Before there was color photography, or when it was still limited and difficult and not commonplace – in the early 20th-century – a landscaple like this might have been puposively left just off fucus in order to lend a dreamscape to the landscape – to blend the parts of it with a pictorialist’s shimmer – like the vision that may come with or after crying. Here Sykes has framed another grand subject – the Mountain – with an intimate close-up. It is, as noted, all a little soft on focus. The colors are mostly warm but still subdued. The light – a sunset most likely – is perfect without knowing why. The mountain I wanted to be Adams but I doubt it. Behind one of the banches is a ridge almost as distant as the mountain, and the size of that makes the mountain smaller than Adams, I think.