Stella Maris

On August 18, 2010August 18, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

Whilst in Sint Maarten, I went to church at a small Catholic church not too far from where we were staying, and when I say “not too far” I mean a couple of minutes walk. The church was called the Mary, Star of the Sea, Catholic Church. On a separate occasion, I walked over to photograph it from the roadside, and although I have already posted and uploaded to my site, at least one photograph of it, I had reserved one for later processing.

The name of the church had captivated me, I assumed that its location was partially responsible. I couldn’t remember seeing a particular effigy bearing the name during my growing years, but I do remember the phrase “Mary, Star of the Sea” being part of hymns and litanies, and probably a prayer. I was surprised to learn that the Latin was Stella Maris, which happened to be the name of the Primary School I went to as a child. It is strange that many of us go to schools and seldom, if ever, question the origins of the name of the school.

Like this church, the school I attended was located on a coastal area, Mary, Star of the Sea, is the patroness of seafarers. Under this title she was believed to intercede as a guide and protector of those on the seas either as travelers or workers.

On this photo I did something unusual (for me) I used an orange filter for a special effect and did a high structure monochrome, the original was nice enough in colour, but I thought it warranted a bit more “umph” for impact. I hope you like it.

Mary Star of the Sea, Catholic Church, Sint Maarten

Casualty of a Hurricane

On August 16, 2010August 16, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry9 Comments

From the first time I steeped out and saw Simpson Bay from the house, I was fascinated by this wrecked boat that was in the water a bit east of the house. I took many photographs of it, from different angles, I used different apertures, tried out a polarizer filter on it, I shot it from the house and from along the shore, it seemed I just couldn’t get enough of it. Like most of the large “debris” found along the coastlines of St Maarten, it was a casualty of a hurricane, one of the many that sweep down Hurricane Alley every year, or given its current state, maybe more than one hurricane.

Even though I posted a photograph of it already during my Sint Maarten visit, there was one I had reserved to do some more processing to at a later date, and I would like to share that one with you.

Anchored in the bay,

locked up for the night,

All prepared for the worst

Of the Hurricane’s awesome might

All is peaceful,

Nothing out of the norm

Suddenly seagulls cry out

Wails of the oncoming storm

Winds howl and push

from the bow to the stern

Waves rise and crash

Of the shoreline, nothing to discern

Minutes and Hours

Battling in the fray

unable to tell

the difference ‘tween night and day

The anchors slip

waters filling the hold

is this the fates’ decree

to perish, the tale left untold?

The winds ease,

and the rains abate

Starboard lies the shore

but below lies its fate

Battered and bruised,

seaworthy no more

Never to set sail again

now nothing, but an eyesore.

The Rock and The Church

On August 13, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

I had just finished processing two photographs from my recent trip to Sint Maarten, and as I processed them I knew that I would be including both in one blog-post, then as soon as I put the title into the post I was reminded of a bible quote:

And I say to you: That you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (From the Gospel according to Matthew, 16:18)

Now the post, nor this blog-post has nothing to do with that quotation, it merely sprang to mind as I gave the post it’s title. Some portions of Back Street (and Front Street), Philipsburg have nicely rendered cast-iron stump columns that mark the end of the pedestrian pavement and the beginning of the vehicular roadway, but there are a few spots along the street where these do not exist, at some of these spots, they have put large (maybe medium is a better description) rocks to keep the vehicles off the pedestrian walkway. One of these intrigued me and that’s the photograph that I want to share first:

As a pedestrian on these streets, I was very hopeful that this rock, like Peter, would prevail against an errant vehicle if not the Gates of Hell.

Farther down Front Street, Philipsburg, past the Jewelery Shops and Casinos, there lies the Roman Catholic church of Saint Martin of Tours, it extends from Front Street onto the Boardwalk facing the Great Bay. I have to assume that either the hurricanes don’t hit too hard here or this church was built to prevail. I took the opportunity to take some multiple exposures with the intent to try an HDR image. The pews are stained a deep reddish wood colour and this is very evident in the photograph. The few people who go to pray during the day must be accustomed to crazy tourists snapping photographs since it didn’t seem to bother them as I took my time getting this shot, of course, I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible, but that quite hard for a man of Chinese descent with a rather large camera in hand.

St Martin of Tours Catholic Church, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten

This HDR is a composite of three exposures, 0ev, +2ev and -2ev, I still have some issues with alignment, but I think I am getting the hang of it.

Sint Maarten Day 7, and Fort St. Louis

On August 2, 2010August 2, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

The first shot of the day was what might have been called the “Catch of the Day”, Justin (the son of the people at whom we are staying here) and some of his friends had done some spear fishing the previous day and was about to prepare the catch for a Soup.

