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Hark you this and hear ye well, Ymir’s blood is the Sea and this Land his bones do be.
Dark comes and stars we see they are the holes in Ymir’s Skull seen by you and me.
Though he is long dead Ymir is not gone as we all look through the hollows in his head
As we stand upon his bones and sail upon his blood we harvest his flesh for our bread.
Earlier structures on the site of the castle are featured in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology as the stronghold and school of Scáthach the Shadow. This legendary Scottish warrior woman, sometimes referred to in recent times as a Druid and Priestess was renowned for her fighting skills and as a martial arts teacher. Scáthach trained the hero Cú Chulainn in the arts of combat giving him skills beyond all others including specialist moves and the secret of the Gáe Bulg, Gáe Bulga, Gáe Bolg, or Gáe Bolga. This is stated to be titled such meaning spear of mortal pain, or death, and also gapped, or notched spear, and further belly spear. The use of this weapon thrown from between the toes was a was believed to kill any opponent. Scáthach had the skill herself and could only pass on the technique to those of amazing skill and Cú Chulainn being the son and to some the incarnation of the God Lugh and Princess Deichtine.
The spear, or barb that Scáthach taught use of to Cú Chulainn is said to be a bone of a sea monster the Curruid. It is said that the Curruid died while fighting another sea monster the Coinchenn leading some to wonder if the spear could be made from parts of a Stingray, or be based on the Ray’s poisoned barbs. The Gáe Bulg spear is noted as being invariably fatal in use and maybe the spear was more than just a barbed weapon cast from between the toes and so launched off the feet from below to deliver a fatal injury from an unguarded angle. Scáthach prophesies about the fame and glory that await Cú Chulainn on his return to Ireland, but along with his charmed and enchanted life there will be many dangers in store from his demigod existence and his mortal life though famed is fated to be be short lived. From this moment on the bright life of Lugh that is evident in Cú Chulainn is seen as curse and charm that cannot be avoided and his triumph is set to be full of torment. The fort, or dun features as the place that the Irish Prince seeks out to improve his battle skills in the longest and most important tale in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology the epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, Cattle Raid of Cooley. The place name in Irish Dun Scathiag, is derived from Scáthach’s name.
The castle was the principal seat of the Clan MacDonald of Sleat, a branch of the Clan Donald, or MacDonald in the 15th century. Eventually after losing and regaining the castle the MacDonalds abandoned Dunscaith Castle in the early 17th century leaving the fortress to decline and fall into the ruins we now have today. The site is starkly beautiful with long stretched horizons around it that leave the ruin isolated bringing a sense of how vital this beacon once was in this landscape.
I cannot separate the physical place of Dun Scathiag from the site of legend spun stories that I have heard of Scáthach, her daughters and of Cú Chulainn the son and incarnation of Lugh. Somehow Dun Scathiag stands and Scáthach stays ready, yet Dunscaith Castle is also stood there and this one place is full of history and mystery all woven upon the proud rock that stands free of the cliffs and offers itself up as a place to defend and also a site to dwell on and so the tattered pages of legend lie upon the rocks and are cast off to the beach to be taken by tides, even as others are wonderfully wind embraced to carry on and on the red headed rubric into poem and in song, whilst others still are rooted in foundations and also created into walls and arches that show prosperity and hardship in the style of the stones still here and of the scope of the long gone wall tops and briefly built bold tall now much shortened fallen towers that held brilliant bright banners high into this balefully beautifully brooding stretched open sky.
© PHH Sykes 2022
phhsykes@gmail.com
"When we look at a rock, what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us."
~Bertrand Russell
I borrowed this quote from Vision-Revision's comment on a photo from last winter.
It seemed appropriate.
My husband calls it the Floaty Rock.
It isn't in perfect focus, but I like it anyway.
That weed reflection makes it feel absolutely strange.
