At the ready

Walking around with a DSLR tends to intimidate people around me, or at the very least make them change the way they were behaving; their attitude, their posture, their general demeanor changes when they see a camera.  It might also be my own approach, I am more comfortable dealing with scenes where humans are incidental or just a part of it rather than the main subject.

I’ve talked about my experience with the DXO One before, its just so small and handy that once you get the hang of it, you can get some images that would otherwise be missed.  I was out on a walk with some other photogs, big DSLR in hand and saw a couple sitting on the seawall with a motorcycle a bit past them.  I slipped the DXO One out of my pocket in case it panned out to be a good shot….

I took about two images on the approach, but as I drew alongside, I saw a man walking in the distance and snapped two more, and was quite pleased with one of them.  Having a camera at the ready definitely works out better sometimes 🙂


I guess my point is, as a photographer, we have to be at the ready at all times, because seconds, or fractions of a second makes the difference sometimes.

To see the image along with other images in the Black and White gallery, simply click on the image above.


The House on Sixth

Its been quite a while since I’ve blogged anything here, it’s actually been quite a while since I’ve done any serious photography with the DSLR.  Since I began using a smart phone with a decent camera, I’ve done quite a bit of work on my Instagram project, and the simple joy of pulling out a phone and snapping a photo has reduced the urge to use (or lug around) any larger camera.  But, mobile devices have their limitations, and there are still images that need to be captured differently.

That being said, I made an effort, to stop the vehicle one afternoon, and snap a few frames of a house that I keep passing, and promising to get a photo of, so here it is 🙂


Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105 f/4L  |  Processed in Nik HDR Efex and Lightroom  |  2017


Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black & White Gallery


In the beginning…

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

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  🙂


Yakarinta

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


Whither We Wander

I’m not sure what it is, but I sometimes sit and wish I were back on the trail, out in the open with a dust cloud behind me, potentially unseen or unphotographed vistas before me, a cold beer in my hand and the wonder of creation to explore.  I’m a town-man, I doubt I’d survive too long out there… but the calling is there.

Here’s a scene from Kato 🙂


Whither We Wander 16-1652  |  Kato, Potaro-Siparuni, Guyana  | 2016


Click on the image to see it in the Gallery


At Day’s End

I don’t want to be the one telling you a story in words, I want to be the one telling you a story in a photo, but who’s story is it?

Are you seeing and interpreting the scene in the same way I do?  Does it matter?

The photograph as it was taken tells one story, what that story is may be entirely up to the viewer, after I have processed it, there are some subtle and some not so subtle changes to the finished image (not edited, nothing has been taken out or added), in this manner, I hope to direct the line of thinking in a certain way, whether it works or not is another matter, but in this way I am interpreting the scene my way, and lending to it my feelings; how the viewer sees it is still up to the viewer.

Many people take scenes literally, others concoct long tales based on the elements in the frame,  others may just have an emotional reaction but not know precisely why;  if it affects you, then I am happy.


At Day’s End – 14-3289  |  Lusignan, East Coast Demerara  |  2014


Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black and White Collection.


Spray

I like my camera, whatever it happens to be at the time, and I think I care it as I would any piece of equipment I use regularly.  I’m not one of those photographers who treats it like a paper-thin piece of porcelain; its a camera, something I use, but I have to tell you that when it comes to salt water, I get a little nervous.   I like the waves at the seawall, I enjoy the spray on my face, and the sound of the crash upon the rocks.  I really love some of those amazing photos of the waves towering over the wall (I don’t like the resulting flooding though), but I am very hesitant to be anywhere near the actual water with my camera, and since I like my seascape photos to be wide, getting a good photo would mean being right up there in the spray, so for now, I’ll just keep being cautious and get the ones I’m comfortable with 🙂


Spray 14-3416  |  Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm  |  Thomaslands, Georgetown, Guyana  |  2014


Click on the image to see it in the Seawall Gallery