Alan: "The giant celtic stone cross at Raymuntardinney was carried down from Muckish mountain under the supervision of St. Colmcille himself. Read the story in our local history section. It is a difficult subject to photograph, as you can't get an angle straight on to it. In our gallery section it looks like this.

"So when I decided to use it as a graphic for a design job recently, I started with a Polaroid image I had of it on 5x4" format, where I was able to perspective correct the shape of it from below. It is held in place by metal bands, which I removed in Photoshop by cloning parts of the stone texture from other parts of the image. The black-and-white image was then colourised to a warm golden tone. The result is a perfect front-on view of the cross. Here you see it on its own and as it was used in the design."

FOOTPRINTS One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, the other to the LORD. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it. “LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.” The LORD replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”