Tag: church

Mass of the Lord’s Supper

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

Today as Lent ends, and this Lent has been a time of trial indeed with our local Elections fiasco GECOM-20 and the arrival of the Sars-CoV-2 Coronavirus that causes the disease now known as COVID-19, as a church community, we cannot gather because of social distancing and curfew restriction placed on the populace in an effort to limit the spread of the disease.

Today marks the end of Lent and the beginning of the Easter Triduum, many will either pray as families, or just be there for each other, or join with others online as  today’s service is streamed live from the Bishop’s Chapel, as will services and masses for Good Friday, Easter Satrurday and Easter Sunday.  I decided to look back a bit and share two images from a past Holy Thursday, from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception; many images from these service resemble any other service, as the main services remain similar with but a few differences, the two images I share can easily be associated with the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper by Catholics.

Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper - IMG_2986
Washing of the Feet (2013)

Seen above is the re-enactment of the “Washing of the Feet”, a gesture that reinforces the idea that those we call Master are also there to serve.  A reminder in these troubled times that those who are there in positions of Power, our elected officials, are there to Serve the people, not to be served by them.

Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper - IMG_1867-Edit
Procession the the Altar of Repose (2013)

This image shows Bishop Francis Alleyne OSB, Bishop of Georgetown, as he carries the monstrance containing the Blessed Eucharist to the Altar of Repose.  On Holy Thursday, Catholics are asked to spend an hour in prayer at the altar, just as the Disciples were asked by Jesus to keep vigil with him as he prayed in the Garden at Gathsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

In troubled times we cling to tradition, but in these troubled times we cannot do so physically, we can but cling to the memories, and to the hope of a better future.  Celebrate today the camaraderie of family, of friends, mourn tomorrow the death of  a saviour, of the leadership we once knew or dreamed of, and on Easter, celebrate the life we have, the life we can give to others, the life we can nourish in the world.  Holy Thursday also became popularly known as Maundy Thursday, the word Maundy was derived from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment”, referring to the words of Jesus to his disciples that night “I give you a new commandment, love one another as I have loved you”, would that we all could do so, then a better future, a better world, we be ours.

Kirk

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

Just a post to share a photo of St. Andrew’s Kirk.

This church site on the corner of Avenue of the Republic and Brickdam; to the south of it, across Brickdam, sits our Parliament Buildings; to the east of it, Avenue of the Republic, sits the Magistrates’ Courts.  It is reputedly the oldest religious  building still in use in Georgetown.

St Andrew’s Kirk, Georgetown, Guyana.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

Click on the image to see it in the gallery along with other images from the Georgetown, Guyana Album

The Deacons’ Dozen, plus one

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

 

I don’t do event photography usually, primarily because its not my style, but also because there is less control than, say, a wide open scene on the coast where everything is in its place and nothing’s about to jump in front of me and suddenly obscure the shot.  And it seems that often when there is an important event that I do concede to shoot, there’s some dude in a hot pink shirt who just does not understand “space” limitations and to respect the other people also doing a job there (although I seriously doubt they were ever there “doing a job”).

OK, digression aside, I don’t do Events because I want to capture every moment, and I want every one to be good, but that just isn’t possible, and with my style of shooting, very much next to impossible to satisfy those expectations.

I recently took some photographs at the Ordination to Deacon-hood of Berchmans Devadass & Joel Rathna at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Brickdam, Georgetown.  I did process some 82 images to give over to the Diocese, but at the end of doing so I was not happy, so I then pared those down to 12 images, that would more reflect the moments I would chose to share and would be more in keeping with my particular style of photography.

The full set is on my Facebook profile, but I wanted to share the set I chose, which I named the Deacons’ Dozen, over on my site here.

And just to be difficult, instead of just having the 12 chosen Black and White images, I also added one extra; I had left one image back to process separately, this one is in colour.  I had noticed at one point during the Bishop’s address that the sunlight had began to stream into the western windows of the cathedral, so I left my spot and went to the rear of the altar to capture that and as much of the rest of the scene as possible.  (Chronologically, it falls in the middle of the other images in the set.)

Untitled – 17-3077  |  Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  2017

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, also in the Gallery are the 120 Black and White Images of the ceremony that I called the Deacons’ Dozen.

Presbytery

On By themichaellamcollectionIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Not much of a blog post really, just a few photos of the old Presbytery building of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Georgetown, Guyana.

