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A slightly different view of a previous shot, closer in on the posts. I liked the vignetting created by the clouds and their reflections :)
Berwick-upon-Tweed, more commonly known simply as Berwick (pronounced Berrick) is an ancient walled town at the far Northern reach of the Northumberland Coast. Throughout history this has been an area of intense conflict, and evidence of this is visible today, with it's huge fortified town walls. In Elizabethan times the Town had huge defensive walls built to deter the potential invasion of the Scots. Berwick changed hands between the English and the Scots 13 times before finally being re-captured in 1482 by the English, in who's hands it has remained ever since.
Taken at Dinorwig quarry in wales. I must have seen a dozen takes of the image and all of them where taken on the same weekend I took this. Spent about an hour waiting for the small break in the clouds to illuminate the wonderful contrasty slate walls
It might not be the most upmarket place we’ve stayed in this year, but George (presumably Anglicized for the overwhelmingly British clientele) and his team have given us a very warm welcome. The apartment is comfortable and clean and we don’t ask for more than that. If George is slightly disappointed that we don’t spend quite as much time or money at the hotel bar as most of his guests, he doesn’t show it. Maybe my rapturous approval of the house Village Salad has put a big mark in the credit column for the occupants of room sixty-six. But we prefer to explore a holiday destination rather than lounge about by the pool ordering pints of Mythos all day. Besides which, Ali only drinks water. Hot water or cold water are the only two beverages she needs in life. People don’t believe her at first - they think she’s just being polite. No really - no tea, no coffee, definitely no juice or sugary fizzy pop (you should see her face when I pour a glass of orange juice in the morning), and no alcohol either. I make up for these shortfalls - except for the fizzy pop. I don’t drink that stuff either. I’m quite keen on the Mythos though. Especially the way it’s served in frozen glasses. I’ve taken to putting my own beer glasses in the ice box for an hour before pouring one back at the apartment in the evenings.
Our holiday rep is young, shy and giggly. She’s also Swedish. I was in Sweden less than two weeks ago, and at the bar, as I pay for my Village Salad, I bore the poor girl to sleep about my adventures in her homeland. She agrees that the west coast is a beautiful part of the country. In turn I agree that we’re having a lovely time here in Rhodes. She grins. I think it’s the last time we’ll stay in a place like this though. For years we booked everything independently, but after the pandemic, and just so we could blame everything on the operator when things went wrong, we returned to the traditional package holiday. But it’s not really our thing. Neither of us like mixing with other people, and we really don’t need to be entertained in the evenings. We much prefer the sound of the cicadas at night to what we’re being served with here. So far we’ve been treated to Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Lionel Richie, Billy Ocean, Rihanna, Wilson Pickett and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. All of this as we sit out on the balcony each evening, whether we like it or not. Obviously not the actual artists. How much do you think we paid for this holiday? Besides which it wouldn’t be possible as a number of them aren’t with us anymore. What’s interesting is that all of the performers come from South Africa. We think it’s the same people coming back every two or three nights, each time wearing different wigs. The quizmaster isn’t from South Africa though. Essex I reckon. He was still reading out the questions after midnight the other evening. The majority of the other guests are several years older than us. Exactly how many Rihanna songs are they familiar with? I only know two and I’m a mere stripling compared to most of them. The artists are very versatile. They usually lapse into Earth Wind and Fire or Heatwave after they’ve played the only three songs that anyone knows. Two if it’s Rihanna. Nobody seems to notice.
And competing with all of this is the din from the bar just across the way. To my horror, someone in charge of the jukebox has just faded out Mark Knopfler’s legendary guitar break from “The Sultans of Swing,” the only thing that has quite literally been music to my ears as we sit out here on the balcony in the dark. Because apparently it’s karaoke night. And the most important thing about being a karaoke performer is that you need to be tone deaf. Take the hen party that’s shouting the words of Paul Heaton over the microphone. More like an Imperfect Ten really. I sigh and open the Booking.com app. I noticed there were some apartments in a village up in the hills near the Seven Springs that we visited the other day. Next time we’ll do it all independently again, just like we used to.
To escape from all of this we’ve hired a car, just like we always do on these holidays. This time it’s a white Suzuki Celerio with a squeaky clutch pedal and a remote key fob that has a dead battery. Mostly we turn right at the bottom of our road, heading along the strip and out of town towards wherever we’ve decided to retreat to. Each time we do this, our first hazard is a bend in the road that I’ve unaffectionately named Poo Pong corner, a reference to the fact that it evidently sits over the town’s sewage drain, and upon which someone has opened a restaurant called Flames. Oh the irony! Surely it would only take a lit cigarette on an especially noxious day for the Flames to go up in, well, flames? It never seems to be that busy there. I love Greek food, but not when there are competing aromas coming from a river of floating effluent just a few yards away that’s come from the inner workings of a couple of thousand overindulgent tourists.
