buddha-photography-world

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Lichfield Cathedral -  EARTH: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD?

“Our Earth needs constant concern and attention. Each of us has a personal responsibility to care for creation, this precious gift which God has entrusted to us.” - Pope Francis, 2014

Tick Tock Tick Tock - every second the earth moves through both space and time.  Every second my own mortality becomes ever closer, every second my ancient fears become more distant. Every second the love that I have for people becomes stronger...

...every second the earth gets nearer to destruction at our own hands...

Lichfield Cathedral is one of the great Gothic churches in the country (United Kingdom).  Since 2016, there has been a Great Exhibition held here produced by the Lichfield Cathedral Artist in Residence - Peter Walker.  The 2017 exhibition, Earth: what a wonderful world uses light and sound to transform the cathedral into The Earth, The Sky and The Sea.  Using projected images based on nature and art the cathedral is turned inside out, with the outside being projected inside.

Over a thousand years of imagery and iconography is displayed from Inca symbols to William Morris inspired wallpaper via Japanese Noh masks.  

I saw this advertised on local TV and thought that I would give it a try, I didn’t know what to expect, but I left with thoughts in my mind - which is the way that art should work.

Yep, some of the images are blurred, but even at iso 6400 exposure times were still over 1 second.  So maybe time was having the last laugh after all.

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St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth Australia

I am not a religious person, I do not believe in god or gods or other divine beings.  However, I do like the imagery of churches, particularly the art of the Stained Glass Window..

I find it strange that I am currently over 9,000 miles from home, yet I still manage to find a stained glass window in Perth Australia that was made in my home town of Birmingham UK.

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Day 2 on Western Australia’s South West Coast

Cape Leeuwin to the South and Cape Naturaliste to the north are marked by Lighthouses that protect mariners from the dangerous stretches or water on this particular part of Australia’s coast.  Cape Leeuwin also marks the point at which the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.  Cape Leeuwin is also windy, very windy indeed.  It is home to a Pirate cow with a steel parrot and a telescope.  This cow was part of an artwork at Margaret River in 2010.  This particular cow was purchased by the owners of the lighthouse and given a permanent home looking over the car park.

About 5 minute drive from the campsite were two quite spectacular and totally different places to visit.  Firstly there was the totally secluded beach at Cosy Corner with a total lack of anyone except Alec and myself.  The second place to visit was Hamelin Bay Sculpture Park.

We had very little hope that this sculpture park would be a highpoint of the days activities - we could not be further from the reality that unfolded.

On arriving at the park, we were greeted by the owner’s mother who seemed generally surprised that anyone would stop and visit; to a degree we felt the same.  The mother told us to go where we wanted, look at anything, interact with anything and if we saw a man working and swearing, then he was the artist.  At this moment the heavens opened, rain fell, and the artist appeared.  We were ushered into the building site that was to become his studio/gallery/home.  Based on the speed of working, it should be open in 20 years or so.  However, this was when it started to get surreal.

The artist proceeded to try an sell to us a table he had made, and he only wanted 2,500 Aussie dollars for it. He then started to tell us his life story which resulted in Alec getting a CV from the guy as he worked in construction when not being arty.  Conversation got round to Crayfish (lobster) and we were asked if we liked cray/lobster.  When we told him that we did, he said “I will give you a lobster then”.  Rain stopped and we had a look around his artworks.

Big - Bold - Rustic - carved with chainsaws - not subtle (Bugs Bunny with an erection) - lots of fish, but completely enchanting and totally enjoyable.

We spent a good hour looking around and then returned to the “gallery” where our host was waiting with a 2 - 3lb lobster and a few treats of the most tasty fish and mayo.

Totally surreal - complete enjoyment.  The lobster wasn’t eaten that night, but remained frozen for 24 hours and was delicious.

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Day 1 on Western Australia’s South West Coast 

Hamelin Bay is a bay and a locality on the south-west coast of Western Australia between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste.  It was to be our home for 6 days.

The jetty at Hamelin Bay was used to load ships with timber, notably the local Karri trees.

Sting Rays and Eagle Rays are frequent visitors to the water’s edge and do not seem at all fazed by the many people trying to touch them.  Signs abound telling you to not get within 1.5m of them.  However, the instructions do not seem to apply to the rays, who will frequently “float” up to you and run over your feet - a very weird experience indeed.

Although mobile phone reception was non existent in the campsite, the beach provided us with a degree of contact.  The most interesting thing was that we were camping and that winds of 50 knots were expected over the next few days.  This was not going to be an issue on the third day as we had planned a tour of some of the local vineyards, distilleries, breweries and chocolate manufacturers.  However that was 2 days away, and the weather was approaching fast.

Peppermint trees, although noisy in the wind, make excellent wind breaks, and we were generally happy that all tents would survive...

...but fingers were crossed just in case.

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Sculpture by the Sea #7

Every year, for the past 8 years, I have visited Chatsworth House in Derbyshire for an exhibition of Modern Art Sculptures in the grounds of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s stately home. As this is in Britain, the weather in October can be a little bit “hit and miss” in terms of sunshine. However my last two trips to Australia have coincided with Sculptures by the Sea, an annual exhibition of Modern Art Sculptures by the sea in Cottesloe, Western Australia.

It is a bit like Chatsworth, but with sun.

Here are a few of this evening’s pictures. This picture was taken in almost complete darkness with a flash gun repeatedly fired at different positions.

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Sculpture by the Sea #6

3D printed girl in almost total darkness.  Flash painted with the help of Chris.

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Sculpture by the Sea #5

Detail of picture below.

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Sculpture by the Sea #4

Large cutout of a person at the end of the breakwater at Cottesloe.

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Sculpture by the Sea #3

Sculpture of surfer by the sea at Cottesloe

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Sculpture by the Sea #2

3D Printed girl at sunset

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Sculpture by the Sea #1

One of many sculptures on the beach at Cottesloe WA.  I attempted to get the moon in on this one.  Catch!!!

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Mindarie

‘tis a plant, quite a big one.

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Mindarie Harbour

‘tis a gull - nothing else.

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Confluence “improved”

After taking photographs of the Confluence artwork, Ruth and myself decided to improve it, by taking some long exposure shots with LED lights on a string. 

The idea is to spin the LED lights in a uniform circle, whilst turning around. The resulting image is a sphere with the person spinning not visible due to the long exposure.

Obviously our attempt has vastly improved the confluence artwork below.

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Confluence

Confluence is an artwork on the South Perth Foreshore by local (to Perth) artist called Sean van der Poel.

It is a series of cones of varying size that react to touch and proximity by switching on and off.

Although this scene was full of moving people, the long exposure rendered them invisible to the camera and you, the viewer.

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Perth Skyline

The last time I was in Perth, I took a few pictures of the Perth city skyline, I was never happy with them.  Although the camera was up to the job, the lens I was using wasn’t.  I was also “tripodless”.

This time I came prepared.

A 14mm wide angle lens allowed me to take in a wide expanse of the city.

This is my favourite picture of the 24 hours so far in Australia.

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Australia Day 0

So after 18+ hours I am here. Too dark to decide if anything has changed, too tired to really care.

An agenda had been arranged.