High-key Bird

On November 20, 2014November 20, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

Just about two years ago I had taken about four photos of a bird sitting on a branch, he was against the brighter light (sunlight) so the portion of him directly facing me was in shadow, not having a flash to fill-in with, I had thought at the time that I’d use post-processing with the sliders in Lightroom to retrieve the detail I wanted.

I was checking for some other images today when I came across the set and decided to process this one, I had now changed my mind slightly about the processing and was not thinking of a high-key style, giving some delicacy to the image, I think the light colour of the bird, the leaves behind him and the textured bark of the branch gave me the idea.

Click on the image to see it in the Black and White Gallery.

2014 Deck – Week 30

On November 20, 2014November 20, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Street photography (next to event photography) is probably the least predictive sub-genre in Photography, and that’s one of the things that draw a certain type of photographer to it.

I was on Sussex Street one Sunday and this car parked in front of an old vine-covered shed/shack caught my eye. Behind that scene was the old Gafoor’s warehouse (not sure if it is still occupied by them). I had taken a landscape oriented shot, then thought that I’d prefer more of the building in the background and recomposed a portrait oriented shot when this cyclist pedalled into the frame 🙂

1/400s @ f/5.6, 58mm, ISO200

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2014 Deck – Week 29

On November 19, 2014November 19, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Sometimes, subjects are so imposing that you just have to use them, you walk past them and they just beg to be photographed.

Take this truck, for example; we had walked past it and I noticed it’s unusual form, you just don’t see a truck like this around Georgetown every day, I kept thinking that there’s a photo there somewhere… On the way back I kept glancing at it, then noticed it’s swivel up windows and it’s snorkel-like exhaust system, and all the other rough-and-tough parts at the front, all of this set against a comparatively delicate victorian/colonial styled wooden building in the background.

Of course, including the policeman in the frame was deliberate 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

Photographs and Memories

On November 18, 2014November 18, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, thoughts2 Comments

Karran Sahadeo recently did a presentation at Moray House with this title, when I chose this photo for this week’s entry for the Deck Project, it popped into my head.

Often, all we have of moments and events of our younger days are memories… with the current deluge of photos being taken with various cameras, smartphones, tablets, webcams, etc., the current generation may have a different take on it in 20 years.

I can look back at what might be considered a relatively large amount of photos from my younger days, relative to the general population at the time in Guyana at any rate, and I can sometimes remember the moment, the event, the atmosphere, the sounds and other tiny things that made the moment memorable, but there are many more points in my life that have no such record, and all I have are memories.

I was out on the seawall on the way to work one morning when I saw the sky to the south as I approached the portion of the wall right behind my old school ground (Saint Stanislaus College), as I stopped to take the photo, memories of times there came back to me.

I’m not a sportsman, never really was, but I do remember trying a few sports, simply because the teachers said you had to “try”… I remember being left behind in the 100m sprint, I remember being lapped once in some one of the longer runs, I remember wanting to try the shotput, but being a small fellow, no one would let me, I remember trying the long jump and not doing too badly (as in, at least one other person fell shorter than I did); I also remember getting sunburnt, falling in the grass and bruising my knees, climbing the pavilion steps, eating snow-cones and icicles, and drinking Blackcherry Soda… (Both Banks DIH and DDL had lost their Cola franchises, Banks brought out the ICEE Blackcherry to fill the void), I could go on, but my point is, I can look back on “this” photo and have those memories renewed even though I don’t have photos of any of those moments to look at.

While this photo can mean that to me, for you, it may just be a very plain, very empty black and white photo; for me, the field is filled with students; the pavilion with teachers, students, parents; the gateway and fence lined with vendors selling snow-cones, tamarind syrup and green-mango 🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 1/100s @ f/7.1, 10mm, ISO100

Click on the image to see it in the Black and White Gallery from the Collection, while there, take a look at the other images in the growing Black and White Gallery.

2014 Deck – Week 25

On November 15, 2014November 15, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

For reasons of my own, I prefer not to take on Photography as a working professional, meaning “photographer for hire”. One of those reasons is that I’d then have to think primarily of the customer’s satisfaction, and for events that have so many “moving parts” where anything and everything can go wrong, guaranteeing that you come out of the event with photos that the customer will love is probably impossible.

