Tag: man

2015 Deck – Week 25

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I don’t generally do portraits, I never am very happy with the outcome when I do try, but at the insistence of my friend Fidal, I went out to do a few informal family portraits for his family.  I had processed the usual ones and given over to him, of course… there are ALWAYS unprocessed images, aren’t there?

This is one that is more along the lines of what I’d normally shoot….  there’s a bit of “street photography” a bit of “landscape” in there, and I got some of the cloud details that I like too.

Canon EOS 6D  |  Canon EF24-105mm f/4L  |  1/250s, f/4, 28mm, ISO 320

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 24

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

In today’s world, it often seems that the old tradition of “family” has fallen by the wayside.  The divorces are common, marriages not worth fighting for, child abuse seems more commonplace than before, parents and children yelling at each other; it even seems sometimes that some people care more for their pet than for their own flesh and blood relatives, so when I saw a father and son working together on a motorcycle, I just had to sneak a photo of it.

It may not always be this way, but like much of our lives, its these moments that matter most.

Rodrigues and Rodrigues  |  Instagram  |  Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck project

Street

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

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.

2015 Deck – Week 18

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck2 Comments

I’m not a street photographer, far from it, I am not only very hesitant to engage with people on the street, I am also very afraid that when taking candid shots they will see me shooting and think I’m up to something nefarious and then accost me (verbally and physically).  While I like the genre, understand some things about it, try to encourage others into pursuing it, I don’t see myself excelling at it at any time.

While there are times when I am afraid to take a photo of people as they go about their daily lives, there are those other moments when the people of Guyana surprise me (whether they mistake me for a tourist or are just in that mood, I don’t know) and they literally ask for their photo to be taken, most times I am still hesitant, but I do sometimes simply swing the camera in their direction and shoot.

Georgetown Seawall  |  Seawall Public Road

By the way, that’s a Banks Beer in his hand 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 15

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Other than being in the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook Group, I’m also a member of a few other Facebook photography groups…  one of them is the Guyana Mobile Photographers, which focuses on photographs taken with mobile devices, such as my phone.  There was a suggestion of there being “challenges” for the members to push themselves, I had just walked out of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on a Sunday morning when Avinash suggested to the group to use “worship” as the theme, I quickly ran back inside with the phone in hand to see what I could snap…  I couldn’t believe my luck at this scene.

From the time I uploaded it I knew that I’d be using it as the Deck Photo for that week…

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos  |  Instagram

Click the image to see it in the Gallery, you can also check out how my experiment with mobile photography is going over on Instagram.

Charlestown

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

I lived in Charlestown (Georgetown, Guyana) for a short while after we got married, if I crossed the street, I’d then be in Albouystown.  Back then I had my first access to a digital camera, an Agfa ePhoto 1280 (Megapixel? what’s that?).  It was mainly for work purposes, but through it I learnt a few things about digital photography, and it probably rekindled my interest in photography at the time.

I had read somewhere that Charlestown (and Charles Street) was named after the Duke of Brunswick, Charles William Ferdinand (or Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, his original German name), but why a Ward of Georgetown, Guyana is named after a German Duke is a question I can’t answer.

Charlestown, at the time I lived there, was still quite “quaint”, in respect to the type of buildings, but even then things had begun to change, with one or two square concrete building being erected where once stood more aesthetic wooden structures, but times change, and change is inevitable.  Fortunately, change is also slow, comparatively, and some of the older buildings are still standing.  I walked, rode or drove past an old wooden building on the corner of Broad Street and Charles Street for many years, when I took up photography a bit more seriously, I kept an eye on it and kept putting off taking a photo, one day I decided that the “For Sale” sign meant that it may be bought and torn down, so I made the extra effort to stop and spend a few minutes grokking the scene seeking out a nice photo, waiting for the “perfect” photo was out of the question, so I just wanted a “nice” one.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-500  |  1/400s, f/10, ISO 400

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the “Georgetown, Guyana” album.

2015 Deck – Week 14

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography3 Comments

I never really liked the whole Kite-flying thing…  don’t get me wrong, the idea always appealed, but the fascination wore off minutes after the kite was actually airborne.  As Easter approached each year (when I was somewhat younger, anyway) I would look forward to the whole idea of visiting relatives, flying kites, picnicking and so forth, but in hindsight, it was the totality of the experiences that made Easter special, not just kite-flying.

One of the fun parts for us as kids was helping to decorate the kite, finding magazines to cut things out of, or gift paper, or any printed matter with an image on it, that was to add to whatever fancy snow-flake pattern a parent, aunt or uncle had already cut out of coloured paper to stick as the centre-piece.

