Pakaraima Mountain Safari 2012 – Pt. 2

On March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

When on Safari, we tend to want to get up early, not just to get ready, get breakfast, break camp etc, but to ensure that we get our ration of fuel for the day 🙂 And that the convoy doesn’t leave us behind. I jest, they wouldn’t do that, would they?

We awoke early at Karasabai and broke camp, after the morning ablutions, breakfast and so forth, we then had some time for a few photos as we waited for the convoy to assemble

Karasabai is not a cluster of huts, but a wide area.

Bicycles, the main method of transportation, after walking

Our first full day in the mountain trails, and we even had a few stops where we could take more photographs 🙂

One of the Army vehicles making its way through a rocky part of the trail.

Cecil Beharry, and his Land Rover from Jamaica!

Just after a rather steep mountain pass, we stopped at a village called Karabaiko, where Eddy even got into doing some repairs.

We visited the village of Tipuru on the way. Tipuru has a nice little shop that has lovely indigenous food and drink for sale, like Cassava bread and “Fly”, a potato liquor.

Thence to our final stop for the day at Rukumotu (not our planned stop, but it was too late and too dangerous to proceed any farther.

At Rukumotu, they gave us permission to camp out on the grounds or in the school, we picked a nice hard spot outside the school, that ended up bending at least one of our tent pegs… we were definitely in the mountains, not soft Rupununi soil at all.

Click on the photos to see them in the Safari 2012 Gallery in the Collection.

Pakaraima Mountain Safari 2012

On March 23, 2013March 23, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography3 Comments

This year, as the teams are already on their first day into the 2013 Mountain Safari, I’ve decided to share some images from last year’s trip.

It begins at night, so there’s not much to see 🙂 Our fist stop is at Peter and Ruth, 58 Mile, Lethem Trail; that’s 58 miles from Linden. There’s a GuyOil Service Station there now, as well as cellular service from Digicel.

Nikhil was our primary driver (but seeing as he didn’t trust any of us behind the wheel, he ended up being the sole driver; I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t trust me behind the wheel on a Safari either)

A view from the back seat, note the can to the right 🙂

The trail crosses the might Essequibo at Kurupukari, where the Mekdeci Mining Company operates the pontoon crossing.

After the crossing, we pass through the Iwokrama Rainforest Preserve, and as soon as you leave the forest, we are hit by the vastness of the Rupununi Savannas, and the lovely undulations of the foothills of the Pakaraima Mountains. Our next stop is The Oasis, at Annai, run by Mr Colin Edwards and the native Amerindians from the village. Colin has carved out a piece of paradise at The Oasis and the Rock View Lodge just behind it.

After leaving Annai, we continue on the trail until the turnoff to the first village on the main Safari, Karasabai, where we spend our first night. Along the trail, the view of both the Pakaraima Mountain range and the Kanuku Mountain range is breath-taking

At Karasabia, we arrive with just enough light left in the day to set up camp… and enjoy the sunset 🙂

I think the first day was probably the most diverse for the photography 🙂 I may not post tomorrow (it being Palm Sunday, but look out for my next post from the Safari. Best wishes to those on this year’s Safari, come back safely.

Click on the images to see them larger in the Safari 2012 Gallery in the collection.

2013 Deck – Week 11

On March 22, 2013March 22, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I’m not a Street Photographer, but on a recent PhotoWalk with other members of the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook Group down Regent Street, that type of photography was the primary aim of the walk.

I got a few images that I like, but this one, while not tack sharp was my favourite, there was a loud exchange of words between a few women across the street, then I noticed one of them running down the pavement, quickly snapped a shot 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the rest of the Deck Photos for this year 🙂

Goodbye Uncle Harry

On March 18, 2013March 18, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography19 Comments

Growing up, my maternal grandfather was seldom seen in the congregation of the church, he was always at the back “helping out” Uncle Harry. I grew up knowing Uncle Harry as Uncle Joe, then others called him Harry, when I asked my grandfather about it he said that he is Harry Joe! You never question wisdom like that!

Uncle Harry would be there to open the church, he’d be there to close the church, he was the man to go to to get your weekly Catholic Standard, or the tickets for the next Festival of Carols. He would hand out the collection baskets to the people who would be needing them for each mass, and he’d have Bibles, Hymnals and other little books on sale too.

He was as grumpy as he was jovial. He was a New Year baby, born on the 1st of January, worked for many years at Banks DIH, from all the way back when it was known as D’Aguiar’s, and he worked at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for as long as my memory serves, up until he was retired a few years ago.

After retirement from his duties in the church he’d try to attend either the early morning 6:00 am mass, or the next one at 7:30 am on Sundays, rain or shine, in his long pants, dress shoes, shirt-jac, umbrella, hat and his spectacle case and pen in his top pocket.