Occasionally though, we turn left instead of right, and drive a mile or two down the road to the tiny beach at the edge of the next town. This is a little piece of the Greece we love, with quiet water lapping at the shoreline, the flat warm sea such a gentle contrast to the drama we’re used to at home. And one evening as the sun sunk over the hills in the west it delivered the first worthwhile picture. Strangely, taken along the holiday strip rather than in some remote wild area. Later, back on the balcony, as someone from the raucous bar squawked to everyone within a half mile radius that they were simply the best, I had a quick go at it on the little laptop that comes with me on every holiday these days. I decided to award myself a small glass of ouzo. And promptly changed my mind in favour of a slightly bigger one. I needed to do something to drown that karaoke out.
just before landing ... after a long long night flight across Africa all the way down to the Indian Ocean ... what a sight that was!
Memories are always special. Sometimes we laugh by remembering the days we cried and sometimes we cry by remembering the days we laughed.
18/01/23 Barrow-upon-Trent: DC Rail Class 56 56091 trundles along with 4Z44 Burton OT West Yard (Maurice Hill) - Willesden Sidings.
The light dipped very slightly but the assembled gallery of 3 went home happy. Plenty more photographers on the next bridge!
Upon seeing the announcement of Union Pacific's new paint scheme, I couldn't help but wonder why we have gotten away from simplicity in design. Everything now has to be shields, logos, slogans, writing, flags- when some of the most iconic schemes were always the most simple. Here are 2 UP Pushers far away from home in Ferrum, Virginia. The wings will be replaced by a horrendously large and out of place shield, and the new design is WAY too busy for my taste. I wish railroads would go back to simple classy designs on their locomotives. Less is more, and I wish the folks at UP would have gotten the memo.
Insert something philosophical here... I'm too sore and worn out...
I do gain so much from hearing all your thoughts though, and I am continually greatful for all of you who take time to follow me.... Thank you so much...
Of ossuaries that came to rest upon the platforms amongst the striking sky breaching stellar stone gnomons I would a history here be told,
and if you had the ears for such I could to you a tale of men and gods relate to you men in this age of differing gods their sacred store unfold.
I take it that you will not be taking me up upon my boast of an introduction to an oral exploration of the ways of men that compose level platforms to set in stone the land based embracement that watches Equinox and Solstice taking the light woven from The Sun and The Moon and in that returning weft adds the long lengthening warp of Stars and Star Shepherding Planets such that The Morning Star corrects our cyclical weft turned and turned about calendar and gives us the making of moments heard in the pulse of the astral divine whose breath brings warmth from ice and who in taught texture gifts inspiration to continuation of warp and voice in me with life enough to sing of the Cosmic Stirring and of the seeming endless muddling, mixing and making of all Life from Death and of seed aplenty to grow out of famine following the keening and of the kenning to dwell within waking and to prosper without dream.
Star light above and fire bright in the centre of us are not strictly necessary, but they do bring us closer in to form our listening and to forge our tale within a bounded boarded bonded ring...
© PHH Sykes 2026
phhsykes@gmail.com
These links set below provide a much better introduction to Machrie Moor than my song sung into the wind unsettling as a bardic prologue above.
Machrie Moor Standing Stones
Near Blackwaterfoot, Arran
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit/all/machrie-moor-stand...
History and stories, Machrie Moor Standing Stones
Near Blackwaterfoot, Arran
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit/all/machrie-moor-stand...
Machrie Moor
www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/161/machrie-moor
Machrie Moor
www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/2/161/17743/194651
Site Name: Machrie Moor 1.
www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=439
Site Name: Machrie Moor 10 Alternative Name: Moss Farm Road, Machrie X
www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=1111
Machrie Moor the urban prehistorian
theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/tag/machrie-moor/
Arran, Machrie Moor, Trove Scotland
National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) ID: 39699
Over 200 digital images
Arran, Machrie Moor 2, Trove Scotland
www.trove.scot/place/39702?tab=images
Fingal’s Cauldron Seat, Machrie Moor, Kilmory, Arran
www.thenorthernantiquarian.org/2014/07/13/fingals-cauldro...
Machrie Moor Stone Circles
Before the ice is in the pools,
Before the skaters go,
Or any cheek at nightfall
Is tarnished by the snow,
Before the fields have finished,
Before the Christmas tree,
Wonder upon wonder
Will arrive to me!
- Emily Dickinson
Upon the top of that same craggy ridge
The caption used is from a poem by William Wordsworth, from The Prelude.
While at a roadside pullout along the main park road on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The view is looking to the north-northwest to ridges and peaks of the Eastern Great Smoky Mountains with Anakeesta Ridge. Given the low clouds that were along the mountain peaks, I chose to minimize those overcast skies and focus the image on the spurs and ridges coming off the main peaks. I liked the layers that they brought out with the tree lines and the way the spurs and ridges seemingly came after the other. The rest was metering the image to so that I could capture some of the details present in the overcast skies while still being able to pull the more shadowed areas along the mountainside later in post production.
