Men at work

On April 21, 2015April 21, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Psychologists and psychiatrists make big deals out of “association”…

I saw this scene and thought to myself that the reflective safety vests reminded me of the song YMCA by the Village People, then that led me to thinking about Men at Work, the band that sang “Land Down Under”… do you think the pipes being put “under the ground” is an inference as well?

Don’t know what psychologists or psychiatrists would make of me, but for now I’ll avoid seeing any. and I should probably avoid the Canje area for a little while too 😀

This isn’t a great photo, but ever since I took it I’ve been thinking that I still like it for some reason… so I finished the processing and uploaded.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-50mm | Uncomposed moving shot.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2015 Deck – Week 08

On April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Each week it is hard to make a choice of a photo for the Deck Project, mostly because its hard to separate the emotion involved with the image at the time of it’s being taken and the merits of the image itself, but for Week 8 of 2015, I think it’s mostly because I think to myself that I came away from that week, which was mostly Mashramani images, with what I thought of as very uninspiring and “average” images.

Seven weeks later and I was finally able to look at them and chose one that I felt was different, or maybe just not the “usual” of the crop.

Am I happy with it? Yes. There are quite a few that I’m happy with, but it seems to me that I now want a little “more” from my images than just the “pretty picture”. I’m not there yet, but I’ll keep trying.

Context: this reveler was very close up behind the truck, it was 3 in the afternoon, although the sky was partially overcast, the sun was shining nicely down on the parade at this point.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

Fame and Folly

On March 3, 2015March 3, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography2 Comments

2012 | At Rest | © Michael C. Lam

It’s not a local issue, but it’s one that many artists have to face in the developing world more than their contemporaries in the “first world” (not saying that they don’t face it too, just to a lesser degree) – “We want to use your work for free, you’ll get exposure”.

Every artist at some time thinks about “Fame”, we’d like to get our work out there, for one piece to cross that invisible line that separates the millions of works of art that go relatively unnoticed and the few that make it to the galleries, the collectors’ circles and the list of “masterpieces”, one that becomes instantly recognisable upon sight throughout the art-world.

Most artists will strive to get there, but few ever attain it, this often has little to do with skill or artistic expression, and it also has little to do with the “exposure” that the hungry marketers want us to believe will catapult us to fame.

2012 | Last Stand | © Michael C. Lam

Each famous artist’s path to glory is different, and we as artists have to “work” at it, not expect it to be handed to us or to become a household name by having our work used by marketers for “exposure”, those marketers are making something out of it, the artist is not, and I’ve yet to hear of artists who got the call shortly after one of these “events” for a commission or for one of their pieces to be bought.

A photographer’s photo in your magazine will make the reading experience of your clientele a bit more enjoyable, but no one will read the fine print to find out who the photographer is so that they can “buy” any of their pieces,

A sculptor’s work that took several months to complete may look nice in your hotel lobby, but none of your guests will enquire who the sculptor is to commission a piece for themselves.

A painting in your foyer will make it more welcoming, but no one stops to ask who the painter is that they may acquire a piece just as beautiful.

2011 | dry docked? | © Michael C. Lam

We are artists, our work is a product of our intellect, our imagination, our skill, our craft… it is not yours to use for your own benefit while we receive promises of exposure, such promises are meaningless and degrading to the artist.

If you want that sculpture in the lobby, buy it, it is a product of blood, sweat and tears, not an idea brought to life on a whim in mere hours… If you want that sketch of a building that caught your eye, buy it, don’t promise the artist that you’ll hang it prominently in your boardroom for “important” people to see it… if you want my photograph for your publication that IS paying everyone else concerned with its production, then pay me, I invested in gear, I invested my time, I invested my skill, imagination and artistic vision in it.

I may never be famous, but it is folly to believe that I do not deserve to be paid for what is rightfully mine.

2011 | Shooting the breeze | © Michael C. Lam

If you’ve reached this far down, thanks for reading my rant 🙂

Click on the images to see them in their respective galleries in the Collection.

My Jhandi addiction

On February 20, 2015February 20, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

I was going through a few photos from last year, and I can across a set that I had not processed, and I thought “no one wants to see another Jhandi flag photo”… but I couldn’t resist it, I just had to choose one of the set and process it.