I think they began tearing it down this year (or it may have been last year, I don’t recall exactly), just the small portion to the back remains now.

Click on the images to see them in the Gallery.

House of God

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography5 Comments

The physical structure that believers gather within to offer thanks and praise to a higher being, their God, is often referred to as a church, temple, masjid, mandir, among many other names; but to me this is simply a shelter over the heads of those gathering; growing up as a Roman Catholic we are taught that the church is the people, yet we all refer to the building as the church 🙂

At 58 Mile, Mabura, along the Lethem trail there’s a church building that I almost always photograph in passing, I’ve meant to walk over on more than one occasion, but never did.  I don’t know which Christian denomination it belongs to, but seeing a quaint little church against the backdrop of the forest usually makes me think if we  were seeking a “place” to gather and worship, maybe out in the open among God’s creation is where it can be every once in a while, to remind us of the wonders of this home we call earth and the God who we believe created it and us.

Church at 58 Mile, Mabura.  |  Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF 24-105mm L

Another church that has caught my eye a few times as we travel through the Pakaraima mountains is the RC Church of St Francis of Assisi at Rukumuta village in the Pakaraima Mountains.  I have photographed it a few times but never caught the essence of it, I think this time I may have done it justice, although I excluded the building entirely (it’s to the right of the end of the frame of the photograph) I think that the idea of a church sitting here, feels right.

St Francis of Assisi RC Church, Rukumuta, Pakaraims Mountains, Guyana.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

I’ve often heard people complain about how the missionaries to the third world forced people to convert to Christianity, and while the idea certainly doesn’t sit well with me, the Amerindian people whom I have met, who are Christian never said anything about it, they don’t seem to dwell upon it like some westerners seem to, but I am sure that if the old beliefs are still there in some villages, I do hope that someone is keeping them up and recording them.

This reminded me of something I read last Sunday, about Saint Casilda.  According to legend, around the end of the first millennium, she was the daughter of a Muslim King, despite the conflict between Christians and Muslims she showed great kindness to the Christian prisoners.  She reportedly was cured of an illness while still a young woman by the healing waters from the shrine of San Vicente, and converted to Christianity soon after.

As I see it, she simply changed her method of worship, not her way of living nor the God she worshiped.  Is it possible for us to be open-minded about the existence of God, and the possibility that no matter what we call him/her, no matter what methods we use to praise God, that we can all be one people, that anyone showing kindness to another can be acknowledged for it and accepted as a fellow human being?

Click on the images to see them in the Collection along with other images in the Sepia Gallery.

2015 Deck – Week 50

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Not everyone believes in a supreme being, a creator of all that was, that is and that is to come; even fewer believe in the power of prayer to such an entity.

There are many religious beliefs and belief systems, but most followers in those believe in the power of prayer and in the idea that as humans we should choose to be good rather than evil.

I would never seek to force my belief upon another, express it, yes, try to explain it, maybe.

I dedicate this photo to those of my family and friends who have suffered this year, I hesitate to call names, but three stand out right away for me; from my alma mater, Saints Stanislaus College, I think that prayer and fellowship worked wonders, if not physically, then certainly mentally for people like Racquel and Dara, and hopefully for our friend Mercer.  To all of you, stay strong, and even if you don’t believe in prayer, believe in the friends and family who are there for you every step of the way.

In tacitus volverem apparuit  –  15-8945  |  2015

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 15

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Other than being in the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook Group, I’m also a member of a few other Facebook photography groups…  one of them is the Guyana Mobile Photographers, which focuses on photographs taken with mobile devices, such as my phone.  There was a suggestion of there being “challenges” for the members to push themselves, I had just walked out of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on a Sunday morning when Avinash suggested to the group to use “worship” as the theme, I quickly ran back inside with the phone in hand to see what I could snap…  I couldn’t believe my luck at this scene.

From the time I uploaded it I knew that I’d be using it as the Deck Photo for that week…

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos  |  Instagram

Click the image to see it in the Gallery, you can also check out how my experiment with mobile photography is going over on Instagram.

2013 Deck – Week 35

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

This week was somewhat uneventful, but I was fortunate to get an evening-time vantage point I’d never had before… due to some ongoing construction I was not able to use my Tripod as I wished, so I shot this one handheld, not the greatest, but I still liked it.

This is the Church on High Street, opposite Carnegie School of Home Economics, bordered by D’Urban Street, High Street and Leopold Street.

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery.

Every Tool

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, thoughts6 Comments

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.