Tag: man

Mashramani 2012 – Children’s Parade

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography3 Comments

I have to begin by apologising for the amount of photographs in the album on the site… I normally go just for fairly close shots, but I thought that this year I’d try to get some of the whole shots with the costumes, I’m not too good at it, but I’ve been asked many times about why I don’t have the nice big costumes.  Also, the Children’s parade this year was very engaging and the costumes very nice, and I think there were more of them too  🙂

Every year I think that the Children’s Parade is better to attend than the Adult’s Parade, it is shorter, even though the amount of entrants might be on par, even though they don’t speed down the road, they seem to be more organised and better managed, and this results in a very good flow of groups and floats down the street.

The sides of the street is also less crowded so as a spectator, I can enjoy it more and as a Photographer, I can get the photographs easier  🙂  without being elbowed and shoved, and possibly trampled.

I know it may be a lot of photographs, but I think you may find at least a few that appeal to you  🙂  Click on the image below to see the entire collection in the Gallery.  Or just click this TOP 25 link for a select 25 images.

2011 Deck – Week 51

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography4 Comments

I had shortlisted four images for this blog-post, two of them were too much in keeping with the general theme of the last few weeks, so I discarded those (for later publication) and one was somehow reminiscent of photos I’ve seen from Nikhil and some other local photogs, so I ended up with this one.

I titled it “Ritual at Dawn” because I had inadvertently caught some people in the frame, I think they may have been Hindus out to perform a seaside ritual (I think I should enquire more about this)

I was a bit dissatisfied with the original capture, but was taken enough by the scene to try to “salvage” the image.  I tried a single image HDR tone-mapping, but that didn’t work out as I expected.  I then decided to go for a pseudo-HDR, since I hadn’t actually taken multiple exposures, I created the multiple exposures in Lightroom (using a 1.5ev on the original image) In the image with the +1.5ev I wanted to get more detail from the rocks on the shore, so I used a gradient to adjust the exposure in that area.  Using the three new exposures I did an HDR process in Nik HDR Efex Pro, and although the full-coloured resulting image was OK, I thought that in this instance I would get a better image using a black and white HDR rendering.

Ritual at Dawn

2011 Deck – Week 48

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography9 Comments

Because I am behind schedule posting my Deck images this year, it is co-incidental that the image for the 48th Week is actually appropriate for today, the day I am posting it…

Everyone has beliefs, even if you say you don’t believe in anything, that in itself is a belief.  I believe in Santa Claus!  Maybe not the person, but the idea, the idea of giving, of making children happy, even of the stories and the legends that surround this figure.

I like to be a child again every Christmas and believe in the magic of giving, in the magic of the gift that was the Christ-child.

To all my friends and family, to anyone who happens across this page, whether you believe in Jesus, in Allah, in the pantheon of Hindu gods, in the Buddha, in a Supreme Being or in no particular power, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings!

Merry Christmas!

2011 Deck – Week 43

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography6 Comments

Every year I tell myself that I will try to get some really good photos during the festival of Diwali (or Deepavali), the Hindu Festival of Lights, I haven’t really made the effort to do this for the last few years.  This year I thought I could at least get a photo of one of the many men (yes, and sometimes women/girls) who spin lighted steel-wool in the streets.  I think to myself, it can’t be hard right? How can I mess it up?

And then I forget the Tripod….

So, I really wanted to use one of those shots, so here it is 🙂

2011 Deck – Week 40

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Sometimes we just take a walk out to the seawall for, well, a walk  🙂  We go to see the boats, walk in the water, enjoy the breeze… well, the children go walking in the water anyway.

