Long Life

On December 29, 2010December 31, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography12 Comments

My Last blog post of the year! So I take it to do a small “family letter”, or as close as I’ll get to that in a while 🙂

As two of my brothers have already written or expressed through video, this has been an “eventful” year.

Maureen and I, as well as Andre and Areza, celebrated a decade of marriage, Miriam did well in school, although she says she did not do so well, her overall percentage fell, but she did her best and we are proud of her. Joan Ann got married to Jerry and has migrated to Barbados, God called into his arms two of our loved ones, Granny Correia and Uncle John (Moll), they are both missed and we pray for their souls and the strength to carry on without them. Aunt Kumarie (Maureen’s mom) was diagnosed with Gastric Cancer, the surgery was successful and her chemotherapy begins soon, we hope we have the strength to support her, but she is a strong person and may be our support even through her own trials. I started my own blog and am enjoying my photography even more through it. Nikhil and I were robbed whilst in pursuit of our photography endeavours, quite an experience. This year I also went with my family to Sint Maarten, where I got some amazing photographs and was called Blog-o-matic for the frequent blogging I did from there, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Areza and Ariel migrated in time to begin Ariel’s new school, and she is doing wonderfully, a real champ, my niece. Andre followed them shortly and their family is now re-united and moving forward.

Of all these events Andre’s parting has affected me the most, I couldn’t even take a focused photograph at the airport as he was leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my grandmother dearly, and I do miss Joan a lot, but there is something about the three eldest brothers that was just different. Together we were MAN (Michael, Andre and Nicholas), we complimented each other, as different as brothers usually are, but we grew to be not just brothers, but friends. That friendship with my other siblings is still developing, but with the three of us it was forged in growing, in fights, in scheming together, in church and in the schools we attended together, in Karate classes, in playgrounds, and even in our varying tastes in music, and with Andre, we were in the choir together (shhhh!), both of us later found mutual friends at University, and a common interest in photography.

This photograph is not the one I wanted, I really wanted a good one of him boarding the aircraft, but my eyes and hands betrayed my at that time. But this one is typical of the males of the Lam family, we hug very seldom, we shake hands more than not, and even more often we just smile and acknowledge each other. We seldom say “I Love you” or “I am proud of you” or say in words how much we care, it is mostly a nod and a smile and that is enough for us, we KNOW!

This photograph gives thanks! Thanks for the many years God has given us with our Dad, his wisdom, his sense of right and wrong and his commitment to the family! On the wall in the background is the transplanted family photograph or Andre, Areza and Ariel. Thanks for all that they have been, for what they mean to al of us, and always will. And the brass Chinese character hanging on the wall, a reminder of our ancestry, where we have come from, the generations of Lams who have been born on Guyana’s soil, and those from mother China whom we never knew but owe our genes to 🙂 That chinese character is the symbol for Longevity or Long Life, symbolic and serendipitous.

To all our friends, our family, and anyone reading this, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2011, and Longevity.

The Deck – Week 48

On December 4, 2010December 4, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography14 Comments

I am pretty much disappointed with this week’s photographs, I have one of my wife that I thought was a great shot and was very tempted to put as the photo for this week’s Deck entry, but she would never forgive me if I did, so I had to settle for this one.

I intentionally took multiple exposures most of this week because I intended to do some more HDR attempts, but this one didn’t come out as expected. For some reason my alignment was all wrong and there’s quite a bit of haloing as a result. I did intend a BW HDR, so this I used as much to my advantage as possible.

I did the HDR merging in Nik HDR Efex Pro, and also added a vignette to it there. The final touches were added in Lightroom using a BW POP preset I got from Eric Kim, who does really great Street Photography, I hope he doesn’t mind that I used it for something other that Street Photography 🙂

I rather liked the lone tree and it’s reflection, so that’s why this was my choice this week.

The Deck – Week 47

On November 26, 2010November 26, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography10 Comments

As has been the norm of late, my week was busy, I only got to take photographs on three days, but I did manage to get a very nice photograph that was actually enhanced by the crazy cloudy weather we’ve been having recently.

