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.
This is not normally a photo that I would share, I snapped it at the seashore and didn’t think much of it, but when I was looking at it in Lightroom I kept getting drawn into it, there was a sense of unease, of vertigo even… there’s a depth to it that I can’t easily describe in words…
Of course, it could just be that I was hungry at the time 🙂
2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with other “Odds and Ends”
Each year I normally do a post on the Children’s Parade, then follow up with one that I’d choose for the Deck, this year, call it laziness, or expediency, or simply a desire to show the one that I was excited about, I will do it all in one post.
This year’s parade was marred by some rain, and when I say marred, I mean for me and my equipment, most of the children seemed to quite enjoy themselves in the changing weather 🙂
I got a few good photos, more than a few “eh” photos and maybe one or two better than average ones…
The one I chose for the Deck may not have the same impact on the viewer as it had on me as I am still fresh with the emotion and excitement of the moment… the rain was still falling, my sister Mary was trying to hover near me with an umbrella (she knows how expensive camera gear is) and the young man who was pulling the main float of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs had seen me and was dancing and heading straight for me performing all the way.
I don’t normally chimp, but soon after he had passed and there was a short lull in the parade I scrolled back to see if I got anything that was usable, and even on the on-camera screen I could tell, it was about 85% good. 🙂
Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, 2015
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images for this year’s Deck Project.
The other images I have from the Children’s Parade are in the Mashramani 2015 – Children’s Parade Gallery, click on the image below to see them all in the Gallery
OK, the title is corny, but I couldn’t resist it…
I wanted to get the rocks in the foreground and the couple on the wall… this was one of those shooting from the hip instances, I didn’t want to disturb them by stooping down and pointing a big DSLR directly at them.
Anyway, I got most of what I wanted and also got one of the large telecommunications dish from the GT&T compound. and it works… somehow…
I figured that Valentine’s day is almost here, why not put up a photo with a “couple”, and although I meant for it to be a “loving” sort of photo, the title stuck because of the rocks in the foreground… sorry, couldn’t help it 😀 I guess I could have tried for “Sending my Love” or something like that… nah!
2015 | Seawall, Thomaslands, Georgetown.
Click on the image to see it along with others in the Sepia Gallery of the Collection.
I almost regret using the photo “Removing the Lines” for the Four Days, Four Photos challenge that James Broscombe had set for Nikhil and I… It is a photo that had something to say… and would have allowed me to have something to say too 🙂
That left me going through the rest of my week’s haul looking for something that stood out 🙂
Although I go out with hopes of getting nice landscapes or seascapes, I am usually also looking for anything else that might be useful to my own vision of my photography, and recently, I’ve been shooting some unusual scenes (for me, anyway)
This is one I think that is more Nikhil’s subject type, but not necessarily his style, There was something about the way the shadow fell that caught my attention, and then the way the shadow changed as the surface upon which it fell changed made me look again.
In this light (no pun intended) I was drawing a comparison to the way our actions and our attitudes to others often elicit different reactions and responses from each person, while we cannot control or even predict how others react to what we say or do, we should be observant of that reaction, so that we may learn from it, and be aware of it for future reference.
All shadows are not equal, and each shadow changes with the surface upon which it is cast, sometimes the shadow is sharp, and defined, at other times it can be diffused or even murky.
Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm | 1/320s, f/10, ISO200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images so far from this year’s Deck Project.
In Georgetown, once called the Garden City, there were once many tree-lined avenues, it was once adorned by colonial and Victorian styled buildings throughout the length and breadth of the city, and the canals were bridged, and those bridges adorned by concrete railings or balustrades that were pleasing to the eye.
With the current rate of demolition of those railings by errant (more accurately worded would be “criminal”) drivers of minibuses and taxis, there will soon be no more of them around, and the powers that be do not seem to want to extricate from these culprits the requisite price to replace the damage with suitable aesthetically pleasing railings, when they do replace them, it is with crudely welded utilitarian structures, more suitable to a prison cell.
There… I’ve vented enough 🙂
I photographed this one on the portion of road that bridges upper High Street with Main Street, this would have once seen the trains that serviced the coast of Demerara, would have been covered in soot from the engine stack, not it is occasionally white-washed, and more often left to have mildew and vines grow upon it. 🙂
Why did I photograph it? it was there… it seemed like a good idea at the time 🙂
2015 | Canon 60D, Canon 40mm | Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana
Click on the image to see it in the “Odds and Ends” Gallery in the Collection
In the larger picture, the broader landscape, what is the message?
Is there a message in the bottle, or is the bottle the message?
Do we read the message, do we even notice the bottle?
2015 | Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm
Click on the image to see it in the Seawall Gallery in the Collection
The driveway to the Cara Lodge hotel definitely says “welcome” to me.
I find this place to be warm and welcoming, and while many visitors to Guyana always mention the warmth of the people, I’ve found that the staff I’ve encountered here is that way with everyone, locals and visitors, and that’s refreshing.
2013 | Cara Lodge Hotel, Quamina Street, Georgetown, Guyana
This is Georgetown, Guyana, if you walk through the streets, you’re bound to come across a few characters before you walk a few city blocks, photographing them is a whole different story.
Most people are very wary of cameras, they believe you’re either some foreigner trying to “make money off their image” or “from the papers”, apparently people just being photographers who do it for fun or for art isn’t something they’ve quite gotten used to as yet.
When Nikhil pointed out this man to me, we were walking toward the curb, and I quickly snapped photos from the hip… almost like a spray and pray technique 🙂
I had the Canon EOS 60D with the Canon 40mm pancake lens on, as I never did get the “shoot from the hip” method quite right, this one had to have some rotational cropping done to make it presentable, but I really wanted one to share as there was something about this fellow that made a photo compelling.
Seen large, he’s wearing a t-shirt (or vest) under that shirt that has USA emblazoned across the chest… 🙂
2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Canon 40mm Pancake Lens
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some other attempts at street photography
On a Saturday after work (which is generally after noon) I try to make a stop along the seawall, just to walk, feel the breeze, and hopefully get a few photos in, the harsh sunlight in the middle of the day is generally considered to be “not the best” light for photography… but for me, it’s the time I have available mostly, so I have to make it work 🙂
I’ve walked past this particular piece of wood many times, but never saw anything I wanted to shoot… that happens a lot to me, but this day, the sky had some nice striations, after squinting and peering at the sky for a while I decided it had enough detail to work with for what I had in mind 🙂
Thomaslands, Georgetown. | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the 2015 Deck Project.
An outside view of the Hotel,
I had dropped by hoping for a nice “blue hour”, and took some exterior photos of the hotel. Tripod in hand, bag on my back, I kept moving from position to position for more than an hour… I think the guard was getting suspicious even though he was aware of what I was doing 🙂
Got there maybe 5:30pm, took my first shot by 5:45pm… this one was just about 6:30pm
2013 | Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown, Guyana
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