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.
What can I say…?
It’s a photo… of some items left after a Hindu religious ritual on the seawall…
The colours caught my eye, the dropped and discarded incense sticks caught my eye… and I thought it would make a good photo.
It’s a photo. 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
Buildings with character always fascinate me, but often I will look at the scene as I am passing and think, “it doesn’t feel right”; that has worked against me a few times already when one day I pass by and the building has been demolished. If it were just for a record of the building, then any photo would do, but I don’t just want a record, I want a photo that speaks to me.
There’s a mosque / masjid at La Bonne Intention (LBI) that I often pass, and consider that there’s a photo there somewhere, but I seldom see what it is that I should be photographing, I’ve stopped to photograph it twice, the first time I was trying to force the photo, but the second time, I was about three villages away and saw the skies to the south and thought that this was a good opportunity to try the photo(s) that I wanted.
Even before reaching the mosque I knew that I’d be using multiple exposures for some HDR processing after.
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | HDR from 3 Exposures.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
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.
Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, f/4.0, ISO100
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck Project
Lately, I’ve been very busy, although depending on your point-of-view I might also have been giving priorities to the “wrong” things; for my myself, I say I’ve been busy.
I tell people that I’ve been busy, so I haven’t updated this blog, and updated the Deck Project, they look at me askance and think I’m either lying or stretching the truth, but it’s a matter of perception I suppose.
Often, what we see in a photograph is also a matter of perception, this image is one I overlooked when choosing my photo for week 9 of the Deck Project this year; when I say “overlooked”, I mean that I did not see then the potential that I saw when going back through the images the second time.
I was looking at a photograph recently of what appeared to be a woman holding a young girl lying limp across her arms, I later realized that it was a young man in her arms, but the combination of dark hair and a dark material near the head gave the long hair I usually associate (firstly) with girls, the features of the youth were very smooth and “pretty”, and he was attired in a hospital gown, all adding together to skew my perception.
I’ve also been trying to look at scenes differently and change my perspective, also altering my perception of the scene itself. Anyway, all of this preamble is just to introduce you tot he image that I had also titled “Perception” 🙂
12:55 pm | Red filter | Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm lens
1/320s, f/11, ISO 100, 10mm – Processed in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex
Click on the image to see it larger in the Black and White Gallery of the Collection.
The fascination with all things coastal continues! Of course, it’s more like searching for images that I like and since most of my time seems spent on the coast, that’s what you’ll get 🙂
The fishing boats at Lusignan, always seem to compel me to take a few photos, even if I never use them, but this one worked well for me, I think my processing went a tad overboard (no pun intended) but at the end of it all I still liked the final image.
I was considering a Dutch title for the image since the word Moored comes from the Dutch word Meren (according to some dictionary I was reading), but then the name Lusignan was from France, so I went with a French title instead (not that anyone really cares) 😀
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 1/250s, f/10, ISO 100
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images for this year’s Deck Project
This week I will let the photo do the talking.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
When I saw this flag, I knew I wanted a good photo of it, but never really processed it until now. This was taken on a photowalk that the Guyana Photographer’s Facebook group did in January of 2013.
I think I agree with Nikhil that my definitive photograph involving Jhandi flags was this one from last year’s Deck Project, but if you’re going to photograph along the coastlands of Guyana, you most likely will end up with Jhandi flags in some images.
I don’t see the Black ones as often as I see the Red, Yellow and White ones.
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 1/200s, f/10, 10mm, ISO100
Click on the image to see it in the Collection, along with others from the “Out and About” album
Something from last year 🙂 2013 was a good year, but then I think upon reflection, every year is a good year, there are always rough patches, but we live, we learn, we love, we laugh, we lose some hair, we leave behind the things we prefer not to follow us into the new year.
Where my photographs are concerned, I think I got a few good ones, a few great ones, but overall, I think I just got less time to go out and get photos from farther afield. But I think that I did a fair job of the Deck Project.
For the new year, I encourage anyone reading this to “Fly”, spread your wings and soar above the troubles of the world and find peace within yourself, I will be trying to do this myself.
Canon T1i, Tamron 18-270mm | 65mm, ISO 200, 1/320s, f/10
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with a few other Avian (Bird) Photos
On a midday walk with Nikhil, We had to pass a Hindu family on the Seawall who were conducting a ritual, supposedly to Mother Durga (Goddess Durga), because of the yellow Jhandi flag.
I didn’t want to intrude, so I took a photo from a distance (and subsequently cropped it for composition), I thought it was a scene that should be recorded (even if just for myself)
I’ve always seen the various Jhandi flags along the coast, but only recently decided to ask about the colour, specifically in this instance. There is so much of the Hindu culture that is unknown to most of us, and the significance of various rituals and items are lost on us. I even tried searching the internet for Yellow Jhandi Flag, and got a Trinidadian website telling me that the yellow is for Lord Krishna, while a local hindu woman told me it was for Mother Durga and that it was customary to have it alongside a Red flag.
It’s not a great photo, but it is representative of part of our culture here in Guyana, and it is a period piece, with a modern mode of transportation in evidence 🙂 It is also a scene that I don’t see often enough.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
Sunrises and Sunsets are considered a cliché type of photograph by many, yet I am still drawn to them, not as often as before, but I still enjoy a good sunrise or sunset, and I enjoy taking photos of them too 🙂
When I take a photo of a sunrise or sunset, I try to include some other object of interest, since a sunrise is just a sunrise and a sunset just a sunset (well, most times, there are possibly exceptions).
I was driving home, when I saw some lovely pastel to darker colours in the late afternoon sky, and thought I should at least stop somewhere to see if I could get a nice photo, the tide was in, and I spotted someone line-fishing, probably for Cuirass, and quickly snapped off a few shots before walking to the seawall to see what else there may be.
As it turned out, I’m very happy I took those shots, it came out well. I hope you like it.
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery
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