This week I give you a scene from the Botanical Gardens, I was in the central area of the Seven Ponds, where some of the Nation’s revered men have been laid to rest; including the first Guyanese Governor General, Sir David Rose, the First President of Guyana, Arthur Chung and the great Guyanese poet Martin Carter.

Facing the ponds is The Mausoleum where the body of the second president of Guyana, Forbes Burnham, is entombed. Linden Forbes Samson Burnham was the first Executive President of Guyana, and was called the Founder Leader during his tenure as president.

The Mausoleum is a recent addition to the Gardens being built in 1986, it has numerous sculptures on the interior walls done by Ivor Thom.

The reflection in the pond was what drew me to this scene, I hope you like it.

The Lunatic

On October 16, 2010October 15, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography16 Comments

Do you see the humanoid looking speck at the top of that hill?

That’s my brother Andre, also known as The Lunatic. Always willing to go the extra mile or the extra climb for that perfect photograph, We were already on top of a hill and could see a nice view and a good distance, but Andre just had to go for a higher vantage point.

That’s my brother for you! When he was a teenager he rode from Georgetown to Lethem, he will tell you that he actually didn’t start riding until Linden, but that’s like saying the glass if fifteen-sixteenths full and not full all the way. Anyone who has travelled the trail in recent years knows that its rough, well that trail didn’t exist in that state when he rode it, it was rougher, with steeper hills and swamps.

He is the kind of person who will run towards the tornado to get a good shot, instead of running for cover like the rest of us, he will hang off the edge of cliffs looking at waterfalls, and jump out of a moving vehicle on a precarious hillside just because he sees a photo opportunity, leaving the rest of us panicking in the vehicle, worrying more about him than ourselves.

When Andre makes up his mind to do something, he’ll move mountains to do it, and accomplish it with style and a smile on his face.

Why am I saying all these things about him now? Men in our family generally don’t express that much emotion to each other, we acknowledge things like pride and love with a nod of the head and a small smile. Andre is the second member of our family to migrate this year, Joan married and migrated a few months back, none of the family have done so before, and the feelings are bitter-sweet. We are happy for them and wish them well in their lives, a future that is unsure as always, but sure to be filled with many things new and wondrous, yet we are sad that we are losing them, it is hard to say goodbye to someone who has been a part of your life for all of memorable time.

When this blog-post goes live, I will be at the airport saying goodbye to my brother, my friend. Vaya con dios! Hasta la vista!

September Monochromes

On October 13, 2010October 15, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography15 Comments

I decided on the name before I realised that I have one that was actually taken in October, but since I am unable to come up with a new creative sounding name, it remains as September Monochromes.

I want to start off with a Sepia image, it’s not necessarily a great image, but I liked the elements; seashore, people – young and not-so-young, and a fishing rod.

The next is the first of the Black and White images, it is one that I recently entered into a DP Review challenge called Clouds, I was experimenting with a borrowed Canon 80-200mm lens and most of the images came out very low contrast, so like the Sepia one above, most of the rest I’ve rendered in monochrome. This one came out much better than expected, I had to give it a title for the challenge, so that’s how the title came to be.

Along the seashore, you are sure to find a coconut washed ashore by the waves, this one was partway up a concrete sloped walkway on the seawall, maybe washed there but probably kicked there by some youngster.

The final image is the one taken in October, after our Robbery ordeal and we daringly went right back to the Kingston Promenade, I like the clouds in the sky and thought that the lighthouse silhouetted against it would look nice 🙂

They were doing some renovation work to the lighthouse, so you might notice the scaffolding on the sides of it there.

Lawyer and/or Photographer

On September 22, 2010September 22, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography18 Comments

I’ve had this one in my upload folder for some time now, since Nikhil tried his self-portrait, and I thought at the time to just get a slightly different angle to his “back-of-the-head” shot he was going for. Of course, my version is a little darker and more moody, but I rather liked it, but I don’t think that Nikhil liked his “stomach” showing as much as I have it 🙂

Nikhil: attorney-at-rest, photographer-at-work

I happen to think he is a very good lawyer, and quite possibly a much better photographer, but what do I know?

