You pay your money and take your choice

What is art?

When visiting St Ives there are a number of choices on the art front. There are countless shops trying to seduce you with a myriad of paintings, sculptures and artefacts but, when it comes to galleries, the choice is far simpler. Does one turn right for the Tate or left for the Hepworth Museum & Garden?

Barbara Hepworth Museum & Garden

If you turn left you know what you are going to get. An insight into Barbara Hepworth the person and a wonderful arrangement of her finest work, both inside and outside in the adjoining garden. Sculptures work in three dimensions and so no photography can convey the subtlety of form and texture of her creations, but I've included a few close-ups nonetheless.

A selection of tools in her workshop

Tate St Ives

A right turn means taking a gamble, particularly if one is not into contemporary art and, furthermore, it very much depends on who the main exhibitor is at the time. When we were there last week it was Simon Starling [Turner Prize winner 2005]. Whilst the majority of his work did go over my head (yes, I know, the reason that I did not like it it was that I didn't understand it...) I was more perplexed by the sheer amount of space in the gallery that was given over to his work. Still, I didn't have 'art rage' like Phil - I'll leave him to explain.

I guess the learning point is to check it out on the internet before you go! Anyway, we did have a nice lunch and Anthony took some shots from the cafe to do some HDR work with.

The architecture of the building was arguably as inspiring as the art inside . . .

Martin in the mist

Yesterday, Martin published a lovely monochrome picture of some swans at Rock on his Photobrothers blog. This picture shows him at work taking it. Last Sunday was a very foggy morning - couldn't see any distance at all. (Even though I imagine the horizon in this picture is wonky, I've no idea - it can't be seen!)

OT: Quote of the Day

Walking across campus at lunchtime today, I happened to follow two students along, and couldn't help overhearing their conversation.

Boy: "She has got such a big head. She has such a big-arse head just chillin' on her shoulders."

Girl: "But you've got a big head too."

Boy: "Yeah, that's right. But her head is growin' so fast she's catchin' up with me. Its scary."

WTF?

Turnstone on Padstow quay

I had not come across this before, although it is quite well known. On the quayside in Padstow, some turnstones have taken the lead from the pigeons and gulls by taking up scavenging. They seem to have found that going after pieces of food dropped by humans is a much easier way of feeding than pushing stones around on a beach looking for invertebrates. So, we came across a small flock of turnstones on the quayside dashing to and fro, and relatively unafraid of human presence.

I took the opportunity to grab a few quick snaps of them. The longest lens I had with me was the Nikon 105 mm F2 DC (love that lens!), and, even though they moved too fast for me to get very close, I was able to get some shots. Here are a couple.

Scuttling to...




















... And fro.

The group is formed

Anthony, Martin and Philip have formed the Wonky Horizons group and, as the name suggests, it's not about taking ourselves too seriously. Whilst we are active members of Ashford Photographic Society, this blog is all about taking photographs to please us and not judges. After all, photography, like life, should be fun!

We hope you enjoy our ramblings and images and welcome your comments.