Tag: man

2012 Deck – Week 48

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography4 Comments

Santa Claus, a mythical figure whose fame has spanned centuries, but is he only a myth or is he real?

The story of Santa Claus can be found in Legends, Myths, History and Folklore, and the names vary through the years and across land boundaries, but one thing remains the same, the IDEA that there is a person, an entity who gives gifts unselfishly to children, usually on the eve of Christmas so that on Christmas Day they awaken to presents.

For me, this Idea, IS  Santa Claus, this is what we want to believe in and keep the tradition going.  Was there ever a man with a long white beard who went house to house giving gifts to children?  I’d say that it was likely.  Did he dress in a red suit and have eight (or nine) reindeer pulling his sleigh through the skies?  Probably not  🙂

As Christmas approaches, I wish you all the best for the Season of Christmas.

2012 Deck – Week 39

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography10 Comments

Finding inner peace is not an easy task, and often times the path to it is fraught with despair.  With the myriad of daily struggles that we all endure, and the unexpected arrival of ones that we have no control over, it is no wonder that finding inner peace is difficult, and some may even say impossible.

Take a few minutes and get away from it all, go sit on the seawall in the shade of a tree, or the lee of a rock, and stare at the seemingly boundless ocean, towards the distant horizon, let your mind wander, free from the stress that has a vice grip on your soul… just relax, find a touch of inner peace in a moment of outward calm.

Click on the image to see it larger in the Gallery.

Dump

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography8 Comments

I can’t remember where we were going this day, but I do remember wanting to get the photograph, although we were quite a distance away, so I used the long telephoto to quickly snap this.

This is where the City’s garbage dump meets the Body Dump, or more respectfully called the Le Repentir Cemetery.

The smoke was drifting across from the burning garbage (it apparently spontaneously combusts periodically), the excavator was clearing some paths and moving some garbage, and the birds were just hanging around for the “disturbed” earth and garbage.  🙂

Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery!

Tourist in Jamaica

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

The last week here in Jamaica was very uneventful, except for the many drives down the hill and back up the hill, the amazing meals we had each and every day, and the comfort and kindness of our Jamaican family!  The last full day saw us heading downtown for some shopping (obviously I wasn’t shopping), and we were the tourists, seeing the place, and taking photos  🙂

Jamaica is famous for its Reggae music and for the legendary Bob Marley, so we stopped to see the statue erected in his honour.

And its a good thing that the only erection involved in the Emancipation monument / statues was the act of putting up the statues:

Downtown I saw an old abandoned building with a painted sign that reminded me so much of home  🙂

Another building had two coconuts lying on the steps

On the way back up to Gordon Town, we stopped for a photo at what was once a Lookout Point but is now a Lookout Community 🙂

And finally, a self-portrait; thinking about the people I’ve met, the places I’ve seen and the things I’ve done; and wondering about the next brief stop on my trip 🙂

Tourist Shoppers

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

Most of my photography from this day (18th July) was of a family gathering in the evening (those photos I’ll save for the family rather than subjecting everyone to them)  🙂  Earlier, I had accompanied the ladies (my wife, my cousin and my sister) into a shopping area not far from the hotel where we were staying, I think the Jamaican vendors on this side of the coast are the most persistent and persuasive vendors I’ve come across, and if you’re not careful, you’ll be walking by a stall and suddenly be inside it without knowing what happened  🙂

I didn’t do much photography in the shops/arcades, but I stepped away from the shopping every once in a while to snag a few shots. The first one I’m not too happy with but I couldn’t let that Schwinn bicycle pass  🙂

This one I believe is of the old Fire Station in Ocho Rios.

Here’s a bunch of thinkers 🙂

A Tourist trap (a more appealing shopping area)

And on the way back I tried a photo of the hotel before entering the gates  🙂

South to North

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

Before departing from the Kingston Area to begin the Family Reunion in Ocho Rios, my dad thought that getting a photograph of everyone who were in the Kingston area would be a good idea, so after everyone had eaten some breakfast, packed their bags and were ready to go, we all got together for the group photo.

I was hoping to do some photography whilst on the drive over, but the high grasses after the recent rains and a few other adverse conditions made that a bit impractical  🙂  I did manage to snag a photo of a vendor’s stand with some of the fruits out front during a brief stop.

One of the areas we drove through was Fern Gulley, but photographs can’t tell that story, you have to take the drive through yourself, but I took one of the curving road and the enclosing ferns to give the general idea, this spot had a nice window in the canopy above for extra light, many other sections did not, the ferns would enclose the road and create a lovely rainforest feel.

Once at the hotel, we checked in, went for lunch, then to find our rooms, We had chosen the mountain view option rather than the ocean view rooms, just to save a few dollars  🙂  This is part of the view from our room, not too bad  🙂

After some afternoon swimming (or more like wading in the pool), we were taking a walk to see the Gazebo at the ocean’s edge and I snagged a few more photos, after that it was dinner and bed 🙂  Not a bad day overall.

