2012 Deck – Week 18

On June 8, 2012June 8, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Lunar Perigee and the 2012 Supermoon

In 2011 and 2012 there was much reference to the term Supermoon, which is an astrological term, as opposed to the Astronomical term Perigee. What was so Super about it? Well, I was out there and it looked like a regular full moon, but we’d all love to believe that we could see it larger and brighter than at other times 🙂

Perigee is the time at which the moon is closest in its orbit to the earth (doesn’t matter what phase it’s in), while the Supermoon refers to a New or Full moon that occurs when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to the earth in its orbit. So I suppose that the perfect Supermoon would be a Full moon at Perigee 🙂 (incidentally, the time when the moon is furthest away from the earth in its orbit is called Apogee)

The Perigee varies from around 357,000km to 369,000km (in roundish figures), and while a difference of 12,000km sounds like a lot, the difference to the naked eye is negligible.

On May 5th, the moon was at its fullest at 1 minute to its perigee, so that’s about as perfect a Supermoon as we can get I suppose.

Anyway… on May 5th this year, I was up the coast near Lusignan when this year’s “Supermoon” was supposed to occur, two things happened (well, more than two, but two that are relevant to this post); I had lent out my telephoto lens, so getting a close-up was out of the question, and the clouds were conspiring against me, So I ended up with a wide shot full of clouds 🙂

After playing hide-and-seek with the moon for several minutes I gave up and headed out, one that I took would work, so this is one that worked 🙂

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

2011 Deck – Week 52

On December 31, 2011December 31, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography6 Comments

The final week of the year, and the final photo for the Deck Project for this year. This one I can say I like, it has been “edited” a bit in addition to the standard processing, I added a “purplish” gradient to the sky for effect.

Another year has ended, I am a bit disappointed with myself, and I think I need to refocus for the new year, I plan on restarting the Deck Project, it gives me a sense of purpose for my photography, so I wouldn’t want to stop it. I think that Nikhil may be re-starting his 365 Project that he did a year ago, I look forward to that.

As we end this year and look forward to 2012, I present a photo that I think represents many Coastland Guyanese, a typical afternoon on the coast, enjoying the winds of the Atlantic and just “Shooting the Breeze” (chatting, talking, gaffing!)

Alone in the Crowd

On February 14, 2011February 14, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography34 Comments

This was the photograph I had in mind for last week’s Deck Photo, but then the horse-cart took over 🙂

I still find it amazing that in a crowded room or a public place full of people, I can be next to my wife, and feel as if we’re alone, just the two of us. It was one of those things you read about in poems and novels but didn’t quite get until it happened to you. For more than half of my life, that has been us, I can look into her eyes and we’d be alone wherever we were. I look forward to many more years like that.

Well, I took this photograph, so it’s not of us, but you get the idea 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!