I’ll be the first to admit photography isn’t my strong point. I do ok, but I just use a simple point and shoot camera and hope for the best. Sometimes I’m happy with the result; sometimes not.
During our recent stay in London we ambled happily around Hyde Park, enjoying the glorious Bank Holiday sunshine. I came across The Arch, a sculpture by Henry Moore. Six metres high, constructed of travertine stone from a quarry in Northern Italy, Moore took his inspiration from fragments of bone. It was presented to the nation in 1980, dismantled in 1996 when it was found to be unstable and brought back to its home in July 2012.
I took a photo as we approached it and was quite pleased with the result:
A few yards further on I took another photo of The Arch. I liked this one better: I was closer and you could see more of the arch itself.
Another few steps and it dawned on me why the sculpture had been positioned on the north bank of the Long Water. Take a look at my third shot:
Of course, it was placed here so that a view of Kensington Palace could be seen through the middle of the arch. In my shot you can only just make out the palace in the distance but I love seeing the tiny people on the other side of the water.
The great advantage of today’s digital cameras: just keep snapping until you get it right.
Hello Trish,
Your photograph is indeed most intriguing.
As you say, without thinking about the film one might be wasting, a digital camera gives one so much more freedom in coming up with the perfect composition. And, this is surely one of those.
They must have gone to a great deal of trouble to position the statue; it would have been a travesty if I hadn't realised.
Do you remember the whole 'waiting for two weeks to get the pictures back from Boots' shenanigans?..oh the disappointment…time after time. I love sculpture and like you just keep clicking away … I remember my pleasure at seeing the Angel of the North…..and did you walk through the arch?
I remember it well, Libby. I also remember a wonderful Greek holiday with Dougie, taking lots of gorgeous shots of the island of Simi but neglecting to wind the film on properly.
The Angel of the North is still a huge favourite of mine. Did you see Morrissons were advertising their baguettes on its wings! Shocking.
Couldn't walk through the arch as it's fenced off.
I love that photo, it's a really interesting sculpture. Digital cameras have made life so much easier and probably less expensive and with fewer disappointments than the old film ones. I don't think I could thread and wind on a 35mm one now.
You and Libby are quite right about the disappointments plays, for me, trying to decide how to use my 24 or 36 shots – leaving enough space to last to the end of a holiday.
The 2nd one reminded me of an old mans gait and bottom! This no reflection on your photography but on the artist! So the 3rd one left me thinking I'm looking at Kensington Palace right through an arse! I'm not sure which came first: me or the word philastine but we suit each other beautifully!
Ah that's a cracking comment, KV!
Dougie says there's definitely a pelvic bone/thigh influence so yes, an old man's gait is a very reasonable observation. And you say it so well…
A good camera can only do so much. At the end of the day it is up to the photographer to compose the shot. And these are 3 crackingly good pictures, Trish!
You're too kind. I was pleased this time, I must admit 🙂
Depth, three dimensionality, it speaks to me darlink! I love photography but am such a technophobe I always just revert to taking pics with my phone and cleaning them up with the filters in instagram. I miss that park, spent many hours and years there, but that HR sculpture was not there, he is my fave
The third shot is definitely the best one. Good thing you decided to walk around the fence!
My mum must be one of the last people in the country to still use film. She also has a digital camera but prefers the old one, and is a regular at SuperSnaps. 🙂
I love Henry Moore's sculpture, and this really does remind me of bones through the colour and shape. Particularly like the third picture the best; the angle and the shadow and the view through the sculpture! :o)
I loved this on FaceBook, but I'm glad I read the explanation. I was so fixated on the shadow I didn't even bother to look through the arch. I completely agree though – great photos! I love that there are people whose job it is to think about things like placement and views and lights and angles so that the rest of us can enjoy them. There is a huge open ampitheater-type overhang that joins the two buildings of the National Museum of Korea here in Seoul; the opening frames distant Namsan Mountain perfectly. I always find that view breathtaking, and can't imagine all the planning and detail that went into framing it…
Wait! Let me get my projector and screen out, draw the curtains and show you the photos I've taken. With luck they will project the right way up and the right way around. Or shall we just go digital?