Tag: flora

In the beginning…

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

Well, maybe not “the” beginning, just “a” beginning.

It was probably around 2007 that I began to pay more attention to what went into the frame, to what it was I was taking photographs of.  Prior to that it was mostly point, click, “look, isn’t that pretty??”  Most probably weren’t pretty at all, but family and friends always say “yes, it is”  –  In 2007,  somewhere amidst the generic photos, there began to emerge a few that stood out, and I think that I was seeing things, the things around me, differently, and in so doing I was capturing them differently, light was beginning to take on lifelike characteristics that would change how everything looked, and how everything could be captured on a few thousand pixels.

It was now not so important to capture every detail, but just the ones that would help tell the story, using light and dark, contrast and brightness to illustrate an idea, a concept, a feeling…  It was time to pay more attention to the composition rather than just the subject.

I decided to take a look back at the photos I took ten years ago, to see what, if anything, was worth sharing.  Most of the images I took were family oriented, so those didn’t count, but I was experimenting, looking around me and trying to capture something out of the ordinary (ordinary being the family photos, nothing captured can compare to even the ordinary of professional photographers, much less fine-art photographers).

I even tried my hand at pointing the camera at strange people, out in public, although I was still much more comfortable pointing at non-human subjects, those that might not complain or make a fuss.

And its also the year, I did my first Photo-Walk, not what would really be considered a photo walk, but myself, my brother, Andre, and two friends, Nikhil and Naseem.  We went for a drive “over the river” up to Wales estate on the West Bank of Demerara and I think up to Windsor Forest on the West Coast of Demerara, stopping every now and again to take some photos.

That photo-walk was somewhat of an eye-opener as well, in a relatively short distance, there was quite a lot to see, and a good variety of subjects and scenes to photograph as a result.

This isn’t a retrospective of any kind really, just taking a look at some photos with an eye that has had a decade of shooting, and processing them anew.    They were all shot on a bridge camera, or an advanced point-and-shoot camera, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, a 6 Megapixel camera with a 1/2.5” CCD sensor, so there’s not a lot of post processing I could do without delving into the realm of editing.

Back then I was mostly all about colour, vivid vibrant popping colour, so the monochromatic versions (BW) you see are how I see them today, not then.

I chose ten images to illustrate what I had accomplished that year, I don’t think I would have found very many, if any, more that are worth sharing.  I hope you enjoy a few.

All the images were reprocessed, and cropped.  Click on any image to see them in the Gallery.

Walkabout

On By themichaellamcollectionIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Just a photo.

I’ve had it processed for about a month now, but after waiting for the right words to say, I figured I’d just share it 🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  2016

Click on the image to see it in the Up East Gallery, along with some other choice images  🙂

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.

Cold

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry3 Comments

Rest gently in the palm of my hand,
know not the difference ‘tween mine
and your regular haunts.
Don’t fly, for your company I like,
You’re cold-blooded, much like
those I often come for,
Yet you live and your heart beats so fast,
Like the hooves of the horse I ride
across the last threshold.
Stay with me until my next ride,
’tis only moments away,
And then, then must I go;
For another waits for my embrace,
for my dark cloak to cover
and welcome forever…

Cold – 12-8171  |  Canon EOS 60D, Tamron 18-270mm  |  2012

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.   (Edited image, cloned areas to the left to remove stray foliage, for composition/aesthetic purposes)

© Photograph and Poem copyright to Michael C. Lam

Yakarinta

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography3 Comments

I generally don’t do many Panoramas, this is probably the first in a very long while, but there was this vista before me, and I wanted to remember it.

This is a combination of 17 individual portrait oriented images, they were taken from left to right, from the hill overlooking Charlie’s Place at Yakarinta.

Yakarinta 16-1875-1891  |  Composite Panoramic Image of 17 individual images

Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105 L  |  2016

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

’tis the East

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry4 Comments

Arise, Oh sun, and pierce the veil,
relinquish unto me
the warm embrace of heaven’s light,
the night, ’tis history.
Light kissed leaves and unveiled paths,
beckons to my feet
the way meanders, ever on,
away from the paved street.

Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105L  |  Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara. October 2015

The trodden path meanders, avoiding obstacles.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

Joyride

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography7 Comments

Growing up in Guyana, a joyride meant what it sounded like, jumping on a bicycle/ motorcycle and going out for a ride with friends and having fun, but it seems that up north it means and meant a completely different thing… I guess we were wrong.

Joyride – 16-1823  |  Canon EOS 60D, Sigm 10-20mm  |  2016, Lusignan, E.C.D, Guyana

Click on the image to see it in the “Out and About” Gallery, a rather quirky collection of images.

2015 Deck – Week 44

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography7 Comments

When I took this, the man who looked after the fields was rapidly approaching us… with tools in hand, so I didn’t even try multiple exposures; I knew that by shooting into the sun I’d blow the highlights, but it’s something I could live with, just to get this scene.

That tractor is probably twice my age, and it takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.

Takes a lickin’ |  Mahaica, 2015  |  Canon EOS 60D, SIgma 10-20mm

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2015 Deck – Week 41

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

For the duration of week 41 of 2015, I was out of circulation, I was in hospital for a bit of minor surgery, and amazingly, I got a few good pics with the phone…  😀

This is one that I favour above the other few good ones.

I think that my Instagram experiment this year was a success, I do not regret it at all, not with  a few gems like this coming from it:

Earth Tones (Brannon)  |  Instagram  |  Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 34

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I realise that this one might need some context…  which, in the eyes of some, makes it a less successful photograph that it could have been.  Of course, I could just as easily not give context and it could probably be a better photograph for it…

But, I will put in my few words anyway 😀

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm.

Main Street/ High Street, Georgetown.

Basically, I wanted a photo of the pedestrian in the distance with the recently knocked down / destroyed sign in the foreground; the sign that once indicated to drivers and pedestrians that there was a pedestrian crossing ahead.  🙂

But this photo got me to also thinking about the street upon which I took the photo; this portion you see is called High Street, the portion behind me (which is obviously not in the photo) is called Main Street, as you proceed further south it then changes to Avenue of the Republic and then back to High Street.  Why would what is effectively one street have four different named sections?  From what I’ve read, it was possibly once called simply “High Street”; the portion running through Cummingsburg was then named Main Street, and then when Guyana attained Republic status the portion running through Lacytown was renamed to Avenue of the Republic.  Interestingly, after a slight detour around St Saviour’s Church, it becomes Saffon Street, this, however, never seems to be considered as part of the “High Street” issue.

Stretches of streets within Georgetown which have multiple names is normally attributed to the fact that Georgetown was originally built as a number of different wards, and the streets were never meant to be contiguous, then the wards were joined together, the multiple names resulted, along with some streets having a slight turn to continue since the original ones were not in-line.  The wards involved in the High Street issue are Kingston (High Street), Cummingsburg (Main Street), Lacytown (Avenue of the Republic) and Stabroek / Werk-en-Rust – and part of Charlestown (High Street).

Click on the image to see it in the gallery.