In the Streets

On September 19, 2010September 18, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography10 Comments

I find that I am not fixed in my photography habits as yet, as I spend more time with Nikhil, I tend to absorb some of his outlook on different types of photography. Going into “taking pictures” I never even knew that there were so many areas of photography; Macro Photography (or macrography), Model Photography, Product Photography, Landscape Photography… You name it and there’s probably some type of photography associated with it! Anyway Nikhil has a fondness for Street Photography, he knows the Famous of the genre, like Henri Cartier Bresson, and also some of the not-so-famous 🙂 Anyway, some of it is rubbing off on me, maybe because I usually accompany him on his jaunts to find his next subject.

While it is still “not my thing”, I don’t discount it as a style that I may adopt from time to time, I just don’t think that I am any good at it 🙂

So just for starters, here are three recent ones that may fit the category.

I heard the drumming before I saw the drummer, and by the time I got across the street the original drummer had switched places with this youngster.

A popular sight on the pavements of Georgetown, everyone wants to see the latest movies:

And this one is outside a busy “Betting Shop”

So goes my first forage into Street Photography, but I have others from the past that may fit the category, I’ll add them to the collection later 🙂

Fence Topper

On September 11, 2010September 11, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography9 Comments

One of my favourite photographs is one that I did twice 🙂 You know, so nice I did it twice? Anyway, I took it originally when I shot with the Canon PowerShot S5, a beauty of a camera, bigger than a compact, but a super-zoom with amazing results, and then when I moved onto shooting an SLR, I tried again to shoot a similar shot, similar because you can never get the same shot twice, not really. That was my “Fleur de Lis Fence Toppers“, and although I was less pleased the second time around, it was probably because I was expecting more.

Recently I took another shot of a Fence Topper and did a monochromatic rendering, several of them had already “disappeared” off the fence, so instead of trying to catch several of them I concentrated on one and tried to get a nice background, nice not as in scenery, but complimentary.

August Monochromes

On August 30, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography12 Comments

I had a few images that I rendered in monochrome this month, these were the results of three walks I did with Nikhil, I got a few nice coloured images, but more that I processed in monochrome, which is unusual for me. I have a few friends who always love my monochromatic work, so I think that they will like these images 🙂

I know that the title “monochromes” cover more than just black & white and sepia images, but I have not quite gotten around to expressing myself in the other formats as yet, although some of my black & white images are actually more of a selenium tone rather than pure black & white. I tend to lean towards the idea that if it is close to black & white, then that’s where I will categorize it, even if it does have a slight tinge of another colour. If the effect is more obvious, then I will rethink its category.

To start it off I have two Sepia images, one from the shore at the Kingston Promenade seawall and the second from the Manatee Pond at the Botanical Gardens, Georgetown.

And now for the Black and Whites, I have four new added to the album; and they go like this:

I have found a fondness for monochromatic images, now all I have to do is learn how to represent them better and better, each time I try one I find something new, sometimes I want lots of detail and other times I want high contrast with starkness, sometime I want a bit of both. Hopefully I am learning all the time 🙂

The Deck – Week 34

On August 27, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography13 Comments

I have always been fascinated by the “Kissing Bridges” in the Botanical Gardens, ever since I was a child and saw paintings of it on someone’s wall or prints in the old GTC telephone directories. These bridges have been photographed and painted for decades and I find it hard to do a current photograph of it, I have tried a few times and never been satisfied with what I came away with.

It may also have to do with the time of day that I’ve tried 🙂 recently it has always been midday, I really should try an early morning or afternoon and see what comes of it.

I was back in there again this week with Nikhil, trying to get his photo for his 365 Project, and there I was faced with the bridge again. This time, I came away with something that I was happy with, it may not be the iconic images that live on in my memory and on canvas, but I think it speaks for itself.

My photo for the 2010 Deck for the thirty-fourth week of the year: The Kissing Bridge