2012 Deck – Week 17

On June 5, 2012June 5, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography8 Comments

Fortunately for me, during the 17th Week of the year (or starting it, more precisely) was a mass celebrating the opening of the 56th Plenary Meeting of the Antilles Episcopal Conference in Guyana. Months prior to it, I was asked to help cover the event photographically, specifically the group photograph of the Bishops attending, while I usually don’t do portrait photos, I finally acquiesced to give it a try, and was permitted to call in some help.

I was fortunate to have helping me, for the mass coverage, four other photographers, who volunteered their time and expertise; Troy Parboo, Fidal Bassier, Derek Rogers and Joseph Lewis. I was truly glad for their assistance as I don’t do “people” and event photography too well, Troy and Fidal have had much experience in these areas and truly came through for me, and Derek Rogers has covered many events for more years than the rest of us combined, he also did my Wedding 🙂 Joseph came with less experience but much eagerness and a good knowledge of the proceedings that was invaluable.

It was agreed upon beforehand that the clergy of the church would prefer to have very few people “gallivanting” around the upper walkways, so I volunteered to be the one doing the running around (okay, I hogged it!)

This week’s deck photo I chose from that set. After taking a group photo of the Bishops, I ran across the road, hurried through the church and scampered all the way up to an overhead walkway that allowed a very high vantage point (Bishop Francis had expressed a desire to have a photo from up there after I had mentioned the view).

Although I have a liking for many of the others that I took, I chose this one for the Deck, it shows the High Altar of the Cathedral from above, with all the Bishops, Monsignor, Priests, Deacon and Altar Servers. It also shows a bit of the “Our Lady” altar behind, the passage (to the left) that I took around the altar and the pipes of the old Pipe Organ on the right.

Click on the photo for a better view in the Gallery, also in the album there are a few others from the event that I chose to share.

Ma

On March 25, 2012March 26, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography10 Comments

I can’t speak for others, I can only speak for myself, and I want to mention how I remember someone who died this morning. To me she was always Ma Cheong, not Mrs. Cheong, or Aunty Martha, but Ma Cheong.

For as long as I’ve known her in our parish community at the Cathedral, she has been a mother to many, her home (not her house) was always filled with young people, her children. Whether they were her own flesh and blood, adopted, fostered, or just happen to be there as friends, church member or passing through, she treated all the same.

Although she may never be immortalized in stone, she will live on in those she was a mother to, her ideals, her thoughts, her wisdom will shine through those that she imparted them to. To all of her children (and there are many of us who counted ourselves among them) I extend my condolences.

Like the statue of Our Lady that survived the fire which destroyed the original cathedral and now stands proudly at the Entrance to the current cathedral, I say to you her children and anyone who has known her, stand proud to have known and to have been loved by Ma Cheong.

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Please Click on the Image to see it larger in the Gallery.

About the Music

On December 30, 2011December 30, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

People who know me, know that I like music, I can carry a tune, I can even play one (given enough time), and I have a wide appreciation for music, meaning that I try to appreciate different styles and genres.

Everyone has their opinions, and they’re entitled to them, so not everyone will agree on the categorization of music into “good” and “bad“. I have my own definition of music, or more specifically the “tune” or “melody” that forms the body of a song; for me it’s “If you can play it on an instrument (other than the human voice) then it may be classified as a melody or tune”

Enough of the rambling, this is actually about a photograph. This was a photo that was a strong contender for the 2011 Deck – Week 51, but was passed over.

Jane has been the primary organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for as long as I can remember, she has her quirks, but the one thing I know is that for her, it’s about the Music. As I understood the story (as I was told as a boy) she had a development challenge and learning music (and the piano/organ) was a form of therapy, to say that Music saved her life would probably be a reasonable statement.

Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery 🙂

2011 Deck – Week 49

On December 25, 2011December 24, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I think that Christmas Carols (and Christmas music in general) lends to the “feel” of Christmas as much as many of the other traditions associated with the Day and the Season. Whether its Carollers on the street or in the church, the chorus of voices or the clarity of the soloist singing those traditional carols (or the new songs) helps get me in the Christmas Mood.

This was a photo taken at the annual Festival of Carols held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Brickdam Cathedral), it is one of the few times I’ve attempted higher ISOs on the Canon Digital Rebel T1i, although there’s a fair amount of noise it wasn’t too bad for the shot, and I did a bit of noise reduction in Topaz 🙂

One Year

On May 21, 2011May 21, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography18 Comments

One year ago, I wrote and posted my first official post on this blog, I am not counting the “Hello World” that Word press starts me off with. It might seem morbid to some that the first post was about the death of my maternal grandmother, and a photo of the same, but to me it’s not only the scenes that capture our eyes as photographers that may appeal to viewers, but the feelings and emotions that we can convey or arouse from others viewing our work.

One year has passed, and I have had “ups and downs” in blogging, recently a lot of “downs”, time seems to be an elusive creature, and I have not put as much into the blogging or reading blogs as I think I should. But I think that I have kept up pretty well, and The Deck project certainly gives it some impetus.

Recently there have been other deaths as well, not a good way to celebrate one year of blogging, but it is what it is. My daughter recently lost one of her teachers from last year, Teacher Gillian, and only this week we lost “Mr. Terrific”, Flavio Commacho, who was very instrumental in the conversion of our system of measurements in Guyana from Imperial to Metric, I remember from when I was a little boy listening to “Swing to Metric” on the radio (yes, radio. Televisions weren’t quite the thing as yet)

Also this month we lost Sister Rose Magdalene, there is so much to be said for her, and there is a lovely Tribute page on Facebook. What I remember of Sr Rose is her love for music and pageantry. She wrote, she sang, she danced, she lived and loved with music in her heart. I always will remember the special Christmas mass at the old Sacred Heart Church (now burnt down), the traditional readings were replaced by a pageant telling the story of the birth of the Christ child, and at the heart of it all was Sr Rose. This photo in today’s blog was taken at the memorial mass held in Guyana at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Brickdam Cathedral) for her, the people in it are a few of the members of the Marigold Children’s Choir that she formed many years ago.

This was meant to be a simple (hopefully artistic) photograph, but for me, it has a depth of emotion also.

2011 Deck – Week 13

On April 2, 2011April 2, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography22 Comments

Another tough week, one day of actual photography, and even that was “forced”. Yesterday, another blogger whom I follow, Bob Zeller, posted a blog along the lines of an award for “Versatile Bloggers”. While I don’t see myself that way I was very honoured to be included in the company of he other bloggers in Bob’s List, if you get a chance check that out, quite impressive. I will follow this up in my next post; hopefully, I can be as magnanimous as Bob was 🙂

This week’s Deck photo was originally to be of my Alma Mater, Saint Stanislaus College (a High School actually), but I was more taken by my images of the church that I attend. They are both on the same street, Brickdam, and Nikhil and I walked it looking for things to photograph.

This is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, seat of the Bishop of Georgetown, His Lordship Francis Alleyne OSB, and is commonly referred to as Brickdam Cathedral. It is the central church of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Guyana and my parish for all of my life, although I now live outside the geographical area of the parish, we still attend mass there. It is bordered by Brickdam, Hadfield Street, Camp Street and Pollard Place, the current concrete structure replaced the original wooden structure that was destroyed by fire decades ago. Although it is not photographed as often as the St George’s Cathedral, it has its own appeal and beauty.

Some people may notice, while others may not, this image, while not a true HDR image (I only used one exposure) was processed in Nik’s HDR Efex to get the most out of both the clouds and the building, I tried to be as subtle as I could without losing the detail that I wanted.