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.
Sheltering from a light rainfall, I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of this gentleman walking on the wall… the rain didn’t bother him, and here he’s even taking a drink out of that bottle 🙂
Canon Rebel T1i | Sigma 17-50mm | 1/640s, 17mm, f/11 ISO 400
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with many other images from my journey in Sepia images 🙂
As the year progressed, I expected to be using more Street Photographs, as I am not getting the time or opportunity to do lots of the scenic ones I like. So this week’s taking did not surprise me that most of what I had were Street shots, and the only one I thought worth tackling to process and share was this one.
Those who know me, know that I have a thing about having the horizon level, especially where a scene is involved, but I’ve been told and shown many photographs where having the horizon absolutely level is not optimal or necessary from an artistic standpoint or through necessity.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think I could have tilted this to get the horizon straight… but it is what it is… 🙂 And I actually like it the way it is.
I’m not very good at it, but this is one of those shots using the “From the hip” technique 🙂
I’m not a purist; I don’t hold the belief that whatever JPG comes out of the camera is the reality that existed in front of the lens. I do, however, believe that there is a certain amount of “truth” in my photographic work. Friends and colleagues, other photographers and budding photographers in the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook group have heard me make the distinction between Processing and Editing many times. And I will briefly make it here again…
Since I shoot in RAW format, the camera does no processing to the file (whenever you shoot JPEG the camera applies certain adjustments to the image, contrast, brightness, etc.) so I have to Process it in software, often referred to as Post-processing. This usually involves adjusting sliders in a software like Aperture, AfterShot, Lightroom, LightZone, etc., things that are adjusted range from brightness and contrast, to hue and saturation, cropping, temperature, white balance, noise levels and more. Although this is usually applied over the entire image, some software allows you to do it to parts as well.
Where I draw the distinction between Processing and Editing, is when the image is altered so as to become a new image, distinct from the original in content. Simply put, if I add something or remove something from the original photograph, then it is no longer the same, it is now a work of graphic design, not only photography.
Do I Process my images? Always. Do I Edit my images? Sometimes. I’ve cloned out trash that otherwise marred the scene (the lone plastic bottle on a grassy stretch), but have often left in loads of trash because it was part and parcel of the scene. I don’t have anything against editing, but I don’t think its fair to call it a photograph after you’ve added in entire clumps of trees, removed several utility posts and added muscles to an individual… that is definitely in the realm of photo-illustration or Graphic Design.
I am also a big proponent of using every tool that you need to get the image that you saw with your eyes, and in your mind across to the viewer. Whether its special filters on the lens to get a mood or effect, an angled lens in the developer of a dark room to create a distorted view, using Black and White (Film or processing) for an aged or structured look, using long and super-long exposures for light trails or flowing water, external flashes and reflectors for extra lighting on a subject, gels and filters for colour enhancements, or even doing some of this on the software end, I am for it, but I believe in being true to the original vision as much as possible.
Fancy processing and editing is no substitute for a good original image. I am no expert or professional, many of my images come out of the camera looking very disappointing, and I often discard or simply not process them. Yes, you can “save” them, I have even done so on some occasions, simply because I believe that they were worth saving, but they had to have something good in them to begin with; a good composition, a relatively good exposure, and maybe even compelling elements to the composition.
I’ve rambled enough… time for a photo. This is one of those photos that I “saved”… The original was good, maybe better than good, but it was not what I wanted…. I wanted more detail in the sky, more of a structured appearance than the original coloured version, and (because of an architectural quirk) more symmetry.
Canon EOS 60D | Tamron 18-270mm | 21mm, 1/160s, f/7.1
I used Lightroom to create five different exposures from the original, each 2 stops apart in exposure, then I used Nik HDR Efex Pro to merge my new exposures and coax the detail I wanted from the overall scene, then I used Photoshop (I know, I’m a horrible person) to skew the perspective ever so slightly to gain some symmetry.
Although I did not add or remove anything, I normally would consider this edited since I used Photoshop to change the original proportions of the image, but in this case I’d let that slide 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with others in the Black and White series.
Keeping a photo project going is not easy, I found that many times I “force” the images by going out looking for things to shoot… and often times I’m not entirely satisfied with the results. Most of the images that I like are the ones that I just happen to see, being in the right place at the right time 🙂
I was on the pavement near the intersection of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic when I noticed the reflection of City Hall in the flooded pavement and road near to me, I actually had my camera in hand and tried to compose a few shots between people walking by me, and vehicles splashing the waters occasionally.
Some people can go out and “make” the photos, others are just the instrument that is manoeuvred into the right place at the right moment to see and capture what is shown to them 🙂
Canon Rebel T1i | Sigma 17-50mm | 17mm, f/8, ISO400
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images in the 2013 Deck Project.