Sunday in the Jamaica hillside

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

As befitting a Sunday, we went to the church in Gordon Town, St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, and all of my photography from that day were from the walk home and then after-dinner with the family, making it a quiet peaceful day.

I think that Jamaica still holds the world record for most churches (places of worship) per square mile, and this was very evident that day with the sounds of worshipful song drifting up the hills all day  🙂

Below are two photos from the morning walk home from church; the first is of a building I originally thought was a store, but from the name it is probably not…

The second is one of my parents standing next to the sign that marks the entrance to Riverside Heights.

2012 Deck – Week 22

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography6 Comments

All of my photographs from this week came from two family functions, so, not surprisingly, it will be a photo of a family member (members).

I had just gotten hold of a 50mm lens for my camera, what many call a Nifty Fifty, having never shot with a fixed lens on the SLR before I thought it was a good time to try my hand out.  It was fun, I had to “zoom” with my feet, but the framing and composition were easier to deal with than I had originally thought, since I’ve always used a zoom lens of one type or the other (wide zooms and telephoto zooms)

Since many people who have seen my photography know that I don’t do photographs of “people” a lot, this is quite a departure for me, I hope you like it.

Nathan and Grandpa

2012 Deck – Week 21

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Commentary, Photography4 Comments

Georgetown is changing, every day; some may say it is for the better, newer buildings, more businesses, a boost to the economy, others look at it as a neglect of the traditional, our history, our heritage and, ultimately, our past.

While others countries, even other Caribbean nations, strive to preserve and maintain the “Heritage” buildings, our politicians can’t seem to grasp the idea of Tourism generated by the longing to see just such buildings, they apparently think that tourists come here just to see the Kaieteur Falls.

Although my photograph for this week is not one of the exalted buildings, I think the point can be made that there are many buildings worthy of being preserved, saved and cherished.

There is a Heritage Building Corridor that runs through the heart of historic Georgetown, it stretches from the head of High Street where the building that houses the Canadian High Commission marks the first notable Historic building, and stretches down through Main street and into Avenue of the Republic where the Parliament buildings and Saint Stanislaus’ College mark the end of the designated corridor.

Among the numerous buildings in the corridor are the Prime Minister’s Ressidence, Red House, City Hall, the Demerara Mutual building, City Hall, Cameron and Shepherd, The Victorian Law (High) Court and St Andrew’s Kirk.  The National Trust of Guyana has earmarked twenty-four sites along the corridor as Heritage sites.  Some are kept in good condition, whilst others are falling steadily into disrepair.

This photograph is of a junction off the corridor, and while it may not be a historically important building, or of architectural value, it shows that many buildings are ageing, and unlike rum, some of which are said to be “aged to perfection”, this one has passed its prime, and is definitely somewhere the other side of perfection 🙂

Alma Mater

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

Latin: translated literally as “nourishing mother”, a phrase used in ancient Rome to refer to various mother goddesses, in Christianity is has been used for the Virgin Mary, though not so much in modern times.  Its primary current usage is to refer any school, college or university that one has attended and/or graduated from.

For me, my Alma Mater is Saint Stanislaus’ College; I could say my Almae matres are Stella Marris, Saint Stanislaus’ College and the University of Guyana, having attended them as my primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.

But for me, it will always be “Saints”, there I spent my formative years, my adolescent youth, where I formed life-long friendships, where I had teachers (and a lack of teachers) and memories (good and bad) that refuse to go away.

I had done a blog late last year, on some of the Latin phrases that have stuck with me to this day, if you haven’t read it, it’s not just about my Alma Mater, but about “Monuments”

Last year while looking for subjects to photograph for the Deck Project, I took a midday walk with Nikhil towards Brickdam with the very specific intention and aim of taking a few photographs of the building.  During and after photographing it, I was not satisfied, so we continued on down Brickdam to take a few other photographs, one of which I used for that week’s Deck Photo (2011 Deck – Week 13).

Every so often, I go through my older images, and on reaching the photos that I had taken of my Alma Mater, I was moved to view them differently,  One stood out from the rest, but I was still not happy with it as it was,  I decided to try a Psuedo-HDR out of it, I created two alternate exposures in Lightroom, one at -3ev (to retain some detail in the sky) and one at +3ev (although to be honest, I don’t think I really wanted more details in the shadows for this one).  I did the HDR combining and tone-mapping in Nik HDR Efex Pro.  I didn’t really want a coloured image as the final product, so in the HDR processing, I did a conversion to monochrome as well.

Please click on the image for a much better view in the Gallery, unlike most of my black and white images, I placed this one in the Georgetown Gallery.