Plus, a photographer’s battle against wildfire
|  | Saturday, July 23, 2022 | | | | |
 | VIDEO BY REUBEN WU
| | By Marie-Amélie Carpio
Taking a novel photograph of Stonehenge is a challenge: The British monument has been photographed from every angle. For a different perspective, Reuben Wu decided to create a shifting scene of the stone circle, where night and day seem to mingle.
“I needed to show Stonehenge in a way it had never been seen before,” Wu explains. He illuminated the site with a powerful LED light attached to a drone and took several shots of varying exposures from a tripod-mounted camera. (Pictured above, the cover image of Nat Geo’s August edition.) He then created a single layered image (below) from 11 photographs.
“With this kind of lighting, I was able to bring a new, unfamiliar atmosphere to Stonehenge, something that felt timeless, yet spoke to the potency and ancient lore of the site.”
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY REUBEN WU
| | The most complicated part of the project, however, was behind the scenes: obtaining permission to fly a drone at the site, especially at night. “Because it is located in military airspace, we had to get permission from the Royal Air Force and call them each time we flew the drone.”
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 | VIDEO BY REUBEN WU
| | | Wu notes the drone was restricted from flying directly above the stones (pictured above). “Being able to photograph such a famous landmark in such an unorthodox fashion was an unforgettable experience.” | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY ALICE ZOO
| | As Wu created scenes of the monuments themselves, Alice Zoo photographed the archaeologists, protesters, and visitors who investigate, protect, and commune with Stonehenge and other ancient monuments in modern times. Pictured above, testing a theory that the monument was first built in Wales and later moved, volunteers dig for clues at Waun Mawn, a dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills that was strikingly similar to Stonehenge but centuries older. Archaeologists uncovered pits where upright stones once stood, but few of the original stones remain. Where did they go? Stonehenge? It’s unclear.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY ALICE ZOO
| | Pictured above, the autumn equinox brings a folk-festival vibe to Stonehenge as hundreds of visitors gather below its broad-shouldered trilithons. Aligned on the axis of the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset, the prehistoric stone circle has long been a place of seasonal celebrations.
Read the full story here.
Please consider getting our full digital report and our magazine by subscribing here. Thanks! | | | |
 | VIDEO BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
| | Your turn: How do you explore the pre-historic Stonehenge in your own space? We've made a high-resolution 3D model by taking thousands of photographs of the site. Through augmented reality, you can interact with tabletop and full-scale models of the site, view how the light and shadows change on the summer solstice day, and even take a selfie. Open the experience on a mobile device.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NAT GEO PHOTO ARK
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHIEU PALEY
| | A refuge under fire: Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Matthieu Paley moved a few years ago to a home and farm outside a Portugal village to live a healthier life. He had just completed an assignment on extreme heat and returned home to record temperatures and a wildfire—one of 170 that day in Portugal—advancing on his home. “I was just praying, ‘spare the wooden house,’” Paley told Nat Geo’s Craig Welch. (Pictured above, a look at the destruction on Paley's farm.)
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 | | Science ... is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth. | | | | Jules Verne | | From: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JEAN BOWIE THORPE AND FRANC SHOR
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A street dance in Mallorca: After World War II, tourists began flocking en masse to islands off Spain’s eastern coast. In 1957, Jean Bowie Thorpe and Franc Shor documented the transformation of the islands such as Mallorca. The image above, curated by senior Nat Geo photo archivist Sara Manco, reflects the changes, with islanders transforming a traditional dance to ward off evil into a spectacle for tourists. Catch more archival images in our Photo of the Day collection.
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This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, and Rita Spinks also contributed this week. We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading!
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