He died on Sunday 17th March 2013, St Patrick’s Day, at around 2am; it was his time. May his Soul Rest in Peace.

I had taken that photograph of him (candidly) two days before my own birthday in 2011, and he was sitting there staring towards this altar below:

Yellow

On March 16, 2013March 16, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

I had started processing this photo about two weeks ago, then left it off. I had cropped, rotated, and dropped the saturation a bit, but wasn’t satisfied. I pulled it up this morning, tweaked the highlights a bit and decided that it was done… that simple! Sometimes, all it needs is a little time 🙂

I noticed these at the side of the trench when I parked my vehicle, they were lower than the road, and the side of the trench was slippery, so I couldn’t get a foothold to get down to the level I wanted, so I adjust my settings on the camera and held it down to try to get the composition I wanted… never got the perfect one, and quite few were unusable, but this one I liked (after rotating to correct my badly angled dangling camera 🙂

Click on the Image to see it in the Flora Gallery in the Collection

Aye, Eye, I

On March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

I was passing along the seawall when I saw this piece of driftwood sticking up over the wall, and for some reason all I could see was some sort of animal, a giraffe, or a donkey with it’s neck stretched upwards, or a dragon. I know that anthropomorphism is the attribution of human-like features to other animals or objects, but what is attributing other animal-like qualities to other objects? I haven’t a clue!

Here’s the driftwood!

Click on the image to see in in the Odds and Ends Gallery, you may see other odds and ends that you may like 🙂

2013 Deck – Week 10

On March 14, 2013March 14, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography, Seascape3 Comments

My priorities in life must most definitely be askew, since I seem to have less time for photography than ever before… But even if I have to take a photo of the same thing every week, I will finish this project 🙂

As I was driving along the seawall, I noticed the white-capped waves as they rushed to shore and thought to just stop and catch a few. It was a bright afternoon, but lacking any fancy filters or gadgetry I thought that I’d just bring out the focus of my intent in post-processing.

I used an orange filter in Post-processing to deepen the hue of the sky and emphasize the white caps of the waves.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2013 Deck – Week 09

On March 7, 2013March 7, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I had never been into the Indian Monument Gardens before, and it seems that the one time I did venture in was when they were doing some new construction on a stage to the western end and had not done any recent cleaning near the monument itself, yet I still think I got a few usable photographs (if you ignore the weeds on growing near the monument and the stains on the base itself)

The monument itself commemorates the arrival of the East Indians to Guyana as indentured labourers, the first arrival being on May 5th, 1838, the first ship being the SS Whitby (symbolically represented in the monument). The monument was erected in 1988 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of their arrival, a portion of the Merriman’s Mall was appropriated for the Monument Gardens. (the area bordered by Church Street, Camp Street, North Road and Alexander Street.)

I found very little information in my short research, but it appears that a nationwide competition was held for the design, and after choosing the winning entry the design was made real by an “Builder” from India, the Gardens itself was laid out by two architects, one from India and one from Guyana (Albert Rodrigues).

I chose this angle because it shows some of the supporting structure of the Ship itself.

As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2013 Deck – Week 08

On March 2, 2013March 2, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

Most of my photographs from the recent Mashramani parade for Georgetown were of one particular style, but somewhere in the middle of all the fast flying shots that I took I managed to capture one that was quite different from the wide shots of the floats or the half-body close-ups of the revellers

I don’t know if it’s the photography book I have been going through, but for some reason this image stands out from the plethora of photographs that I took on Mash Day.

The book is “Through the Lens – National Geographic Greatest Photographs”, and it contains some truly amazing photographs. I am certainly not claiming that any of mine can class with anything from National Geographic, far from it, but the “feeling” that I got from this one was different from the rest, and I think that it is a better photo for that.

You have to see it large, please click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

For me, this shows a woman lost in the moment; it’s just her, the music, the rhythm, the motion… alone in a crowd, part of the band bu apart from the band all at once. This is “the moment” for Mashramani 2013. I hope you like it.

Mashramani 2013

On March 1, 2013March 1, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

I know that most people’s Mashramani photos are already out there, and I have to say that this year saw a large increase in not only the amount of photos out there but also an increase in the quality of the photography of the event.

In trying to “cover” the event I take a lot of photos, which means I then have to process those photos. This year I used two cameras, I had a wide-telephoto Sigma 17-50mm on the Canon Rebel T1i body and the slightly longer telephoto Canon 18-135mm kit lens on the Canon 60D body (my favourite lens for the event, the Tamron 18-270mm, has an issue I cannot resolve as yet, it’s slow to focus, which is not good for moving subjects). My favourites from these events have always been close shots rather than wide, but I decided to try to get a variety anyway.

As I expected, my favourites are still the close-up shots 🙂