Some photographs begin with a plan. Others become part of a much bigger story — a journey, a place, or an experience that stays with you long after you’ve packed away the camera.
Ghosts of the Seas belongs to the latter.
The photographs in this collection were made during a road trip around Scotland’s North Coast 500, a journey that took us through some extraordinary landscapes before we travelled on to Orkney. There, we set out to photograph the remains of ships resting by the islands.
It wasn’t a trip blessed with particularly kind weather. Scotland had other ideas, as Scotland so often does. But looking back, I wouldn’t measure the experience by the sunshine we didn’t get. The journey was truly unforgettable, and the photographs remain a reminder of why I love exploring places with a camera.
The pull of the shipwrecks
There’s something compelling about a shipwreck.
A ship is built to travel, to cross oceans and carry people or cargo towards somewhere new. Yet here, around Orkney, these vessels have become something else entirely. Their working lives are over, their journeys have ended, and what remains is slowly becoming part of the landscape.
Weathered structures and the shapes of vessels against the water create a scene that feels both haunting and strangely peaceful.
I find myself wondering about the lives these ships once had. Where had they travelled? What had they witnessed? How many people had stood on their decks, looking towards a distant horizon, without imagining what would eventually become of the vessel beneath their feet?
A photograph cannot answer those questions. Perhaps that is part of its appeal.
The wrecks invite us to look, to imagine, and to spend a little time with something that has outlasted its original purpose. They are reminders that even the things we build to carry us forward can eventually become part of the past.
A different kind of beauty
For a photographer, the attraction is immediate. The contrast between the remains of human engineering and the natural world gives these subjects a character all of their own. The sea continues around them. The light changes. The weather shifts. And the wrecks remain, altered by time but still unmistakably present.
I was drawn to the textures and shapes: the weathered metal, the layers of rust, and the way a once-functional vessel can become an almost sculptural object.
There is beauty here, but it isn’t the conventional beauty of a perfect sunset or a postcard landscape. It is quieter and more complicated than that. It comes from age, decay and the passage of time — from looking closely at something that might otherwise be dismissed as old, broken or forgotten.
That is one of the things photography encourages me to do: look again.
When the weather doesn’t cooperate
We didn’t have particularly good weather during the trip, but that is part of travelling in Scotland. The conditions are not always going to match the pictures you imagined making before you arrived.
As photographers, it is tempting to hope for that perfect moment: the right light, a dramatic sky, calm water and everything falling into place. Sometimes it happens. Often it doesn’t.
But a place doesn’t lose its character simply because the sun refuses to appear.
Overcast skies and unsettled conditions can lend a subject a different mood. With the shipwrecks, the atmosphere seemed entirely appropriate. These weren’t pristine vessels waiting to sail again. They were remnants of another time, and the weather gave the experience a rawness that suited the subject.
I came away with photographs that meant something to me, but also with memories of the journey itself. The roads, the landscapes, the anticipation of reaching Orkney and the experience of standing among these reminders of maritime history all became part of the story.
Sometimes the photograph is only one part of what you bring home.
Photographing what time leaves behind
Much of my photography is about finding something that encourages me to pause. It might be a familiar landscape, a subtle change in the seasons or a detail that would be easy to walk past without noticing.
The shipwrecks offered something different, but the same instinct was there.
Rather than seeing only the remains of damaged vessels, I wanted to explore their shapes, textures and atmosphere — to make photographs that communicated something of their presence. There is a tension between the solid, weathered structures and the water surrounding them, between the permanence they seem to suggest and the gradual changes that time brings.
The title Ghosts of the Seas came from that feeling. These ships are no longer travelling the oceans, but they have not entirely disappeared. Their physical remains still occupy a place in the world, and their presence prompts us to imagine the stories that have gone before.
I don’t think a photograph needs to explain everything. Sometimes it is enough to create a mood, to leave a question unanswered, or to make someone stop for a moment and look a little longer.
That is what I hoped to capture.
A journey I would gladly repeat
The North Coast 500 was an unforgettable road trip, and our visit to Orkney to photograph the wrecks became one of its lasting memories.
The weather may not have been particularly kind, but the experience left me wanting more rather than less. There is still so much to explore, so many places to revisit, and so many possibilities that a return journey would bring.
I find myself itching to go back.
Perhaps next time the conditions will be different. Perhaps they won’t. Either way, I know that returning with a camera would be worthwhile. Places change, light changes, and we change too. Seeing somewhere again is never quite the same as seeing it for the first time.
For now, Ghosts of the Seas is my way of holding on to a little of that journey — a collection inspired by the shipwrecks of Orkney and the remarkable experience of travelling through Scotland.
These vessels may have reached the end of their voyages, but their stories still have the power to draw us in.
And sometimes, that is reason enough to pick up a camera and follow the road.
The photograph as a fine art print
If this shipwreck speaks to you too, the main photograph from Ghosts of the Sea: Shipwrecked Secrets is available as a framed fine art print. The extra photographs in this story are here to share the journey, not for sale.
Explore the Ghosts of the Seas collection by Stephen Paul Young Photography, inspired by the shipwrecks of Orkney, Scotland.