Edit Notes: Photo of Gawler Place car park taken in ProCamera. Apps used: Snapseed > Decim8 > Pixrl-o-matic > Snapseed > iColorama > Kyoobik > Modern Grunge > Iris > Snapseed > Modern Grunge > Snapseed
copyright, 2012, Ferran Cubedo.
SALE OF PRINTED ARTS > : society6.com/ferrancubedo/Perception-Nature_Framed-Print#...
"Percepción"
Primer premio en la modalidad digital del "XX Concurso fotográfico del Campus de Huesca"
There is the popular question, " If a tree falls and there is none to hear it, does it make a sound?"
If sound only exists as sound because our ears drums haveinterpreted the silent air compressions into perceptual information, sound is not an external entity but a series of information being internally represented as sound.
In a similar way to this the world is not really as we see it, the colours we see, the smells we sense and sounds we hear are but mere illusions, representations of the vast sea of information around us.
Due to the seemingly infinite combination and varying threshold of sensory receptors we hold, the world we see is essentially as unique as the individual it sees.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite”
William Blake
Lately, more than ever before, I happen to perceive the everyday, the so-called “ reality”, as conceptually distorted. Hence, in an effort to depict the widespread social and cultural distortions I perceive, I continue my quest, assembling or re-assembling lenses that can depict my inner perception accordingly.
In this case I am experimenting with an old and modified Bell and Howell projector lens.
The lens original focal length (f2.5) is a mere 2 inch, but after modification it covers a 4x5 format. When I say “cover” I am obviously not talking “corner to corner sharpness” as many of my esteemed colleagues appear keen to seek in their optics: quite the opposite, in fact. This prototype I built is only sharp in the very middle of the frame, hence the photograph needs to be composed accordingly.
The rest of the image looks more like an experiment with Psychotropic drugs as the level of distortion and funky, crazy bokeh exceeds any expectations of optical sobriety.
And that’s exactly what I am looking for.
I called this lens “the poor man’s PLASTICCA” as the center sharpness fading into the “unknown” softness recalls a bit that vintage and nowadays extremely expensive large format lens.
These are portrait experiments created with it, using a Speed Graflex at roughly 1/700th shutter speed. There is a yellow filter at the back of the lens and the image is recorded on x-ray film (green) rated at 200 ASA.
February 4, 2013. This sculpture is located on the main floor of the CISTI building (M-55) in Ottawa and is called Perceptions of Reality, and is by David Makow. I saw a nearly identical sculpture a few hours later in the lobby of M-50, so I wonder whether it isn't a set. The very large wall hanging behind the sculpture says "Defend the Earth", and now is an almost ironic twist in this building that is nearly empty of staff these days. As you may have guessed, today was another training day in Ottawa; so is tomorrow.
CONSCIOUSNESS IS QUANTIZED: Consciousness occurs in ‘time slices’ lasting only milliseconds, study suggests.
According to Herzog and fellow researcher Frank Scharnowski from the University of Zurich, neither the ‘continuous’ nor ‘discrete’ hypotheses can by themselves aptly describe how we process the world around us, as numerous studies testing people’s visual awareness seem to disprove both notions.
But what if elements of both hypotheses were taking place at the same time in a continuous interplay between conscious and unconscious thought?
“According to our model, the elements of a visual scene are first unconsciously analysed. This period can last up to 400 ms and involves, amongst other processes, the analysis of stimulus features such as the orientation or colour of elements and temporal features such as object duration and object simultaneity,” the authors write in PLOS Biology.
After this analysis is complete, the researchers say the features we’ve detected are integrated into our conscious perception, compressing all the unconscious recording into something we’re actually aware of.
In other words, while we’re taking the world in, we’re not actually consciously perceiving it. Instead, we’re just mutely using our senses to record data for up to 400 ms at a time. Then, in what could be called a moment of clarity, we consciously perceive the stimuli that our senses have detected.
The team thinks this presentation of information to our consciousness lasts for about 50 milliseconds, during which we also stop taking new sensory information in. And then repeat.
