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.
Many times on a walk in the city I would take a photo of The Lodge, I don’t think I’ve ever used any of the photographs before, and since this week had very slim pickings, I chose one that I took in passing. Actually I had a choice from eight subjects, this one just seemed better than the rest. 🙂
This is one of those photos that when writing about it I feel very silly. I don’t know anything about this place and I’ve seen it all my life. Its one of those places that everyone just refers to as The Lodge, and they give you a knowing look, so I never asked, and was never told. I’m sure those conspiratorial glances were more ignorance rather than knowledge.
So it seems to me that maybe I should ask someone… what is that place and what really goes on in there? Do you think I’ll get answers on the blog? 🙂
Sometimes we just take a walk out to the seawall for, well, a walk 🙂 We go to see the boats, walk in the water, enjoy the breeze… well, the children go walking in the water anyway.
This photo was taken on one of those walks, there’s a spot at Lusignan where the boats that have finished their day’s fishing are moored, the fishermen are finishing up their day’s work, where the catch of the day is off-loaded and packed for sale, it was at this spot we walked to, my daughter and her cousin are down at the water’s edge, and I’m walking ahead to look back and, or course, snap some photographs 🙂
I could try saying a lot more, but I think in this instance the photo can speak for itself 🙂
Last year Nikhil and I were unfortunate enough to be robbed, I did a post on it back then, although we were quite traumatised and our families admonished us to stop walking “all about the place” taking photographs, we haven’t stopped, and in that year we’ve made many more friends in the photographic circle in Guyana. Thanks to Fidal and his idea of a Group on Facebook, we have been fortunate to meet other local photographers of varying expertise and different visions, just seeing what they’ve been doing has emboldened us to see a brighter future for photography in Guyana.
As a symbolic gesture we returned to the scene of the crime, this time, with more caution, and I was armed with a monopod! 🙂
The afternoon was not ideal for me, but I decided to try an HDR looking towards the spot where we were attacked and robbed.
Return to the Scene
Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery.
On this week, I only went out to take photos on one occasion, and on that occasion I took 45 photos, and I was way odd that afternoon, most were very underexposed. It wasn’t that I wasn’t feeling in the mood, I was fairly enthusiastic, I was enjoying the fresh air, the brief walk, and the scenery, but I never once looked down at the screen to check my photos, no chimping.
I was fairly disappointed but one of them had to work 🙂 I chose one that appealed to me in a general sense and felt that it would work well in monochrome, after playing with the processing for a while I found I wasn’t getting what I felt the scene needed, so I took the file into Nik’s HDR Efex to try a single image BW tone-mapping, and amazingly got what I thought was a good final processed image. I would never consider this a true HDR, since I only used one image, but the tone-mapping of the HDR software helped bring out the details that I wanted in this image.
Since the members of the Guyana Photographers (Facebook Group) started doing PhotoWalks it has provided me with other opportunities to get out and do some photography, as well as to see and admire the photos emerging in the group from these walks, there truly is a lot of enthusiasm and talent among the members.
On one of those walks (this one was to the villages of Good Hope and Triumph, I got what I thought were good shots, then I saw what others put up and realized that mine were all just OK 🙂
I fell into the trap set by all the enthusiasm and put my better shots onto the Group’s Page, without thinking to reserve at least one for this post, so a-hunting I went through my images for one that I could use. You can check out some of the photos from the group in the 3rd Photo Walk album Facebook.
Making Time. If anyone has ever figured out how to get more hours out of the day, please let me know 🙂 Once in a while you just have to stop, and slow down. Back in August (yes I’m writing this blog several months late) I was visiting with my in-laws and we decided to take a drive/walk out to the seawall at Lusignan. I took some photos (many left to be processed) but I processed two sequences that I had intended for HDRs, and was somewhat satisfied with this one.
I think that I was still standing in the village of Lusignan, but I was looking towards Annandale, I was told that somewhere ahead of me was an area known as Courbaine Park and (probably more to the left) is an area called Sand Reef. As usual, when taking outdoor HDR images I tend to go for the clouds, there was a very nice layering and depth (or height) to the clouds.
