Photography; I shoot what I like, and sometimes people like what I shoot. All photos are copyright to Michael C. Lam unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Author: themichaellamcollection
I work as a Computer Graphic Artist at a Sign company, I have a passion for Photography, I once called myself a Photo Hobbyist, but I am an artist, often expressing it through Photography
When shooting an Event, it’s usually important to try to get photos that cover the gamut, spans the diversity, from the beginning to the end, so that viewers can get a sense of the whole, but amidst all of that I am usually on the lookout for that one shot that stands out, that transcends the transformation from reflected light, to digital data on a sensor to pixels on the screen and finally to ink on a page.
Does this image from the recent Children’s Mashramani Parade do that for you? I know it does it for me.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, along with the other images for the Deck Project so far for the year.
Since I started carrying my daughter out to see the Children’s Mashramani Parade, I try to go every year. It is shorter, it’s more entertaining and generally more fun than the Adult’s Parade, partially because you’re not bombarded by boomboxes every 10 feet, or trampled by revelers and spectators alike, as compared to the main parade on Republic Day.
I was disappointed by this years crop of photos that I got, but that’s because I compare it to my previous years’ takings, as well as having a bit of focusing issues with the camera, but I can’t blame the camera alone, I definitely missed the mark somewhere this year.
I still think I came away with some nice ones in the mix, click on the image below to see them in the Gallery, and I look forward to any and all comments 🙂
Maybe I’ll get something better from the Adults Parade 🙂
To all Guyanese, at home and abroad, have a Happy Mashramani this weekend!
I was taking some photos out by the seawall at Lusignan, and although I think I came away with some nice ones, there was one that I really wished I had taken a different approach to. I saw a dramatic sky behind a stand of Jhandi flags, and I took a few photos, then moved on, then the thought struck me that I should have tried multiple exposures for an HDR. By that time it was a little late since the clouds had changed significantly.
When I downloaded my images I was still struck by that scene so I decided to try an Pseudo HDR Technique on it, and this was the result.
Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery
Maybe it’s because I am a coast-lander that I feel the draw of the sea, but I keep going to the seawalls, if not for a photograph then just to feel the breeze, and hear the sounds of the waves.
This photo was taken at Ebb Tide, when the tide was beginning to recede from the shores, and as I stood there I could feel the wind around me, hear the sound of the waves as the crashed upon this rock and smell the salt in the air (which was probably not good for the camera)
As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery
I had mentioned in a previous blog (or two) that at the end of last year, some of my images had found their way into three Calendars for 2013. I recently blogged about the one from Banks DIH, today I turn to the other two, I don’t want them to feel left out.
As someone who has worked in the Computer Graphic Design field for a number of years, I can tell you that some Calendars are in themselves works of art. The standard multi-page calendar normally carried a photo at the top and the date pad at the bottom, this is nice for us photographers who don’t like people “troubling/editing” our images, it leaves the image alone at the top, simply as what it is… a photograph.
Other calendars are designed to incorporate the photograph into the design of the Calendar and these tend to be more conceptual or themed, and can be surprisingly pleasing to the eye.
Having a photograph used in a Calendar is a big deal for us, especially since most of the ones we see use “foreign” images.
The Banks DIH Calendar was designed and produced by Xc!aim Media, the one that featured photos on each page that were mine was from Maggie’s Snackette and Catering Service, it was designs and produced by F&H Printing Establishment and the last one (but not least) was one that featured images from myself and Nikhil Ramkarran, and it was from NT Computeac, designed and produced by Duane Ton-Chung at Micropoint Graphics.
Below you’ll find the images for the flats that contained our images (the artwork remains the copyright of the companies and individuals as listed above, the photographs in the Calendars are copyright to the photographers, namely myself and Nikhil) 🙂
On some photo-walks you just never know what you’ll come away with. We were walking around the area near Parliament Buildings and Big Market (Stabroek Market), when we noticed this building.
It was aging, had a nice muted colour (due to faded paint by the harsh sun), and the paint was peeling. If only I had caught someone leaning on the building! But I still think it’s a nice shot, even without the person leaning on it 🙂
A few Fridays back, I joined a few other photographers on a walk down to the large jetty (pier/groin) that marks the end of the Kingston seashore and the beginning of the Demerara River mouth.
