Highland Light the magical gift of the temperate climate of Scotland and...

Highland Light the magical gift of the temperate climate

of Scotland and mountain scenery

The light the Light the LIGHT.

In property they say location, location, location.

In photography location can bring light and atmospheric conditions.

Once there at either the chosen location, or directed, or even the happenstance found location I would suggest that the magical quality that releases the subject and scene is the light the Light the LIGHT.

Subject – Sunject

Scene – Sunce

Except at night when

Subject – Moonject

Scene – Moonce

and also

Subject – Stellaject

and not forgetting found light

Subject – Founject

Scene – Stellence

Artificial light,

Subject – Lighject

Scene – Liunce

Scene – Founce*

Pease ignore the above at whichever level you wish to disagree with it. Please enjoy the above at all levels and sections if you can. Please to find of use and of no use as best suits you.

*This is not an extensive list of light the Light the LIGHT the maker of happy photographic subjects and scenes.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Mind stretch at Knowe of Yarso Chambered Cairn 4K

Within the newly roofed original stone confine

was a way marked out to encounter the divine.

Step by step I moved in closer to the moment

My heart beat in my ears was a rhythmic stream

There could have been an ordeal a wyrd torment

Instead there was in and out all through a dream

In the tomb there finding a womb that had the room

For every connection ever made, even almost made

The impossible mind garden began to beautifully bloom

There was a familiar new inspiring soundtrack being played

The end and the beginning of days was unreleased through haze

Heart beats were slow as an hour so that so much could bloom and flower

In a million, million enlightening encounters were the openings of so many, many ways

The fuel to reach out and to embrace, to know and to continue was a gift of

the ever divine power

I was lost in dim darkness and I was rewarded with the return to the day light.

Somehow, somewhere in darkness there was a blinding glimpse of second sight.

Return to Re-burn as Re-torn and Reborn

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Knowe of Yarso Chambered Cairn Return to the Light at the right height w...

Knowe of Yarso Chambered Cairn Return to the Light at the right height with new made sight a gift from the Wight

I was lost in dim darkness and I was rewarded with the return to the day light.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Entrance Interior Graffiti and Summon to Surface Wideford Cairn Orkney S...

 Entrance Interior Graffiti and Summon to Surface Wideford Cairn Orkney Scotland

If only… If only I had time to edit the footage and stills into a great presentation? If only I could bend a little more like I used to be able to, so many if only questions were miracle managed away into workable answers?

“If only,” is where it is. This film is something from 2023 that I did manage to get to. The whole trip was full of virtual potholes in the road for me rather than being resplendent with entrances to another world. Where and when I could I let go of this current consciousness and found what was waiting underground.

Then I called back and left the home for bone in the stone womb and found the surface full of another world as the current climate rapturously unfurled, commination curled and all heath and hell burly hurled as past consciousness updated in a global reset and the seasons fell away to the power of heating warming homes where we enjoy a much more stable life within a much more enriched skin no scarce hunt, no sparse fishing trip will reach our larders, we are all empowered within our guarded borders.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn Kirkwall, Orkney
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/wideford-hill-chambered-cairn/

Megalithic Portal - Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=178

Wideford Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/8428/wideford.html

Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn

https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/215/wideford_hill.html

Temple Arch the last above ground Templar Remnant just outside Edinburgh...

The village of Temple in Midlothian is where the Knights Templar held their primary and principal Preceptory in Scotland. There are some trees that might follow along lines of previous structures. There is a patch of rough ground that may one day be archaeologically be further investigated generating more detail about this site. For now there is a ruined kirk managed by TEMPLE OLD KIRK FRIENDS, please see the link below. The kirk is well worth a view, but it is not old enough to be a Templar building, there could be a reuse of stone still holding information held right now within the present structure. The stone archway pictured here is quickly photographed as I chatted of knights, of bold deeds, of traditions of yore and of the way forward we can create to reach out and to become legendary for peace making and social caring as we all make one world a safer, better and happier a place to be.

The pictures start with the arch that stands even though it is heavily worn by time. We progress away from the archway and look briefly at the significant trees standing with the stones over centuries. There are pictures that show a tree that is slowly breaking back down into the ground. There are pictures of the nearby old school that stands close to the arch. Any structure close by might have opened up and then sealed in some historic evidence. The evidence focussed upon today can be microscopic soil structure and also hue. The ground holds secrets here and one day further archaeological excavation might open up new details. Til then we have the archway behind the old school and our imagination.

