I have been photographing this beautiful silhouette figure for some years now. The pictures I have shown to date have titles such as the Sleeping Beauty, The Skyline Priestess and the Slumbering Goddess. This Flickr Set is a collection of images taken over one hour on a single evening as the light dimmed and the colours on the horizon grew intense. Just as the last reaches of the vibrant rays of the sun shone out the sky flamed and flickered before the fiery star settled into the west. To complete the picture a flock of geese flew over the full length body of the slumbering figure on the skyline. This autumnal scene was quite stunning. At times I forgot to press the shutter release as I enjoyed the natural light show so much.
The Pentland Skyline Sleeping Beauty is formed by the Pentland hills themselves. The horizon silhouette pictured in these images has not been altered to make the figure appear more lifelike. The Pentland Skyline Sleeping Beauty is a natural part of the Pentland Hills Regional Park which is found in Midlothian and West Lothian to the West of Edinburgh in Scotland. The park offers a habitat to many wild animals and caters for wilderness seeking humans that want to find romantic rugged challenging terrain and easy access points to natural surroundings.
On my journeys I see this figure in several forms. As I move closer and further away she changes her appearance. From certain angles she is pronounced and prominent and from others she is completely lost as the viewer’s perspective alters the pattern of the horizon and her quite distinct human shape vanishes altogether. At times the figure seems to be sleeping and maybe she stares at the stars waiting for the right heavenly signs to cease her slumbers and to rise from her recumbent pose. At others times her statuesque reclining posture suggests that she is a permanent fixture set in place to attract the eye and lead the mind to enjoy her artistic presentation. From certain angles she appears to be pregnant and I can often imagine her as a Mother Goddess figure though I do not believe that anyone has ever tried to carve the features that we can see.
These pictures were all taken over just one hour on 11 October 2010. I was shooting with a Canon 5d mark II. The camera was set to Manual and AV or Aperture value mode to take these pictures. I wanted to use the aperture not just for depth of field but to give the right feel to the photograph. The lenses I used were firstly the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and then the Canon EF 28-300 f/3.5-5.6L IS USM. These two lenses offered me the wide angle I wanted for the shots which include a frame made by the trees close to the lens and then the 28-300 mm zoom allowed me to capture the skyline figure in greater detail.
To complete the film I chose sound tracks from two earlier open air recording sessions. The bird song and the sound of the wind were recorded on 15 June and 11 July 2010. The sounds were gathered from the foothills of the Pentlands close by the spot chosen to create the images of the Skyline Sleeping Beauty. The bird song would not be typical for the time of day when the pictures were taken. The evening usually sees a quietening of the birds and at the time when these pictures were taken the quiet of the evening was only punctuated by the loud squawks of the geese. Unfortunately I was enjoying the evening light show far too much and did not think to record the geese as they flew overhead and progressed into the pictures, but not on to the soundtrack.
YouTube HD film
PHH Sykes
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