I thought of that as I saw this kite-vendor choosing pre-printed stickers to apply to his kites, was the child who got the kite going to think that he /she missed an opportunity to decorate their own kite, or would they be happy that they got one already prettied up and ready to fly?

Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF40mm f2.8 STM  |  1/250s, f/8.0, ISO 200

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

500

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

The Art of Photography and Photography as Art

2015 – Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

This blog post is a milestone of sorts, it marks my five hundredth blog post.  It began on a sad note, with a photo from my maternal grandmother’s funeral, it has been more of a photo journey rather than a photo blog, more about myself and the photos than about the photos themselves I suppose, so it’s rather like a journal…almost… of sorts.

On this journey I’ve learnt a lot, with still much more to learn, I’ve met many other people with a passion for photography, and many who love to look at beautiful imagery.

I have learnt that there is a difference between the Art of Photography and Photography as Art, and I believe that it is a realization that comes to most of us who pursue it with an aim for creating “art”.

2010 – Canon T1i, Sigma 18-270mm

It sounds presumptuous even to my own ears to refer to anything that I produce with the camera as “art”, but people like my friend Nikhil would thump me behind the head for even saying that.  Not everything I take can be considered as art, so I humbly submit that I have a few that may be taken into consideration by those who are more knowledgeable than myself and more in-tune with the art world to be judged and pronounced as art.

Nikhil would also tell me that I have had work exhibited once at the National Gallery of Art (Castellani House) and have also been among the finalists in two of the recent Guyana Visual Arts Competitions, so I can’t get away with trying to play modest about being called an “artist”.

2011 – Canon Rebel T1i – Tamron 18-270mm

I began as most of us probably did with learning to use the camera and just snapping away at anything and everything that caught my eye.

After a while it began to be more important to learn and understand the art of photography, to understand how light plays an important part, where paying attention to composition results in a much better photo of the same subject.  The art of photography is to know your camera (whether it’s a mobile device such as cellphones or a larger DSLR) to learn what it can and cannot do, and to know how to use it to accomplish what you want.  Like any craftsman worth his salt, the art of the craft is the union of the person and the tools at hand.

It is good to learn different techniques, different approaches, different styles; that can be part of your arsenal, but it need not define the photograph you take.

2012 – Canon T1i, Tamron 18-270mm

The photograph is an extension of your self, it is a product of your own thoughts and skills, when the photograph stops being just a snapshot and becomes an expression of an idea, a concept, more than just a moment frozen in time, then it is possible that you have created a piece of art.

Photography as Art has to be more than just a pretty photo of a pretty scene or even a technically perfect photo of a dilapidated house, for a photograph to be Art it should have soul, it should convey an idea, elicit a reaction from the viewer, it has to be seen, talked about, appreciated or ridiculed even.

2013 – Canon EOS 60D, Tamron 18-270mm

Not many of us in Guyana can successfully claim to be original in our photographs, most of it has been done before and by better artists than ourselves, Photography as an Art has to overcome the fact that everyone now has access to a device that captures images, and in the maelstrom of images swirling around the internet we have to produce a piece that stands out, that makes people stop and look, but also to have them remember it afterwards, to recall it and speak about it.

Art is subjective, that’s basically saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it is not enough for the creator of the piece to want it to be art, the viewer has to appreciate the piece, not necessarily from the perspective of the creator but from how it affects them.

2014 – Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm

All the images in this post are “new to you”, they are from the six years than span this blog, 2010 to 2015, one from each calendar year.  I went through the files looking for images that I have overlooked, or just not processed,  not looking for any subject in particular, but for images I think worth processing, worth sharing and reflect what I would like to show others.

I hope that at least one strikes your fancy.

Click on each one to see them in their respective galleries in the Collection.  Thank you for being a part of my journey so far.

2015 Deck – Week 10

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

In Guyana, when you’re hungry and you want some “fast food” (that’s a relative term, as anyone who has been to a fast food restaurant knows only too well) the place to go is the nearest Chinese Restaurant, or maybe not the nearest, but one you know and trust… ok, trust is a strong word; the one that hasn’t given you “belly-wuk” as yet.

As you can imagine, it’s unlikely that I’d be in a Chinese Restaurant with the camera in hand, but these days the built-in cameras on our cellphones (mobile phones for you northerners) are pretty decent, a year ago I’d probably never have tried to take this photo, but with different gear comes a different attitude.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos  |  Instagram

I’ve been in that chair, probably with the same expression, a few times before… 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, for other images from my mobile phone photography experimentation, check my feed on Instagram.

How we do it

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

A street photograph – as much as I can get one 🙂

It really needs very few words, but what caught my attention was the way the police officer and her companion deliberately walked diagonally off the pedestrian crossing…

In Guyana… is just suh!

2014  |  Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-50mm

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some other attempts at Street Photography 🙂