Hmm. Or maybe this is evidence that we’re living in a computer simulation. Also see this.
Canisbay Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in Canisbay, Scotland, that dates back to the early 1600s and is the most northernly church on mainland Britain. It is a Category A listed building. It is surrounded by a large cemetery, which is split into two sections, the new and old. It features a square bell tower, nave and a porch. The porch was added in 1891, when the other extensions and work was completed to the church building.
The church was rebuilt in the 17th century, and ancient remains were discovered after a wall collapsed in the cemetery. Jan De Groot, the man who founded John o' Groats, is buried in Canisbay cemetery; his tombstone sits in the church building and is a popular tourist attraction when the building is open for visitors every summer. The book Lest We Forget: The Parish of Canisbay (1996) is a "miscellany of memories written by parishioners and friends so that future generations can know what made Canisbay a very special place".
Between 1959 and 2001 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was a regular worshipper at the church during her periods of residence, usually in late summer each year, at the nearby Castle of Mey, which she owned.
Canisbay is a rural hamlet located about one mile (1.5 kilometres) southwest of Huna and two and a half miles (four kilometres) southwest of John o' Groats in Caithness, Scottish Highlands, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. It lies on the A836 coast road, which bypasses the hamlet to the north.
It is home to Canisbay Primary School, a Village Hall, Medical Practice, and two Churches, one of which was the church used by Charles III. The Church is also the burial place of Jean De Groot, the ferryman after which John o' Groats is named.
The Parish of Canisbay includes John o' Groats, Upper and Lower Gills, Huna and Freswick.
Canisbay Juniors are the "feeder" team to John o' Groats FC with many of the key first team players having played for the side at one time. They play in the youth development leagues in Caithness where they enter teams at all age groups. It is also home to Canisbay Rifle club, who regularly compete in the Caithness Rifle Leagues.
The Canisbay Show is the local agricultural and crafts show held mid-June each year in the park behind the village hall, with the JCB competition, the karate display and mainly the Beer Tent being the big attractions.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
I posted this picture a few weeks back as a composite/weird edit. See link below
www.flickr.com/photos/44449030@N07/5463450335/in/photostr...
Its an instant favorite of mine, however, it did not get much attention. So I took out the edit I did and went bare bones here....minus some retouching. So maybe this one will go over better. Constructive criticism encouraged... cheers
It is the function of art to renew our perception.
What we are familiar with we cease to see. The
writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if
by magic, we see a new meaning in it.
- Anais Nin
“Objective perception means perceiving reality, all that confronts our awareness, as it is. It is a matter of seeing things as they are, rather than seeing them from a certain point of view or position. So by objective we do not mean the scientific positivist sense, in which objective means what exists physically outside us rather than in the mind. We also do not mean objective in the sense of not being emotional, or not being experiential. We mean seeing things, seeing internal or external things as they are, instead of subjectively. Subjective is the antithesis; it means according to our positions, feelings, filters, beliefs and attitudes. So objective perception means pure perception, free from all positions, bias, filters, conflicts, intentions etc. It is perceiving whatever it is without any obscuration or intermediacy, so we see it just the way it is in itself.” - A. Hameed Ali
How many passers-by actually perceived 4 and 5-year old Fabrício and Guilherme living on the streets of São Paulo?
Objectively or subjectively......?
I'll be telling their story in a new group later on..................and asking for your help too!
Flash Set-up:
Canon Speedlite 580EXII @ 1/8 power, 50mm zoom, fired through softbox 0.5m above/behind subject.
White paper reflectors positioned in front of subject on both sides.
triggered by Yongnuo RF-602 Tx/Rx.
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro USM @ f/5.0, 1/160s
31/7/2011 - it feels like ages since i've taken any pictures with a real camera.
just returned recently from my 3 week trip of north america. feels great to be back.
i was very lucky to get the chance to test out a tilt shift lens, the Nikkor PC 28mm f/3.5 AI. this image was taken with this lens, shifted up.
will try my best to take more pictures these few days!