From this spot you can look out to the ports of Edinburgh, to the Firth of Forth and across to Fife. This place stands secure once within it’s own sovereignty. The inspirational stories of old seem to have a fine place here to reside.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

TEMPLE OLD KIRK FRIENDS

https://churchmonumentssociety.org/2021/12/14/temple-old-kirk-friends

A Cloud Passing Casting Shadow On A Paneless Widow Zen Not Zen 4K

A Cloud Passing

Casting Shadow

On A Paneless Widow

may both Be Zen and Not Zen

At once together separate alone crowded

singular plural divided union

one whole none present and gone

unattached belonging stateless hidden contracted compressed forgotten unremembered all hollow husk no seed

Only Zen if you wish to make it Zen.

I do find that focusing on photography is a way to manage pain and open windows like these can be paneless as subjects to see and to photograph on the ways towards painless destinations.

I could ask what is a window and what is a window frame and does a pane now fit into many answers of what makes a window. Empty windows and open windows, old, missing, sparse, defunct, deteriorated, eroding, former windows and potential windows all have forms and fashion to frame their definition.

Temple Kirk just outside Edinburgh in Scotland has land ownership links to The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as Templar Knights, and then later on to The Order of Knights of the Hospital.

PHH Sykes ©2020

phhsykes@gmail.com

Don’t look Nothing to see here, just 16 edited FAILS, Memories Recorded 4K

Nothing to see here, just a few, (16 if I am counting), failed images more memories recorded than anything else. I am trying new ways to keep my memories alive. Photo storage software is superb at providing me with a pictorial diary and access through mobile phone to so many moments that can be made into memorable moments it is superb I am not. These are some of my pictures made to attach memories to. The scene is out focus lights through a window on a blustery night and it is set to give me an idea of more than the scene set out in front of me. Even more than either the room behind me, or the lights before me as I look out over the Bay of Ireland and Celestrain Sound Orkney. The out of focus lights could include the Taing of Sandside lighthouse on Graemsay Island not far from the ferry port of Stromness harbour.

Nothing failing here except for me. Memory saved here through a window with a storm obscuring some of the view and with purposeful out of focussing helping the rendition along into bright baubles. The memory being saved was in part my not being able to access the out of doors and also the geographic location too.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Avian Circle the first film following the birds around The Earl’s Palace...

Avian Circle the first film following the birds around

The Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland

The birds chirped and swooped in fragmentary swarms and mutterings bordering upon mini murmurings. The sound and sight was amazing. In taking pictures around The Earl’s Palace at Birsay I missed a major murmuring and a jumbled muttering, but at least I did catch something of the Avian Circle following the birds around The Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Birsay, Orkney

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/earls-palace-birsay/

Brough of Birsay, Birsay, Orkney, KW17 2LX

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/brough-of-birsay/

Higgledy Hedge Row Piggledy at The Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Orkney, Scotla...

There was the whole fantastic ruin of The Earl’s Palace at Birsay and as I was being asked to leave my final frames were of this plant seemingly trying to get into the scheduled monument. I was being told that we had other places to go and that it was Refreshments O'clock. The woody stems had my imagination in over drive.

This is a second film presentation with much less strong stressed images. There is a greatly reduced soundtrack. Altogether less sometimes is more, we all have our perception to please.

I nearly wrote tease, please and release, but I thought better of that, the hedgerow has more than enough of plenty within it’s burgeoning boughs.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Birsay, Orkney

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/earls-palace-birsay/

Brough of Birsay, Birsay, Orkney, KW17 2LX

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/brough-of-birsay/

Higgledy Hedge Piggledy Row at The Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Orkney.

There was the whole fantastic ruin of The Earl’s Palace at Birsay and as I was being asked to leave my final frames were of this plant seemingly trying to get into the scheduled monument. I was being told that we had other places to go and that it was Refreshments O'clock. The woody stems had my imagination in over drive.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Earl’s Palace, Birsay, Birsay, Orkney

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/earls-palace-birsay/

Brough of Birsay, Birsay, Orkney, KW17 2LX

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/brough-of-birsay/

The making of a Title Screen with virtual spiked iron 4K

 The making of a Title Screen

One figure whether dark, or light

replaced with a sky from the same day

and railed in with virtual spiked iron

These places have lived in my memory for an amazing amount of time. These places and those that have some seeming similarity and that either may, or might not be linked have lived in the minds of very many people indeed. Sometimes they lay covered and forgotten for generations and the stories of their return to light are often as amazing as the place are themselves and then there are ideas about the people that made these sites a set of stories by starlight that illuminate the inner and feature everywhere we loon upon the outer.

