Valley of the shadow of death

Not an anti-religious comment today, but I'd just like to show you two old photos, arguably the oldest surviving war photos.  These were taken during the Crimean War in 1855, by a little known photographer, Roger Fenton.

Both views are remarkable in that they show a completely lifeless scene resulting from a war which claimed the lives of half a million men.

Roger Fenton's iconic 1855 photo of the
'Valley of the Shadow of Death'

Click on the photo above to enlarge it.  You will realise quite soon that the spherical objects scattered across the whole scene are canon balls.  But which was taken first?

Roger Fenton's iconic 1855 photo of the
'Valley of the Shadow of Death' with canon balls placed in the road.

Opinions differ, but the fact that some of the rocks in the bottom left corner of the pictures have fallen down the slope a little suggests that they were disturbed as Fenton and his assistants collected canon balls to place on the road.

Does this matter at all?  Not really.  After all, there are so many of them that the ones in the dip at the edge of the road must have been cleared from the road earlier.