During the morning, we took a walk down Simpson Bay Road, there were a few older buildings along the road that I had wanted to photograph, although I took a few,there are still a few more that I want a snap at 🙂

The real object of our walk was to get a closer look at the Simpson Bay Market, a nice structure on the Simpson Bay Lagoon across from the Police Station and next to the Coast Guard. I wanted to see what was there to photograph, and my wife wanted to see if any stalls were open, there was only one stall open at that time 🙂 (of course I am not counting the bar or food shop)

And a short walk to the Shipwrecked Pirate, a nice little shop, good footwear, and some unique gift ideas I think, but then I’m a man, what do I know, except that the barrel outside looked nice 🙂 If only it had rum in it, and a tap 🙂

Afterwards, we were taken to do a little climbing, I can’t remember exactly where, I think it was near Baie Rouge, but it had a beautiful view as we climbed and the destination was also a spectacular view at two “seaside”caves that let water into a nestled area, but I wasn’t climbing down there!

For the two caves I tried an HDR image, I didn’t get it perfect, the image has some rotational misalignment, but I liked the scene so much, I decided to keep the resulting image anyway.

We then went on into Marigot (the capital of St Martin, French West Indies) for a short walk around before heading up to the fort, which was the next attraction for us. Marigot also has more that I’d like to photograph, time permitting.

Bandstand / Gazebo, The Marketplace, Marigot, St Martin

Then we left Marigot (not really left it, since it’s a short drive up the hill to the entrance) to see the Fort Saint Louis, or rather the ruins of the fort, I can only imagine what it would look like on a stormy day (not that I really want to be there when a storm hits).

Of course, there are a lot more photos than these added to the Sint Maarten album on my site. Be sure to check them out. The parting shot is one taken as we were exiting the Fort proper.

Monochromes – 28th Week of 2010

On July 21, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

I never thought that so many people would like my monochrome photographs, but it turns out that many family members and friends like them. Over the last few years of taking photographs, I have come to realize that some photographs just render better in one monochromatic form or another than in colour. Most of the time when I post a monochrome photograph it was intended that way from when I pressed the shutter button, but sometimes the coloured version just does not do the scene justice and rendering it in black and white or another form of monochrome like sepia, usually brings out more tonal differentiation and character from the image.

When I used the Canon PowerShot S5, there was a dedicated mode for these types of photographs, and I used it rather than converting after, mainly because, as I have mentioned, I take certain scenes with the full intention of them being black and white or sepia. When I moved on to an SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel T1i does not have that feature, which is probably a good thing 🙂 Using RAW mode shooting I have found that I get a lot more processing ability, some people call this editing, but I look at it as getting more out of the photograph, the information is there, I’m not adding or removing, just revealing.

Of the four monochromes below, only two were intended as monochromes, the other two just rendered better that way 🙂 Click on them to see them at the site.

Although not a true sepia, I put this one in that category because, well, I had nowhere else to put it I suppose. I used one of those Lightroom presets and did some exposure and fill light adjustments.

This building I will have to revisit another day, there were just way too many vehicles around for a nice wider shot, but the building intrigued me enough that I think this worth posting up.

Camp and Charlotte Streets, Georgetown, Guyana.

Some things attract your attention and trying to convey that in a photograph can be… difficult, at least for me. This bird was “riding the waves”, standing on that branch and just bobbing and weaving with the rise and fall of the incoming waves.

And finally, this scene I had done in a previous post on Georgetown, Guyana. It is a familiar scene to anyone who has driven along the Clive Lloyd Drive, its been there since I was a little boy, a quaint little cottage amidst some palm trees, while the previous photograph was in colour, this one was taken with the monochrome idea and the result was quite nice.

Black and White HDR – Good Hope July 2010

On July 19, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

This particular HDR image needs an explanation, so here it is (well, maybe it doesn’t need one, but you’re going to get it anyway. I went up to Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara to pick up my family who were visiting with my in-laws for the day, after saying my hellos and pleasantries, I wandered back to the front of the yard and saw this amazing sky, I wanted to capture it as soon as I could.

A few things contributed to this being almost impossible, it was already getting dark and I did not have my tripod with me, and I wanted to get this in HDR, a standard shot just wouldn’t convey the sky that I was seeing, from ground level it was great, but the view of the sky with just the houses in front of me wasn’t appealing, so I ran upstairs with my camera. I quickly set the camera for my multiple exposures and proceeded to snap the shots, but the first thing I noticed was that the place was so dark I ended up with longer exposures than I intended. MY “normal shot was a half second, the underexposed one was one-eight of a second and the over-exposed shot was two seconds, all hand-held. and then when I reviewed the images I notices a “fogginess” in the image, when I checked the lens there was a lot of condensation on it, I figured this was disastrous, the images would be totally spoiled under that combination of conditions.

When I downloaded the images I thought that I couldn’t get anything useful out of them, they were all blue, exposure was “iffy” and I wasn’t even sure that it was worth trying. But I thought, I went to all that trouble (and exercise, running up those stairs was serious cardiovascular for a desk-jockey) I should see what the HDR software could make of it. My first combination wasn’t too promising, but after adjusting some settings, I liked the resulting image, the colour was terrible though, so I though that even though it was not what I intended, this could very well work out to be my second Black and White HDR, I had done one before that actually made it into The Editor’s Collection – Best of HDRs at Webshots.com, if you can’t spot my image its Orinduik Falls Black and White, I am rather proud of that achievement, small though it may be.

All that being said, after I used Nik Silver Effects to do my Black and White conversion using some high structure, I liked the outcome and decided that I liked it enough to share it. 🙂

Click on the image to go to the site.