What are they and how are they still here? Where life has not needed their stone and structure they have been left to ruin. Sometimes story and superstition has caused these outmoded places to be destroyed and also then again the very same stories and superstitions have at other times caused them to be left well alone. The light and the dark record days and they embrace and release shadows to pattern out the seasons. From food safe to initiation sacred place and absolutely everything in between storage and ritual comes to light our imagination when illumination is sought within and to burn bright with inspiration when answers come flooding back to the surface.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

The Old Man of Hoy Rock Man and Shadow Face 4K

 I just don’t know the way to words right now, so I am repeating the description from another film and set of 9 pictures, “The Old Man of Hoy Resplendent Rock and Shadow Face.”

Flickr Photographs and Film HD

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAHXWL

YouTube 4K

https://youtu.be/g8LW0MrRZgQ?si=NpDe2j-F3ePm8cT0

The light is splendid and the scene is full of splendour. Nature made it, stories gave it threads enough to make a garment of imagination and inspiration and here it is just a lens away from my camera. Glorious natural Sun, Sea, Sky and Rock Stack all as one making a sight ready to be engaged with and adored.

I have lived with The Old Man of Hoy in my imagination and vision for several decades. From monochrome TV images through to colour TV and eventually to maps and to sight seeing. The good fortune to have bright light and rich shadow made several faces and on the rock and in the shadows it cast. The Man in the Sea Stack is seen with head and shoulders defining his full all in one image. The other shapes are there bring complex chaos to an otherwise single view.

Pareidolia is the name given to the phenomenon of our seeing faces and making out objects in what we see. We try to understand our world an our instant responses and reactions can be very true for us. The passage of the Sun through the year brings light from different angles to give us new shapes, silhouettes and shadows to enjoy.

I started to think,

Yes Old,

No not a Man

Both off and of Hoy and more

Yes to Hoy, Orkney Scotland and pushing via circuitous routes other islands and even mainlands too

...only in gentle contemplation.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Sun, Sea and Sky off of Scotland on the way to Orkney to reach Shetland

The Sun made the shot, the Sea created the texture and the Sky gave the seeming backdrop.

Take a glorious supreme Sun and a great superb Sea and a grand splendid Sky and that is all it took.

Of course there could have been a Shore, a generous subtle Shore.

There was not a Shore, not a generous subtle Shore for viewers to generously serenely adore.

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

Sheep at distance through a fully extended lens 4K

it’s

Sheep

At Distance

through a fully extended lens

yes that’s right

not S.A.A.D.

S.A.D.

*I am the S.A.D. compiler of this not S.A.A.D. Production

**The Sheep are not S.A.D.

***The only S.A.D. component is me

****S.A.A.D. Sheep At A Distance

I saw sheep looking picturesque in a field not all that far away. Through my phone I engaged full zoom. The results looked ready for an edit. I edited the picture. I lost the picture. I found the picture. I now edited edits and editing lead to collecting the pictures into collages and then into patterns. The musical accompaniment is set to give you an insight into experience of losing and finding the sheep that journeyed into several pictorial representations and a film.

© PHH Sykes 2023
phhsykes@gmail.com

From parts of a loved song of Paul H H Sykes

In the many rooms and also with out people come
and days, to weeks, to months, to years go on and on
This life is set out on a table and taken at bursts and blasts
Nothing ever holds and almost nothing ever lasts
Sometimes the table is an altar and the song is mass

No one is ever talking that much about Michelangelo
Everyone is talking so much about the world we know
And that world beyond this one is sung of in wistful song
There is a moment not yet made that is about to be played
There is never too little left that we have somehow unsaid

Failings ravings ravelling rambling ravening revealing and revealing
The seasons rolling on and on the threads tangling and holding on

[Just flickering and snickering notions set out in sometimes rhyming motions.]

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com