paradoxdesign

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This beautiful sunset in glen Strathfarrar, Scotland. Almost outer worldly 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#processing #sunset #scotland #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #naturephotography

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Stop what you're doing. Put on some headphones and watch this video. Sadly it can only relay a small percentage of how I felt while making it but rest assured, it will comfort you!

After watching the video please read the words I leave here for you .❤️

"Where the burn speaks of tales from the hills, taking them to the Loch for storing them in the oceans vault.

And the gentle breeze stirrs the hairs on my arm, reassuring the imminent arrival of spring, emphasized by the soft drone of a bumblebee searching the first nectar.

Here where birds serenade the rolling landscape and the cool nights are scented with the smell of coal and wood fires.

Where there are so many horizons.

And life is pure

That is where I want to be..."

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #scotland #prose #alba #scottish highlands

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As I am writing this, I’m in my beloved Scotland.. Only two days left before I have to go back to the hectics and responsibilities of every day’s life.

For now I will leave you with this wonderful image of a Highlander Cow that I took while in the small town of Applecross. Situated on one of Scotlands mesmerizing peninsulas.

I will miss the peace and embrace of this country when I’m back on the mainland, but mark my words, I’ll be back! 😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#scotland #animals #original photographers #photographers on tumblr

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I shot this compelling photo of my son, drawing during the covid lockdowns, with my Rolleiflex camera. An analog TLR (Twin Lens Reflex).

I can recall the moment vividly.

The pale sun dropping in from the window, lighting his face by bouncing from the paper he is drawing on. His small face fixed in a concentrated frown. One can only imagine on what he's contemplating about.

I hold this image dear. As I do my son himself of course 💛

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #analog photography #tlr #vintage camera #rolleiflex #portrait #portrait photography

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Writing

I love to sit at my favorite spot in a little restaurant in the commercial area of my hometown.

With my noise canceling earbuds and some relaxed music, slowly growing my story as the world passes by at the window. Ignorant of what I'm doing and the hardship that the characters in my story have to go through.

Well, have to go through? It's me who puts them through it. Comfortably sitting at a table with my macbook, typing away at their futures and pasts.

#writing #writing a story #writing a book #on writing #author #story

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Follow me down this road, the forest smelling like wet leaves, wood and coal fires from houses nearby. Where the cosy warmth tries to keep you indoors. But the call of nature is stronger and urges you to push on towards newer adventures beyond the curve of the road.

Keep on seeking those adventures and may you encounter many beautiful vistas on your way in 2024!

Best wishes for the new year!!

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #landscape #scotland #naturephotography #road #forest #wishes #writing

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Robert Frost??

I posted this photo I shot in Scotland online, and someone commented that it reminded him of a poem that Robert Frost wrote.

I didn’t know the poem in question (The road not taken) and looked it up online, and indeed, this could be one of the roads that Robert Frost wrote about! 😁

So, take in this beautiful scene from Balquhidder in Scotland and read the poetry Robert Frost wrote and make your conclusions… could this be a poetic road?

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

#robert frost #visual poetry #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #poetry #the road not taken #frost #autumn #fall #Scotland

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"The red stone ritual"

The heartless voice behind her spoke in a tongue she didn't understand and gave her a hard push in the back that nearly made her stumble and fall. Holding her balance with her hands bound behind her back wasn't easy but she managed to stay upright. She now understood that he was urging her to walk on in his language...

It was unusually cold this morning. It was autumn, she could tell from the colour of the leaves, and it would be her last. It would have taken maybe one or two seasons for her to become a woman, but she won't be around that long, she thought while regret and fear filled her. No rites for her, no fest with good food and singing, no braided hair. 

For many years she lived with her tribe high in the hills until those men came and invaded their dwelling, slaughtering everyone but her, her sister and two other young girls. After the attack they took them to a large gathering of their own people, a seven days walk from her home. 

The girl wasn't pretty like the other ones. She didn't realize that, with that, her destiny was set.

Along the way it became clear that the men showed a bigger interest in the other girls than in her. At first she found that to be okay but when they arrived at the camp she was locked in with two other girls, who were already there and both of them also not as pretty. It made her worry. The other, pretty, girls were all taken to the tents of the men who took them. Her sister too.

After a few days with almost no food or water but some scraps, one of the girls in her cage was roughly taken by two grim looking men, her hands tied behind her back and a rope around her neck with which they forced her to follow. 

Later that day she could hear the  sound of drums in the distance with a gradual growing excitement in their rhythms.

The girl didn't come back that evening.

This morning it was her turn. After a short walk through the woods they came to a large clearing in which a circle of large stones rose from the wet grass.  Several men and women were gathered there already. Dressed up as grotesque forest animals. One wore the antlers of a big deer on his head, another wore the skin and the head of a bear. Others had skins and feathers of various animals  bound to their bodies. Their faces were painted black with red streaks. Animal bones were worn on strings and necklaces and all bore a weapon of some sort.

One of the stones, laying flat in the middle of the circle, was also red. But a different kind of red than the paint she saw on their faces. She knew this colour from the stone in her village where they slaughtered cattle like goats and deer. The dark red color of dried blood. In awe she stopped, the strength left her legs and she had to make an effort to keep standing. With fear in her eyes she turned to the man guiding her, only to be shoved forward again.

She started to cry in despair. 'Please, please, I can work for you!' She pleaded to indifferent ears. The man showed no understanding of her words, showed no emotion, nor mercy.

Suddenly those drums started sounding again, slowly at first, just like the day before when she has heard them when the first girl was taken away. Some of the beastlike figures started dancing around the stone circle, slowly by the rhythm of the drums, their eyes void of humanity, like in a trance. The bones hanging from their costumes clattering in unison with the rhythm of the drums.

