in the image.
Informative your note about it with the light management to be successful under these low lighting conditions.

Regards,Danos

worldcitizen (15956) 2016-06-09 12:18

Hello Bulent,
The sense of space in this tomb is impressive. It was lucky that only one person was posing at the time; she provides maximum impact visually. The circular shape and large stones resemble a kind of ancient honeycomb.

pajaran (114891) 2016-06-09 23:19

Pozdrav.
Interesantan i dobar tekst, lep pogled i trenutak ...
Dobar rad i kompozicija, lep format fotografije, dobar kontrast, lepo pokazano.
Mocna arhitektura.
Devijcica je etalon da se pokaze velicina grobnice.
Sve najbolje za vikend, srecno.
Paja.

Hello.
Interesting and good text, beautiful view and a moment ...
Good work and composition, beautiful format photographs, good contrast, nicely shown.
Strong architecture.
A girl's standard to show the size of the tomb.
All the best for the weekend, good luck.
Paja.

emka (157280) 2016-06-09 23:20

Hello dear Bulent, Interesting picture. I haven't been there but I knew this Agamemnon Tomb from pictures. But I haven't realized it is so big. Nice composition.

WArm regrads MAlgo

Fis2 (169709) 2016-06-10 0:21

Witaj Bulent!
Interesting place.
The scale is impressive!
Good framing and colors.
Best regards.
Krzysztof

alvaraalto (42804) 2016-06-10 7:08

Hello Bulent,
Excellent idea to show us the scale of the interior of this immense beehive. I love the mysterious colours of the large stones.
The quality of your picture is excellent, certainly in this difficult circumstances.
Groet Rob
PS Happy Birthday from TE too.

delpeoples (60342) 2016-06-10 9:35

Ciao dear Bulent

Nowadays it is almost unavoidable that there are people in our shots, especially at very touristic places like this. So you have chosen your subject well, she complements the beehive very nicely, particularly in terms of scale. The wide angle lens has worked well here too, with the beehive completely covering the frame. Without the girl, we would have no real idea of the perspective here. Nice work with the light, probably not an easy light to manage. A very natural, subtly processed shot. Well done and thank you for your note, as always informative and entertaining.

Hugs to you and your lovely lady
Lisa

abmdsudi (95869) 2016-06-10 10:11

Hi Bulent
This is surreal seeing through this massive tomb interior with its amazing depth of field and mass of detail in the stonework, I think the way you have framed and exposed this photo elevates it from the ordinary and all the more interesting for it. Inclusion of the fig really works for this incredible sight, Congrats.
Best wishes

mcmtanyel (67635) 2016-06-10 19:45

Selamlar Bülent Bey,
Aren't modern cell phones wonderful? Their cameras have more features than the first digital camera I had. I like this almost minimalistic photo. It has lots of empty space but that space is far from dead, nicely done!
Regards,
MT

kasianowak (17672) 2016-06-12 4:46

Hi Bulent
Well used photo opportunity to show the scale of this place indeed. It looks immense, those stone walls seemingly never-ending...
Best wishes
Kasia

ChrisJ (171220) 2016-06-12 11:30

Hi Bulent

The woman adds both scale and a much needed focal point at the bottom. Good sharpness and nice repetition of the bricks. The stain patterns add tonal variations. Tfs!

dekanski (9269) 2016-06-16 13:00

NICE! Like it!

Saša

halikarnas (8842) 2016-08-03 7:11

Bülent Bey,
Bu fotoğrafta bir insan olmasaydı bukadar etkili olmazdı kanaatındayım.
Zaten sanat düşünülmeden yapılamaz!
Tebrik ediyorum
Ataman

jmdias (114262) 2016-10-20 0:37

bulent

I was in this place few days ago. it is too dark for nice photos, but you got a nice sample using the girl like scale and adding life with her too. excellent quality.when I was there it was raining and I was wet.

hugs

jorge