Story
Machair
Sometimes, a much-celebrated landscape can disappoint when you finally see it for yourself. You try not to admit it, but something falls short. Not so here—on the shores of Reef, the machair truly lives up to the poetry.
Summer comes late to the Hebrides, but when it arrives, this fragile coastal grassland, long cherished by crofters, erupts into colour. A long ribbon of wildflowers, running behind the western beaches of Lewis, begins to shimmer with life. I was bowled over by it.
Down on my hands and knees, camera among the bright brooches of colour, I try to capture their many tiny bursts of spirit. In their brief lives, I see death, regeneration, transformation, and wonder. You don’t need to be a botanist to be transfixed by a Hebridean meadow in full bloom.
The beaches themselves are spectacular, but it’s the wealth of wildflowers that has truly stayed with me. I could never have imagined how special this could be… but I do now. What a celebration. Nothing, I believe, truly compares to the magic of the machair.
CAMERA – HASSELBLAD H5D / 50mm f3.5
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