Many years ago I missed the photo-walk that Nikhil, Naseem and André took around Georgetown. They had termed it the Georgetown Safari, and they covered much of Georgetown over two days. I have always meant to try to cover as much of historical Georgetown as I could, but never seem to get a good start on it.
I was on my way to work, and driving past the Red House when I noticed the sky beyond it and thought this was as good an opportunity as any to take the photo I wanted of this building, the point of view is not unusual, there are dozens from this vantage point, but I like to think I did the scene some justice.
It is a single exposure, but I did some tone-mapping to draw out some detail from the scene, and I cloned out a short piece of electrical wire that sneaked into the frame in the upper corner.
Canon 60D | Sigma 10-20mm | 14mm, 1/125s, f/5 | Nik HDR Efex Pro
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from around Georgetown, Guyana.
I always figured that the building got it’s name because it was red, but never knew that it was because it was covered with Red Wallaba Shingles. It dates back to the days of Colonial Rule, and records indicate that the “Colony of British Guiana” acquired it in 1925, from then until 1953 it served as the place of residence for many Colonial Secretaries.
During his stint as Premier of British Guiana, from 1961 to 1964, Dr. Cheddi Jagan also used it as his Official Residence. Under subsequent leaders, it was utilized for various government offices. In 1999, two years after Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s death, while serving as the fourth President of Guyana, the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre was established in the building (a purpose it still serves to this day)
It is apparently also referred to as Kamana Court, a name I had not heard until today, and for which I can find no more information
I had quickly browsed through the entire takings of this week’s photos and was about to go with a street photo for this week’s Deck Photo, when on scrolling back I saw this one tucked amidst some photos from a tea-party held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the young ladies were using this part of the building as a staging area for their fashion show.
I had looked back towards the entrance of the compound for some reason and noticed her at the window and snapped two quick shots before she disappeared back into the building, and I rather liked how this one came out.
The building is aging and I thought that the processing should match that.
Canon 60D | 135mm | 1/320s | f/7.1 | ISO 640 | Processed in Nik SIlver Efex
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images from this year’s Deck Project.
One of the techniques I like to experiment with is HDR, or High Dynamic Range, especially on landscapes. I don’t mean taking a single exposure and tweaking it or running it through HDR software for the effect, I mean actually taking multiple exposures for recombination in post-processing.
Since the Canon allows me three sequential shots automatically, that’s the amount of frames I usually use, although I would get a better handle on the dynamic range if I used seven or nine exposures. But since most times I do these things without hunting for my tripod, Is tick to hand-holding 3 exposures in those circumstances.
I took the exposures for this photo one morning on the way to work (I think it was a Saturday… had to be), I was driving and noticed the Lotus Flower first, then noticed the sky, and quickly decided that I wanted a photo of the scene rather than the Lotus Flower alone 🙂
Each exposure was taken one stop apart and recombined using Nik HDR Efex Pro (as a plugin for Lightroom)…my hand may have been a touch heavy on the saturation 🙂
Dayclean | Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, max aperture f/4
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
Turn back the clock 5 years and 4 months… I was doing one of those things that the manual says not to… shooting towards the sun… but in this case I didn’t point directly at the sun. Since I was pointing towards the late afternoon sun, all the colours in the image became washed out leaving an almost sepia-toned image, so I carried it that extra step further in post-processing and made it a Sepia-toned image.
What had caught my eye was the light glaring off of the water that remained after the tide had receded, it made for a nice high-contrast image.
March 2nd, 2008 | Canon PowerShot S5 IS
Shot on the lonest end of the camera’s 12x Optical zoom.
Click on the image to see it larger in the Sepia Gallery, along with many of my other Sepia-toned photos
Sometimes the photo that a photographer chooses is not always the one that a “normal” viewer would choose, that’s just how it is…. I’ve heard many Wedding Photographers lament over the same problems, they would show the couple an array of photos from the big day and then they would choose what the Photographer thought were those that were not the cream of the crop… for him (or her).
This is because we are each looking at the photographs from a different perspective, each photo speaks to us differently, and appeals to each individual differently; so it would be no surprise to me if this week’s photo draws dome curious stares 🙂 I like it, but I don’t expect everyone to like it.
Taken around Vreed-en-hoop at an area referred to as Best Village.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
Having a full time job that isn’t photography related makes for a hard time finding things to photograph, or more precisely, things that interest me…
I’ve actually been doing some walking with Nikhil recently and as such I’ve been accumulating some “street” photographs. While it’s not exactly what I like to shoot, every once in a while I find one that I think is worth sharing
With Georgetown being the centre of activity in Guyana, the streets do tend to get congested 🙂
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