Submitted Photo This photo of Stonehenge by Aaron Michels, of Minot, appeared on the front page of the Stonehenge website this year. Michels took the photo during a trip to Europe, which included a visit to the historical structure in England.

It had been nearly 15 years since my wife, Crystal, and I were able to finally take a honeymoon together. We went on a three-country European tour of France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. We saw an amazing amount of wonderful pieces of history, and I have many great photographs from those places, but the site I needed to see in particular was Stonehenge.

It was by far the oldest historical structure we would see. I have a lot of British ancestry so these were my ancient forbears. We could have simply drove up and looked at the monument from the normal path but we wanted to make the experience even more memorable. We secured one of the very few tours inside the monument. We went to the monument at sunset.

Stonehenge was not what I expected at first. It rises all alone out of a plain surrounded by farmland. From the walkway it is impressive, but nothing compared to the experience when we entered the stone circle. The monolithic stones are large from the pathway but up close they are truly massive and imposing. How the ancient peoples of that land carried stones from so far away is still a mystery to historians. We had free rein to walk around and as close to the stones as we wanted as long as we did not touch them. Not touching was not easy to resist. With no tourists and only a few of us inside it was peaceful and quiet.

I walked out of the circle and took images of the full monument, then I photographed it from the inside. The sun showed through gaps in the stones. I walked through the outer aisle of Stonehenge and took a photograph of a section of that area. That is the photograph the Stonehenge people contacted me for the first time.

I posted a few of my Stonehenge photographs on my Instagram page. I only have a few hundred followers so imagine my surprise when the people at Stonehenge contacted me. The first message asked me if they could use the image on their Instagram feed. I was thrilled! The actual people from Stonehenge wanted to use my picture on their social media page. Of course they could use it! A few days later they asked if they could use it for their website. I couldn’t believe it. Of course I said yes. I didn’t care where or how they used it. I was just excited to have one of my photographs recognized by somewhere that people everywhere could possibly see it.

A few weeks later I looked at the Stonehenge website to see if they used it anywhere yet. To say I was shocked that it was on the front page is an understatement. I had to tell everyone I knew. The fact that a small town artist had a piece of work appreciated by people 4,000 miles away exhilarated me. My wife told me that I was now an international artist. I guess I am. I’m still in shock, really. Seeing Stonehenge up close was a magical experience for me. Now I feel I can share a little piece of that experience with other people.