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.
I haven’t been out to the seawalls in a while, I should do something about that!
This one was take a couple years back, came across it this morning going through the catalog for 2020, I processed it and exported, and its only when I started typing this blog post that I realised that its a decent-ish Street Photograph. There are Street ‘togs who would seek to contrive something similar by waiting for the right moment, it just so happens this one was accidental in a way, I actually paid no attention tot he writing on the wall, I was focused on the tyre, the wall and the approaching boy on his bicycle.
Bad Boy – 20-3414 Annandale Seawall, East Coast Demerara
Even after realising the Street Photography nature of the image, I would still keep it in my Seawall Folder 🙂 Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other Seawall Images.
Depending on where you source your information from, some places are saying that wearing masks will help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease, some are saying the masks won’t help prevent you getting it, but if you have symptoms, then you should wear a mask in public… regardless, in some places in Guyana, masks are starting to appear with more frequency.
Before I myself am sent into lockdown, I think I’ll keep trying to capture street scenes.
Packing – 20-0736
Many supermarkets, staying open to supply us with our necessities, are mandating that their staff be masked, some are assisting with sanitisers as you enter, one I went into even gave me a mask to wear while in their store.
Inspect – 20-0753
Taking no chances, this Chinese man masks up in the market, probably getting some fresh produce for his restaurant. Some Chinese restaurants have taken to doing Take-Away only, through a window, helping to limit exposure while still serving their customers
Unpack – 20-0756
At a shopping “mall” – even though this isn’t the sharpest image, I’ve always found that for Street Photography, the story matters more than the technical perfection of the image.
Packing – 20-0758
20-0777
Take every precaution possible. Be informed, beware of fake “cures and remedies”.
And the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a trusted source of anything health related, including COVID-19, Keep checking their page for Updated information and guidance; here’s a link to their COVID-19 Advice page.
Please desist from spreading via social media (especially WhatsApp, unconfirmed data or things you’ve heard; be informed, be safe, be responsible.
Click on the images to see them in the Gallery, along with other images “In the Streets”
For me, the Photographic Process encompasses several stages, some think of it as simply taking a photograph with a device such as a camera or a phone, but I’d like to just mention the stages that I consider part and parcel of the Photographic Process, all of this just to speak specifically about one part that has to do with some of my black and white images.
The photographic process begins with the Photographer’s Eye, seeing that which is intended to be captured, since we all see things differently, this first part starts the differentiation of one image from the next and “my image” from “your image”. Secondly, our camera adjustments, for many this is done using the automatic settings, but for others it may entail making several adjustments to modes and setting values for shutter speed, aperture and ISO; these settings are usually determined by the lighting conditions and the desired “look” of the resulting image. Next comes the composition, determining what to include in the frame, what to exclude, and a variety of other compositional techniques. Then we click the shutter button.
In our current digital age, this is usually the end of the process, it gets shared on social media, etc., some may pass the image through a simple software for preset filters etc before sharing. For photographers, this has only been half the work, the next stage is to process the image, depending upon the ultimate use of the image this can be done in a myriad of ways; for me, I seldom do weddings or portraits, so generally the image is intended as ”art”, yes, it sounds pretentious, but that’s what I usually intend, so I would often process the image through Adobe Lightroom, and for many of my black and white images, I also use DXO Nik Silver Efex for the black and white processing. Once the image is processed to my satisfaction, it is then shared to my site or to social media. For me, however, the process ends at another stage, when I actually have the image printed.
Out There – 14-5265 | Oniabo Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana | 2014
The size of the printed image is usually limited by a few factors, including the size (usually in megapixels) of the original capture, the content of the frame (composition) and the type of processing done to the image. Some of my black and white processing can result in things that would not look well if printed large, such as today’s image. I used a high contrast process and worked to heighten the structure and clarity of the image, in so doing there is a resultant “haloing” in existing high contrast areas of the image, when enlarged this can lend the impression that the image was “edited” that portions were spliced in, when in fact they were not. So, in short, I most likely would not print this image large, possibly 16” x 24”’ as the largest print, this would retain the integrity of the image for me.
This is not a new photograph, it lay unprocessed in my files since 2014, I went scanning through the archives again this morning and spotted it, wondering why I never processed it (as usual). It is not the latest addition to the Oniabo Collection.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black and White album.
When I had taken this photo a year ago, I knew that I would like the final result, not perfect, but it has that bit of “soul” that I always want in a photo. Originally I had stopped to take a photo of just the shack, then my daughters and niece came along playing around it, as Christine climbed in and sat, I decided that this was going to work even better.
The title came from some random thoughts jumping around my head, originally I wanted there to be a reference to the type of hut; it’s a fisherman’s hut by the ocean, but no title immediately popped to mind.
As I thought about it, the phrase “Fishers of Men” came to mind (a phrase used by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew), but with the girl in the photo, that didn’t work, then her name correlated somewhat with that idea, Christine, from the word Christ (as in Jesus Christ), and then it suddenly dawned on me that Jesus was often referred to as the son of a Carpenter, and Christine’s father is a Carpenter, so voila!
It’s a stretch, but it works for me.
This is also one of the photos that sat on an SD card for a year, to think I almost lost it…
The Carpenter’s Daughter | 2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana, South America.
Finding Treasure. That’s what it feels like when you pop a memory card into your camera and realize that it is full of images from a year ago, it was a 4GB card, but it was full of RAW files.
I don’t recall how it is that I never copied off the images, but given that it was not one of the cards I normally use, but more of a backup or emergency use card, it seems that I forgot that I had used it for a few days of shooting.
As is usual for me, it will take time to get to the images, but here is one that I spotted and wanted to share.
Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20 | Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana
Click on the image to see it in the collection along with others in the People Gallery
I was going to use one of Instagram posts from last night, but as that is already fresh in the memory of the handful of people who follow my posts (here as well as on Instagram and Facebook) I decided to use one more photo of my youngest daughter, Malina.
Malina | Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm L
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the entire collection of images for this year’s Deck Project.
Today is Roots Day (not the day I took the photo, but the day I am posting it, December 23rd).
Although not a widespread day of observance, it’s probably a good thing for us to look back at who we are, who our parents and their ancestors were, where we’ve come and what has made us who we are today.
We may also want to reflect on these things and consider what we are passing on to the next generation.
That being said, here’s a photo of my youngest daughter… part of the next generation.
Today we honour one of the more famous of the Street Photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson (born August 22, 1908). I won’t try to mimic or even come close to his type and style of street photography… but here’s a Georgetown Scene for you.
Morning Munchies
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some other Street Photographs.
I don’t think I could have found a better photo for this week if I tried! (ok, so I tried, and still couldn’t find one). When doing a photography project it is almost impossible to keep photos of your children out of it…. 😀
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