As with all walks with photographers you go hoping to come back with a good image, or even a great one, yet when I downloaded my haul I was very disappointed, maybe I was hoping for too much.
Does this mean that the walk was not a success? No. It was what it was… a walk on the beach. To be with friends, people with a similar pursuit, and enjoy the conversation, the breeze… that was enough.
All the photos were not horrible, but not jumped out at me, yet I decided to process at least one to make a show of reaping something from the toil of the harvest.
As I look at the image I processed, I wonder if this scene will get worse or better with the development of the new Hotel on the seashore.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other Seawall related photos
If you are serious about making the art of photography a pillar in your life, if you want the work that you do to be seen and recognised as being worthy of use or even just of praise then you have to get your work out there.
I came to this realisation late, but it is true, whether you use Facebook to just upload some images to albums and share with your family and friends, or the Flickr community to have a wider reach, or you are feeling more demanding for larger space and go for your own website, just get your images out there, it is doing you no good sitting on your hard drive (or worse yet, on your memory card in the camera)
I started with Webshots, which, before it was bought over, had a good community and lovely photo Challenges to inspire you… then that went south… and recently it went out, I think it’s called Smile now. I had also begun uploading to Flickr since I already had a Yahoo account, I figured what was the harm, I might as well use the service, but when I wanted somewhere online to store high-resolution images (as well as make them available for friends to see) Nikhil suggested Zenfolio. That was a great decision!
What is great about having people see your photos? For one thing, you open yourself up to not only praise, but also criticism, which helps you grow, it makes you see the work as other’s see it, through their eyes and not just your own. For another thing, it gives a wider group of people a chance to see what you are doing, not just your friends and family, but other photographers, other artists and even the business community.
I like to think that my more “artistic” types of photos are the ones that are important to me and the ones I hope others like and appreciate, but the others that I take seem to demand equal or greater attention, the ones from events, such as Mashramani, Diwali Motorcade, Easter and others. Were I to confine myself to just making available for viewing those that I want to “promote”, then these others would never be seen not appreciated for what they are.
This year my images made it into three calendars in local firms; Maggie’s Snackette and Catering Service, and NT Computeac both used images which were more to the artistic side, but the company that surprised me was Banks DIH Limited, and this is the one I am drawing reference to. While both Maggie’s and NT Computeac chose what I thought were aesthetically pleasing images, Banks DIH chose images that were more representative of the events that they wished to highlight, even though those I would not put as my best images, it appealed to them and probably to those viewing it too, those images are worth something to someone, and had I not uploaded them for others to see, then they would never have made it into the Calendar.
They did a twelve page Calendar, and of those monthly pages, Dwayne Hackett and I got half, with images that represent our culture and our life as Guyanese.
Although I like to think of myself as a photographer who likes to take Landscape photos, there is not a lot of scope for that living in the city, but I’ve always had an interest in capturing images of buildings, especially old ones that may not survive due to neglect or just continued development (or any number of other reasons)
During the third week of the year, I had an inexplicable desire to take some photos of St Rose’s High School, just before attending a presentation by Hew Locke (an artist with some amazing work), Nikhil and I took a walk around the block, and I got my chance to take a few images.
To emphasize the building more, I used an “orange filter” setting whilst processing, this darkened the sky and made the building more pronounced. Although I did not intend to combine “street photography” into it these two boys strolled past just as we were there.
As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery
Recently, I was fortunate to have a photo of mine selected and used for the cover of the Caribbean Airlines in-flight magazine – Caribbean Beat (November – December 2012), and they have also used another to accompany an article in the current issue (January-February 2013)
Click on the image above for the full PDF article by Vidyaratha Kissoon along with the accompanying image.
Amazingly it was an image that I liked, but not one that got a lot of attention 🙂 Getting great images during the Mashramani parade is not easy, I’m thankful to come away each year with more than a few that I like.
Here’s the image: Click to see it in the Gallery along with a select set of photos from last year’s Mashramani
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