I used Nik HDR Efex to merge and tone map the image.
Skies Over Annandale
I’m hoping to sneak in a blog post or two to catch up before the end of the year 🙂
Thank goodness it’s not World Bloggers’ Day, Id feel miserable! Even though I have been taking photographs I have not been blogging enough, but this gives me an excuse to do a quick blog 🙂
Since it is apparently World Photography Day (which I had not heard of until today), I thought I would get out of the office for at least a few minutes to catch a quick photo-walk and post a photo 🙂
So here it is. Let photography be a gateway to greater things, to brighter ideas, to more interesting paths!
For years I have had the job description of a “Computer Graphic Artist”, I can honestly say I don’t think I deserve that title, I am not an artist, I can’t draw to save my life! I know some computer software programs that help in “artistic” layouts, so that’s what I do 🙂 And apparently, successfully, at least for a number of years now!
If someone were to say that my “vision” of the product I am trying to create using those software was artistic, I’ll take it as a compliment, and if someone were to say that I have used that artistic vision and adapted it to my photography, I would also take that as a compliment 🙂 My first “artistic” job under that title was under Bernard Ramsay, and I learnt more about layouts and type-style usage from him than at any other time in my life, I helped to bring the Computer into his business (which was mostly hand-done even then), but he helped shape the “artistry” in me.
Even before then when I did small posters or flyers for the church, or Posters for the National Cultural Center for the late, great Lloyd Grannum, it was the encouragement of those that I did those things for that helped shape me.
As a side-note, Lloyd Grannum was probably one of the greatest men to ever walk this earth (in my humble opinion), his outlook on life, love and his laughter always made me feel that this simple man, with a simple job and a simple family life, had more greatness in a smile than I would ever achieve in my lifetime, and that feeling has never changed.
Back to the topic of artists! During the recent Squash tournament that took so much of my time away from my work and my “casual” photography, there was an Opening Ceremony for the event, and just before that ceremony, one of the female squash players of the Guyanese team did some “face-painting” for the members for the team. She is an Artist (yes, with a capital “A”). A talented young lady, who comes from a very talented family, I think every member of their family expresses “art” in one way or another, simply amazing!!!
She is Gigi! watch out for her, she is destined for greatness in art. My Deck photo this week is of her in action, while painting faces may not be very glamorous, this was not only about the art! It was about Squash, about Team, about Compadres and Friends, about Expression, and Patriotism!
I’ve been delinquent in my posts recently, but I have a really really good excuse…. no I don’t, I’ve just been busy. I can’t even conjure up a plausible excuse that might fool a school teacher on this one.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the past and the future, for this post I’ll deal with the past. As you know I recently posted a photo of St Barnabas, a church that will soon be just a memory, and in my case a few thousand pixels worth of data, and on a recent walk with Nikhil (during which I think I accomplished a grand total of three shutter actuations) I took a photo of a piece of architecture that always fascinated me, for one reason and one reason only, the tower!
I’ve always dreamt of having a tower on my dwelling that I could climb into and see the world around me, and since I’ve taken up photography, probably capture amazing sunset and sunrise photographs from it. Of course, I don’t have any such tower or photographer’s perch, so I just admire the ones that exist.
Of course, this building also has other “architectural” interests, like the Demerara Shutters, the wooden louvres and the shingled outer wall.
This week, the seawall continues its pull on me, when the “feeling” for photography is not with you, go somewhere that relaxes you, even if just for a few minutes. A short walk along the wall and you either come away relaxed or relaxed and with a few photos that were worth the walk 🙂
This week’s shot may not be the best technically, but it captured a “moment”, and that’s what I liked about it. People go to the seawall for many reasons, one of the customary ones is exercise, you feel the fresh air blowing over you and you feel rejuvenated, and you can run or walk, and like this guy, exercise your wrists 🙂
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