Spoon Carving Discussion

Quite often during courses – http://treewright.co.uk/woodworking.php – there’s a discussion about the relative merits of which way you carve a spoon from relatively straight branchwood.
Right hand photo has the pith on the front of the spoon, at left it’s at the back.
What do you think about the different grain pattern?
Are there issues with relative strength of the bowl?
I found the one on left more difficult to carve and get a decent finish on. Admittedly they are from a branch of semi seasoned Ash which isn’t a wood I’d normally chose but it does have a nice grain…