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Day 263/365: Saatchi Gallery

Another day off for me. This time I wanted to check out the Saatchi Gallery. I have never been before and I fancied something new. It was completely free and reasonably easy for me to get to.


I have to say that the artwork did little for me, but I did enjoy the quite space and the opportunity to experiment with different perspectives. I brought my Tamron 24-70mm and it was perfect for the tight spaces. Even at 24mmm I couldn't get the whole of this huge room in. This by the way is a structure made out of blue plastic bags. It represents our fragility and life being a commodity. The artist has a tendency to use lots of small items to make up larger statement pieces. Like I say, it didn't really do anything for me. I liked the colour of the bags and really wanted to jump into it. That is not allowed!


This room was my favourite because my husband and I tend to like tree pictures. I quite enjoyed the artwork here but mostly I became very interested in the other people in the museum. There were a few school groups. I couldn't help but reflect back upon myself at that age. Do such young people really have the maturity and experience to grasp some of the concepts expressed here? Even I was struggling today. 


I loved watching them taking pictures with their mobile phones and breaking off into small groups to whisper and giggle about other happenings in their young lives. 



This one was amazing. Just look at the power of leading lines! Apart from having a 3D effect and drawing me into the picture, I also had the sensation that I was lying down. 


I liked these trees with their roots exposed. It was very difficult to get a good exposure in the museum. Evaluative and centre metering gave very overblown images and it was hard to know what to meter off with spot metering. I used the lighter side of grass for the one below. 



Here I used the lighter part of the tree trunk as it seemed the most similar to my grey card. 



This had something to do with industrialisation of rural landscapes in Spain. 



The really fun part was playing with compositions. I am not necessarily happy with these but it was fun trying. I really felt like I was learning today. Something I am keep to learn more about is colours that compliment each other. I like the blue and brown combination below. 




This is a jackdaw. My husband loves all of the birds in the crow family. The jackdaw has an interesting character as he is know to be the thief of shiny things. When the boys were little, they worried that one would steal their scooters. Funny boys! For exposure I metered off of the black feathers and pulled it up off of -2 to ensure that I had the detail. 


This room was disturbing! It was a collection of photographs and artwork showing the civil unrest in West Africa. 



This poor child had the work "Fuckin" written on his/her forehead. It certainly makes a statement but left me feeling sad, helpless and horrified. My children are so very lucky, even if they don't know it yet. 


This whole room was filled with ant sculptures. They were all over the ceiling too. This room would make some people freak out. If they were snakes I would not have coped well. 



Due to my growing passion for photography I have learned to appreciate the spaces and light in museums as much as the art work itself. 



There was a large exhibition on Russia during World War II. This statue was so difficult to expose correctly. In the end I metered off the shaded spots and kept checking the histogram and blinkies and tweaking one way or the other. 


These paintings were impressive for their size, artwork and use of colour but made uncomfortable viewing. I suppose that war is meant to be uncomfortable. 




I was more interested in this man. What's his story I wonder. 



There was a lovely exhibition of children's artwork.



At this point I remembered to put my camera on the floor.  That got some attention! As much as I was enjoying playing around with different perspectives I was conscious of the fact that I was the only crazy person bending and twisting into odd positions to take pictures. If the exposure was off then I would have to take lots of them. 

I wish that the shoes were placed nearer together. I had to use this diagonal perspective to get enough into the frame to make it interesting.


Some child and their parent(s) must be very proud of this brilliant interpretation of the Cholmondeley Sisters. 




Ah, happy days. I found a window. 



Even better a window with people behind it. They looked like they were having a lovely day out together. In contrast to the young people at the museum I was curious about the older people. Most of the people there today looked like they were retirement age. 


After the museum I took a walk down the King's Road and across Battersea Bridge. I used to walk across this bridge all the time on my way to work. I have always loved the view of Albert Bridge with the Battersea Power Station in the distance. I love how the sky came out here. 



And to finish up, my new favourite drink. Fizzy cucumber! Who knew?



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