This photo was taken on one of those walks, there’s a spot at Lusignan where the boats that have finished their day’s fishing are moored, the fishermen are finishing up their day’s work, where the catch of the day is off-loaded and packed for sale, it was at this spot we walked to, my daughter and her cousin are down at the water’s edge, and I’m walking ahead to look back and, or course, snap some photographs  🙂

I could try saying a lot more, but I think in this instance the photo can speak for itself  🙂

At Play

2011 Deck – Week 38

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography2 Comments

On this week, I only went out to take photos on one occasion, and on that occasion I took 45 photos, and I was way odd that afternoon, most were very underexposed.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t feeling in the mood, I was fairly enthusiastic, I was enjoying the fresh air, the brief walk, and the scenery, but I never once looked down at the screen to check my photos, no chimping.

I was fairly disappointed but one of them had to work 🙂  I chose one that appealed to me in a general sense and felt that it would work well in monochrome, after playing with the processing for a while I found I wasn’t getting what I felt the scene needed, so I took the file into Nik’s HDR Efex to try a single image BW tone-mapping, and amazingly got what I thought was a good final processed image.  I would never consider this a true HDR, since I only used one image, but the tone-mapping of the HDR software helped bring out the details that I wanted in this image.

Walking West

2011 Deck – Week 36

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Since the members of the Guyana Photographers (Facebook Group) started doing PhotoWalks it has provided me with other opportunities to get out and do some photography, as well as to see and admire the photos emerging in the group from these walks,  there truly is a lot of enthusiasm and talent among the members.

On one of those walks (this one was to the villages of Good Hope and Triumph, I got what I thought were good shots, then I saw what others put up and realized that mine were all just OK  🙂

I fell into the trap set by all the enthusiasm and put my better shots onto the Group’s Page, without thinking to reserve at least one for this post, so a-hunting I went through my images for one that I could use.   You can check out some of the photos from the group in the  3rd Photo Walk album Facebook.

...beyond the shore

2011 Deck – Week 25

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography14 Comments

This week, the seawall continues its pull on me, when the “feeling” for photography is not with you, go somewhere that relaxes you, even if just for a few minutes.  A short walk along the wall and you either come away relaxed or relaxed and with a few photos that were worth the walk  🙂

This week’s shot may not be the best technically, but it captured a “moment”, and that’s what I liked about it.  People go to the seawall for many reasons, one of the customary ones is exercise, you feel the fresh air blowing over you and you feel rejuvenated, and you can run or walk, and like this guy, exercise your wrists  🙂

2011 Deck – Week 21

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography14 Comments

If you’re going to do a project then you should at least make every effort to keep it up, right?  I seem to be lagging behind too much, something’s got to give!  Anyway, I found a few minutes and I decided to post my image for last week before it got too late.

Finding the time to post on the blog is one thing, but apparently things are getting to the point where finding the time to get the photograph itself is becoming a challenge, definitely not good.  Last week I took four photographs, yes four, F-O-U-R, 4!  and three of them were of the same scene, so that left me with a choice between two images. Bah!  I can’t let this happen again.

This is not a great image, it probably isn’t a good one, but it’s what I have and since I am sticking to the rules I made myself, I have to choose one of those images I took within the week, 🙂  I beg forgiveness in advance.

Passion Sunday 2011 – Diocese of Georgetown, Guyana

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography3 Comments

Sunday past was the celebration of the Passion of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, also known as Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday, a remembrance of the day that Jesus entered the Holy CIty of Jerusalem, the beginning of His final days of ministry upon earth.  This marks the beginning of Holy Week for Roman Catholics; for the past few years the Passion Sunday celebration has been on a grander scale than that of my youth, all the Parishes of the area process to the Church of Our Lady of Fatima, and there the blessing of the Palms take place, thence the procession of all those gathered takes place into the grounds of the GCC Ground, Bourda, once famous for its Cricket matches.

As my sister pointed out to me, this was more a recording of the event rather than a serious attempt at photography, but there still might be a gem or two to be gathered from the day  🙂  I’m still not able to “make time” for the blogging and following up on other blogs, but too many friends and family were waiting for this one, so I just had to get through these photos at least  🙂

Click on the photograph below to go to the gallery for photos of the event.