With another push the man directed her towards the large stone in the middle of the circle and forced her to lay on it, on her back. Her hands were cut free with a stone knife only to be tied again. This time to the stone. The same thing happened to her legs.

The stretching of her limbs caused her to cry out.

The man with the antlers stood next to the stone to her left and started speaking in that horrible unintelligible language. His hands raised to the sky, his eyes closed.

The sky, to which, as a small girl she looked so often to look for clouds that looked like an animal, or a flower. Some even looked like humans. That sky, now white, grey and empty, as if it looked the other way to just not see what tragedy was unfolding beneath it.

The drums started to speed up, and she could hear the cries from the dancers as they started to speed up their dance.

Ecstatically.

Then, all of a sudden the drums stopped......

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #autumn #writing #scotland #prose #horror #history

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"The child wandered aimlessly through the forest. A forest vast and silent. Even the birds seem to have left. No deer was rustling in the thickets.

Her face, dirty and streaked with mud and blood, looked void of emotion.

Almost like a robot. Like the ones that has killed her family.

The sound of a nearby stream kept her going. As if the thirst fuelled her will to push on.

Once at the stream, she sat down by the waterside, scooped up water with both her hands and then realized, as if humanity descended on her again, that she couldn't drink the water with hands that dirty. She started to wash them. Laboriously... Again, and again and when she finally decided they were clean, she bursted into tears. Her clean hands defeatedly on her knees, palms up and her head craned back.

She sat there like that, for 20 minutes. Crying. Regaining humanity..."

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #writing #autumn #scotland #landscape #prose #ai wars #skynet

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Put on your sound. Just listen.

Imagine you are in Scotland. A magical place.

No sounds of industry, cars, airplanes...

Only the trickling of this little stream running towards the burn that runs behind me. Cold and clear mountain water, refreshing.

Take these few seconds to renew your thoughts!

💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#meditate #zen #relax #Scotland #mountains #autumn #wholesome #replenish #mindfulmeditation #mindfulness

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Last week I've visited Scotland. The country where my heart really belongs.

Here's a photo of Edinburgh castle I made from The Vennel. If not for the electricity used in the streetlights, you could believe this was a photo from the 1800s.

Bonnie Scotland, with its views, history and beautiful nature! 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#original photographers #photographers on tumblr #scotland #edinburgh #castle #medieval #romantic

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Winding roads, going up and down, harsh weather, wind and rain, relentless...

It's okay, it adds up to the flavour of what is Scotland. A hardened but welcoming country that embraces you right at the moment you cross the border with England.

As I am writing this I'm sitting in a cottage somewhere in the Loch Lomond area, next to a roaring woodburner while the wind rages around the house. Cosy, with the smell of diner and the promise of a nice whisky in the air 😉

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#scotland #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #landscape #autumn #nature photography

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One thing I love about being in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland is the wildlife there.

This fuzzy critter allowed me to make a load of photos of him. I had to get op early, but so had he 😁. Anyway, he posed for me in so many funny ways, but this one I like in particular. It breaths autumn!

So, please, reblog this furry overload and spread the joy I had making this photo!

#autumn #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #scotland #nature photography #squirrel #cute animals #animals

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Memories (a piece of a story I am writing)

The godess of subconsiusness gently picks up the memories of the boy, with soft hands that smell of lavender. She looks at them with the curious interest of someone who looks at something for the first time. Like a child that, for the first time in its life, encounters a butterfly in the field.

She looks at them from all sides and shows them to the nymphs surrounding her who, at the sight of it, shrink back, their hands over their mouths, their eyes wide open and their wings turned down sadly. She desides the boy won’t be needing these memories for the time being. Carefully she packs them in a clean leather cloth and binds it all together with some twine of braided hemp.

In his consiousness she finds a spot high enough for him so he can’t reach it, so he can’t be disturbed by the horrible content of it, and puts the package there in between the other forgotten memories, like the first time he breathed, the first time his father held him in his strong hands and the forestlike smell of his beard and those times his mother comforted him in her bed, between the hides, to protect him from the thunder in the black night.

Working title: The summer of ‘69

#writing #prose #poetic prose #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #memories

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With autumn drawing near and my next visit to Scotland in October, it’s these memories of coming home as a foreigner to an embracing landscape that keep me going.

Beautiful vistas in the Cairngorms with the smell of peat and coal fires in the air and a promise of a nice dram near a burning wood stove when coming home in the cottage. Clouds passing the hillside. Trees in their colorful gown, shrouded in mist.

Since my first steps on Scottish soil I’ve fell in love with this country.

#autumn #fall #herfst #automne #nature photography #original photographers #scotland #cairngorms #photographers on tumblr #photographers directory #landscape

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It's been a while since I've posted here. Recovering from post-covid I'm now feeling stronger again, better. Leaves me longing for Scotland even more!

We got a trip planned for autumn this year, which is a fine season to be there, but I will never forget the first time I've laid eyes on Glencoe in springtime again.

The Lagangarbh cottage, embraced by the mountains and caressed by wonderful meadows with blooming flowers and heather. And oh, the smells! So, here's my moment in the Glen, with my camera and all the luck in the world to be able to shoot this photo! 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😍

#post covid #scotland #recovery #health #mountains #original photography on tumblr #original photographers #imiging #nature photography #Glencoe #glen coe #alba

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No AI can

replace what's made by man

Pour in blood, sweat and tears

And work with passion on something for years

And enjoy the feeling

Of really achieving something...

...Real.

Reblog when you share my sentiment

#stop ai #ai #artificial intelligence #original poem #write #prose #analog #real #human