Autumn Colours

I love the Autumn. I know it means Winter is coming but then I don't mind that either. Colours are great and weather more interesting! Went to Caneston Bridge and took this picture. So beautiful there. Am off to Scotland next week to stay in a croft right up in the North - quietly situated on a beach so am aexcited about taking photos there.

Got our premises licence through too so have been making wine menus and dredging my brain for distant memories about wines which I learnt whilst working at a Vintners in 1982!!! Hugh Johnson's World Wine Atlas helped too. Exciting new tasks.

St Dvids Cathedral concert

Summer rush is over and now life settles down into its Autumn rythm of paperwork and seeing all the friends we haven't even had time to speak to for six weeks. This September is a bit different because Raul is producing the first live performance of his classical music piece Pembrokeshire Weather Report at St Davids Cathedral on the 19th September. I keep tripping over musicians or the main singer pracitising in part of The Chapel. It sounds amazing and I am looking forward to hearing it within its intended setting. Do come along if you can.

Raul Speek - A Child of the Revolution

Forgot to say if you are up here at the moment Raul is giving a talk on Wednesday night about Cuba during the revolution and growing up/becoming an artist there. Come along at 7 for 7.30 on 19th August ath the Old Chapel - Talk, film and refreshments £3.00. See his website too for details http://www.raulspeek.co.uk/

Summer holidays

I always forget every year just exactly what it is like once the school holidays begin. On one level it is great for there are literally hundreds of people in the gallery and lots of them are interested in the work we do so that there are lots of connections made. On another it is tiring and scarey because, particularly with the cafe, it is never sure that we will have enough of everything. I do enjoy the cafe though and making the food look good on the plates so that when people are tired (or wet!) it gives them a lift and they can relax and feel good while they are here.

Mind you I promised myself when I opened the blogs that I would do any entry at least once a week but at the moment sometimes that just cant happen. Makes me amazed how busy artists like Jackie Morris can blog most days. I sit down to do it and the phone rings or a customer comes in or the cafe bell goes. Will be easier in the Winter I expect. Hope you are all having a good Summer!

Pembrokeshire Coast Path

So beautiful here at the moment - rain plus sun equals masses of flowers all along the coast path. Keep walking the section between Solva and St Davids and every time it is different. The light makes it magical; no wonder so many people come back here year after year and end up living in the area. This picture is actuallly the other way at Pencwm which is between Solva and Newgale. Spent Monday talking to other photgraphers to put together an article for ARTicle the emagazine hosted on Oriel y Parc - try going to their website and clicking on the magazine button. Find it good to connect to others who are equally fascinated with the world we live in. See www.christancock.co.uk for instance with his dedicatiion to writing a story in pictures.

Indian and Asian Architecture Audio Visual Evening

Things feel a little crazy today because we are preparing the gallery for the first of this years evening events. Chairs being cleaned, food being prepared, sound and visual gear all over the place. It always seems like a tiny miracle to me when (hopefully) everything ends up going as planned. Strange too how everything happens at once - event tonight, exhibition starting Tuesday at Oriel y Parc and my close friend coming down from Scotland next Wednesday. All or nothing but talking to my friends it seems like that is how it is for everyone right now.

Trying to sort this lot out too:

5th August 2009 Ian McDonald Circling the Square – How Japan Broke the Grid. Audio visual evening on Japanese Architecture being held at Raul Speek Gallery, Solva. 7 for 7.30 Including glass of wine and light refreshments. £3 entrance fee. Tel 01437 721907 for details

19th August 2009 Raul Speek A Child of the Revolution. Audio visual evening at Raul Speek Gallery, Solva including showing of video made by The Slate ‘A Long Journey Home’. Entrance fee £3. 7 for 7.30 includes glass of wine and light refreshments. Tel 01437 721907 for details.

ARTists Pembrokeshire – Summer Exhibition featuring 3 Solva artists in the Tower and Café at Oriel y Parc. Heather Bennett Photographer, Ian McDonald Print maker and Raul Speek Artist. 14th July to 28th August 2009 9.30am to 5.30pm. Contact Oriel y Parc on 720392 for details.

September 19th 2009 at 7.30pm. at St David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire. ‘Pembrokeshire Weather Report’ Concert for Piano and other Voices composed and performed by Raul Speek (A Cuban in Wales). Contact 01437 721907 or email raul@raulspeek.co.uk for bookings and details.

Summer is always like this and I really like Spring and Autumn better because I have quality time to take photographs

Writing a blog

I went on a course yesterday about social media. Still all new and a bit scarey but also fascinating. The idea of trying to put across who I really am in an interesting way. It would be easy to get into all that old stuff about what happens if no one responds and then I just think well I will enjoy it so I will try anyway.

How do you feel? What would you write about?

Often I think in images so I will add an image to most posts. By the way the website of the man who gave the workshop is Andrew Lloyd Hughes and his website is http://www.milkwood.com/ You can get to his blog from there and its got loads of tips about how to deal with stuff like blogs, facebook etc. Easy to understand too - not over complicated language.

Enough about work, or that sort of work anyway. Was lucky enough to go up to Trehale Rare Breeds Farm (Mathry, Pembrokeshire) last week to take photos of the shearing and also very young piglets. Look at the one in the picture searching for his breakfast. Puts me off eating meat though!! I was lying on the earth at one time about three feet away from this enormous mother pig thinking I hope she realizes my intentions are good or this could get dicey and feeling totally happy just to be there. Then I started thinking I wonder what the piglet thinks? 'What is this enormous black shiney round clicking thing which is about a foot from my nose? It doesn't smell like I can eat it. And what is that long thing with four legs which at one moment is towering over me on two legs and then is lying down beside me with its strange snout and making odd noises?!

Think I'll stay close to Mum just in case'

Yesterday I looked at this again and I thought what does it say about me? It really only says what I am thinking instead of feeling. I want to use this blog to engage in a relationship with people who find my work and photography in general interesting.

Last week I spent the night on Skomer. I went to take pictures of Puffins and fell completely and utterly in love with the place. I've been before for a day trip but at night partly because they work on solar power there is a quietness (except for the birds returning from sea!!!) that brings immediate rest. I lay upstairs in The Chapel last night listening and realized what I could hear was this constant buzz of low sound - I worked out eventually that it is the electrical machines running. It is quiet but always there and on Skomer it was not.

Over one night I felt I had been away for weeks - came back feeling so relaxed. And the puffins - well they are just amazing. There lovely little bodies and their way of being together is wonderful. What I hated was the predatory gulls swooping down and stealing the hard won sand eels from the puffins as they landed. They are so tiny and they try so hard to feed their young yet when they land they wait ages before going to their undergroud nests because if a gull is watching it will take not only the fish but the young pufins too. Spent hours just watching them.

Came away and joined Friends of Skokolm and Skomer see http://www.welshwildlife.org/ for details. Not sure I should be telling you that as part of me wants to selfishly keep the place as secret as possible! But if you go I hope you love it like I do.

Landscape Photography whether it is local to Pembrokeshire (my home county see www.heatherbennettphotography.co.uk ) or it covers far away places like Morocco, Cuba and Peru or fantasies like the Venice Carnival and the Provence Lavender Trail can be both beautiful and evocative. In its best form it inspires people to feel what the photogapher felt through the lense and transcends the barriers between a 'snap' and a fully considered picture. Like good art it speaks to the heart. It can contain not only a snese of place but as people often appear within it gives a glimpse of other and indeed our own cultures: through that we can begin to understand and connected with one another.

What does photography mean to you? What part does it play in your life?