Modeling instagram: @lilovermyhead
Photography instagram: @blulirettephotography
Taken at the August 2019 Street Meet/
Terraced rice paddy fields are quite a spectacular marvel, both in their beauty and their ingeniousness.
A while ago I stumbled upon some mind-blowing photos of these, and I really wanted to see if I could do them justice in LEGO. I had quite a bit of lime wedge plates lying around, so that became the basis for the build, augmented with tiles and jumper plates.
I wanted to make thin paddies to get the very layered feel to the build. This naturally meant that the terrain had to be quite steep, or the paddies would be wider. I also wanted to intersperse the paddies with some overgrown jungle, to get a nice contrast and some variation. A river at the bottom also made sense since the water had to end up somewhere.
The terracing was certainly the most complicated thing going on here. The goal was to get smooth angles with showing as few studs as possible. Smooth angles pretty much means you need to use wedge plates, which also means you have very little area to work with before the studs become visible.
The building process was quite frustrating as building up layer by layer doesn't really work as you have to make sure that the top layers will combine well, or you may have to tear everything up. This meant the paddies were actually built from left to right rather than from the bottom to the top. There was still quite a bit modifications needed and I sometimes had to pull whole sections out to fix a small detail, and then try to put it back together again. Not the most fun ;)
I generally find lime green a bit hard to work with, as it is easy for it to overpower other greens because of its brightness. It was definitely the right colour choice here though, so had to try to make it work. In the end I think the colours work together because they represent different things, while trying to make them blend might have been harder. Here it is quite clear that the lime is paddies and the other greens are jungle and other random vegetation.
The most enjoyable part for me was (as it usually is) the forest/jungle. Making it work on very steep mountainsides was a bit of a challenge, but I had a lot of fun trying out both new elements and new techniques to get a varied, but still natural looking jungle.
I am quite happy with the end result of this build, though I feel it generally looks better close up rather than in overview photos of the whole build. Probably because close ups are more immersive. Will have to take some more of those later :)
As to whether I have made the rice terraces justice, I would have to say no. Though I do feel the build turned out quite well, the beauty of the real thing is just too high of a benchmark to reach. Just go ahead and google 'rice terraces' and you'll see what I mean :)
- www.kevin-palmer.com - I had always wondered what the view is like from the top of this hill. I finally checked it out while this storm was approaching. But I couldn't stay long because the rain would turn the rough road into mud.
Worth a closer look . . .
This photo was taken by a Kowa/SIX medium format film camera with a Kowa1:5.6/250mm lens and Kowa L1A ø67 filter using Fuji 160NS[220] film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.
My original plan was to chill in Dalton for an hour or two & see whatever comes through as a side trip on the way home from Chattanooga that morning. I pulled into the parking lot by the depot when my friend Brad shared an update that 27W was east of Tallapoosa, GA with EMDX Yellow Slug 7208 in the lead. With that news, I immediately left & started booking it down I-75 towards Atlanta to try & beat it. Thankfully for me, the dispatcher put them in the hole at Temple to let two westbounds through, buying me enough time to get to Austell as he was again going into the hole at Lithia Springs for about 20 minutes to allow the higher priority 226 to slip by them. Upon determining not to try either Austell or Mableton, I went to Bridge since I knew I could get them from either side of the crossing there depending on where the sun was. It just so happened that G98, which is normally G78, was going into the lead for Argos USA right as I got there. I set up to get a few shots of them while I waited for 27W when next thing I know, 27W calls Bridge, allowing me to catch a rather eco-friendly meet as the ECO-set powering G98 was passed by the tier 4 demonstrator unit. The moral of this story... it pays to be at the right place at the right time. 7-10-20
1/20th second @ f4.2 | 2000 ISO | 32mm | Handheld
With a vibration reduction lens and a good steady hold of the camera 1/20th of a second seemed to be a perfect shutter speed to add motion blur where it mattered whilst keeping the majority of the image sharp therefore giving the main subject a sense of movement. As the performance explored the theme of love the dancers paired up and I found the opportunity to capture the emotion displayed between Adam an Molly.
Saros was coreographed by Nicole Vivien Watson of Surface Area Dance Theatre and accompanied some experimental music by The Hunter Gracchus. I'd like to thank Nadia Iftkhar, Surface Area's creative director, for allowing me access with my camera.
A wider selection of my work from this event has been added to this gallery
This is the heron from Saturday morning up the Dare Valley Country Park. I had a fab weekend of wonderful walks, can't wait til next weekend.
three grey wagtail shots from this morning a clear morning with no wind allowed for some super reflections shots
The National@Docklands building in Melbourne on a cold and wet winter's day. The light was amazing when I shot this :)
Shot on Kodak Portra 400VC colour film.
See larger or purchase at Photologium