There’s just something about a flag fluttering in the wind that draws the attention… who am I fooling? Even when it’s hung limp with the wind abated I’d probably still take a photo.

This one appealed to me because of the contrast that the rich red flag had against the sky, the line of the seawall and it’s curve towards the koker made it a better composition than just a plain flag 🙂

OK, yes… I did seriously think about doing it in BW (still pondering it) but I rather like this version 🙂

2014 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Ogle, East Coast Demerara, Guyana

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from when I’m “Out and About”

How we do it

On February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

A street photograph – as much as I can get one 🙂

It really needs very few words, but what caught my attention was the way the police officer and her companion deliberately walked diagonally off the pedestrian crossing…

In Guyana… is just suh!

2014 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-50mm

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some other attempts at Street Photography 🙂

Depth

On February 18, 2015February 18, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

This is not normally a photo that I would share, I snapped it at the seashore and didn’t think much of it, but when I was looking at it in Lightroom I kept getting drawn into it, there was a sense of unease, of vertigo even… there’s a depth to it that I can’t easily describe in words…

Of course, it could just be that I was hungry at the time 🙂

2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with other “Odds and Ends”

2015 Deck – Week 07

On February 17, 2015February 17, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Each year I normally do a post on the Children’s Parade, then follow up with one that I’d choose for the Deck, this year, call it laziness, or expediency, or simply a desire to show the one that I was excited about, I will do it all in one post.

This year’s parade was marred by some rain, and when I say marred, I mean for me and my equipment, most of the children seemed to quite enjoy themselves in the changing weather 🙂

I got a few good photos, more than a few “eh” photos and maybe one or two better than average ones…

The one I chose for the Deck may not have the same impact on the viewer as it had on me as I am still fresh with the emotion and excitement of the moment… the rain was still falling, my sister Mary was trying to hover near me with an umbrella (she knows how expensive camera gear is) and the young man who was pulling the main float of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs had seen me and was dancing and heading straight for me performing all the way.

I don’t normally chimp, but soon after he had passed and there was a short lull in the parade I scrolled back to see if I got anything that was usable, and even on the on-camera screen I could tell, it was about 85% good. 🙂

Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, 2015

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

The other images I have from the Children’s Parade are in the Mashramani 2015 – Children’s Parade Gallery, click on the image below to see them all in the Gallery

Love on the Rocks

On February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

OK, the title is corny, but I couldn’t resist it…

I wanted to get the rocks in the foreground and the couple on the wall… this was one of those shooting from the hip instances, I didn’t want to disturb them by stooping down and pointing a big DSLR directly at them.

Anyway, I got most of what I wanted and also got one of the large telecommunications dish from the GT&T compound. and it works… somehow…

I figured that Valentine’s day is almost here, why not put up a photo with a “couple”, and although I meant for it to be a “loving” sort of photo, the title stuck because of the rocks in the foreground… sorry, couldn’t help it 😀 I guess I could have tried for “Sending my Love” or something like that… nah!

2015 | Seawall, Thomaslands, Georgetown.

Click on the image to see it along with others in the Sepia Gallery of the Collection.

In the Garden

On February 11, 2015February 11, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

In Georgetown, once called the Garden City, there were once many tree-lined avenues, it was once adorned by colonial and Victorian styled buildings throughout the length and breadth of the city, and the canals were bridged, and those bridges adorned by concrete railings or balustrades that were pleasing to the eye.

With the current rate of demolition of those railings by errant (more accurately worded would be “criminal”) drivers of minibuses and taxis, there will soon be no more of them around, and the powers that be do not seem to want to extricate from these culprits the requisite price to replace the damage with suitable aesthetically pleasing railings, when they do replace them, it is with crudely welded utilitarian structures, more suitable to a prison cell.

There… I’ve vented enough 🙂

I photographed this one on the portion of road that bridges upper High Street with Main Street, this would have once seen the trains that serviced the coast of Demerara, would have been covered in soot from the engine stack, not it is occasionally white-washed, and more often left to have mildew and vines grow upon it. 🙂

Why did I photograph it? it was there… it seemed like a good idea at the time 🙂