But, IF I were to do events such as Weddings, it would be for the photos that I see, my vision… as such, I only shoot weddings for Family and friends, and even then I encourage them to get someone else to be the primary photog, mainly so that they can take the blame for the “missed” shots 😀

Every so often I come out of a wedding knowing that I’d gotten what I thought of as a great shot, for me anyway. At Alisia and Sammy’s wedding I think I came away with two that I considered great, but this one that I am sharing here, is what I like to think of as “my type” of photograph 🙂

Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm | 24mm, 1/200s, f/9.0, ISO200

I had done an article regarding Shooting Weddings for the GuyanaPhotographers.com page, if you’re interested, you can give it a read. 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2014 Deck – Week 23

On November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography1 Comment

On the face of it, I look Chinese, that plus the camera in hand usually sets people in Georgetown to thinking that I’m a tourist; this means I’m either a target for criminal elements or people think I’m harmless and do things in front the camera that they wouldn’t normally do for most other local male photographers (I distinguish the gender because I’ve also seen that most people are more comfortable and open in front of female photographers).

This street photo is one that I liked, it’s not the perfect composition as I was on the back of a moving truck (no shocks to speak of, Georgetown roads, and a driver who used his accelerator, breaks and clutch as if they were piano keys).

I just wanted the horse-cart in the foreground of the Shell Service Station, and the man on the horse-cart suddenly posed 🙂

105mm, 1/3200s, f/4.0, ISO500

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

Sea-breeze Sleeper

On October 31, 2014October 31, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

After posting Week 22’s photo, I did go back and look at the other photo from the week that had caught my eye…

Asleep under what little shade is offered by the tree so wanting of leaves, a man is kept cool by the sea-breeze in the hot midday sun.

I did some dodging/burning in the area where the sleeper was 🙂

50mm, 1/2000s, f/4.0, ISO100

Click on the image to see it in the Black & White Gallery along with many other black and white images.

2014 Deck – Week 21

On October 28, 2014October 30, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Street Photography – not a genre I do too much of, I’m really careful about my street photography, because people are very touchy about being photographed, even if it is in public and even if it is legal… BUT… there are some scenes I can’t resist 🙂

I had my eye on this building in Broad Street, Charlestown for a while, wanted a nice photo of it; when I saw the car parked there, I thought this is it, this will make a really nice photo… I didn’t even bother to leave my car, just parked across the road and aimed, then the lady strolled into the frame (on her way to market I assume), and it was pure serendipity.

Canon 6D | Canon 24-105mm f/4L | 32mm, 1/160s, f/9, ISO100

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck Project

2014 Deck – Week 17

On October 15, 2014October 15, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Always Stop!

When you see something that you think might be remotely worth photographing, don’t doubt yourself, just stop to take the photo. Of course, I’ve had many instances where stopping just wasn’t possible, practical or prudent (read that last one as lawful), so some photos remain as electrical impulses in the synapses of our brains. When it’s possible to stop, just stop and take out the camera and go shoot a few exposures, if not, you’ll be kicking yourself for some time after.

This was one of those times that I stopped. I’ve driven past this building many times, and always thought that there’s a good photo there somewhere… this particular day I saw the sheep in the corralled area, the sky beyond the building, and as I turned the corner, mentioned to my wife “that’s a nice photo”, she said stop, so I stopped in the corner, got out my camera and trekked back to the junction.

Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, 1/160s, f/9.0, ISO100

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2014 Deck – Week 14

On September 30, 2014September 30, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I am scheduled to do a presentation of some of my select works on October 9th at Moray House (part of the Moray House Trust’s foray into encouraging local photographer to express their vision of their art), and I am very nervous about the whole thing, I am not sure what to say.

I often don’t mind sharing my work, but to talk about it makes me feel queasy; I’m usually afraid I’ll either come off as not knowing what it is I’m talking about, or as being pretentious, trying to pass off what I do as “art”…

But, I’ve committed to it and I’ll either make a complete mess of the whole thing or come out the other end, not much worse for wear 🙂

The title I chose for my Seascape collection is “Oniabo”, an Arawak word meaning water, I’ve decided to use an extended version of this title for this presentation at Moray House, which will include most or all of the 6 photos in the Oniabo series as well as other images at the seawall.

That being said, the photo I offer for this week was one under consideration to be part of that presentation, but was subsequently side-lined. Although it in no way resembles Hiroshi Sugimoto’s work, it reminded me that Sugimoto’s Seascapes collection is the reason I had decided to begin a Seascape project in the first place,

Sugimoto begins his description of his series like this:

Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention―and yet they vouchsafe our very existence.

My seascapes invariably often include some “land” or earth (a third element?), but this one I titled “Born of Air and Water” as a reminder to myself of Sugimoto’s words.