2014 Deck – Week 12

On August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

For this week I actually had quite a few photos to choose from, mostly along the seawalls. Fidal Bassier had invited me along to shoot with him, he was doing part of a photo-shoot for Miss Earth Guyana, Ms Stacy Ramcharran, and even though I was late getting there, I decided to stop anyway and see what was going on.

The talented team from Bravo Arts under the direction of Steve Bravo had already done an amazing job of the body paint etc., and Stacy’s entourage were well in attendance and assisting her with all the necessaries.

Fidal was setting up on a mound on the southern side of the National Park, the winds had picked up a bit and he asked me to help hold one soft-box in position while I was there… but I’m a photographer, and I just couldn’t resist the urge to click the shutter button.

Whilst holding the soft-box in one hand (the wind was trying very hard to tug it out of position and out of my hands), I slung my backpack to the side and extracted the camera with one hand, the lens on the camera would have to work… it was the Sigma 10-20mm, so I suspected that cropping after was most likely.

I took only two photos, mainly because Fidal decided at that moment to switch locations, and by the time we had set up at the next spot, it was time for me to say adieu. One photo I had cropped and sent to Stacy, she ended up using it as the Cover image for the official Facebook Page for Miss Earth Guyana 2014:

The second one, I did not crop, it was the one I preferred, and I had decided since then that I would likely use it for the Deck project, so here it is:

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

All-in-all, it was educational to watch these folks at work, and that I clicked the shutter twice, and got two photos that were usable, I feel good 🙂

2013 Deck – Week 35

On November 8, 2013November 8, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

This week was somewhat uneventful, but I was fortunate to get an evening-time vantage point I’d never had before… due to some ongoing construction I was not able to use my Tripod as I wished, so I shot this one handheld, not the greatest, but I still liked it.

This is the Church on High Street, opposite Carnegie School of Home Economics, bordered by D’Urban Street, High Street and Leopold Street.

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

2012 Deck – Week 52

On December 31, 2012December 31, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography6 Comments

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think this is the way to spend the last weekend of the year, with family and family friends, relaxing near a pool, sleeping under the stars (in a tent), far away from town, and I have my camera, spare batteries and spare memory cards 🙂

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with all the other images for the 2012 Deck Project.

Reflecting on the year, it’s been great in some areas, specifically Photography. Even though my personal photography has not been great this year, and by that I mean I am not happy with the overall amount and scope of the photos that I have taken this year, it’s been a great year for my photography in the following ways;

Neil Marks lobbied and secured for Nikhil and myself the opportunity to exhibit some of our work in a joint exhibition at the National Art Gallery (Castellani House) early this year; our involvement in the Guyana Photographer’s group has brought us into contact with many many talented local photographers, and we have seen the group blossom and grow under the guidance of the Admins and our fearless leader Fidal; the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport revived the biennial art competition (after a 20 year absence) and included Photography as one of the new categories, in which Nikhil won Gold, Sharon won Silver and I won the Bronze medal, I had a photo of mine selected to be used as the Cover Image for Caribbean Beat, the official magazine of Caribbean Airlines (an MEP Publication), and three local firms are using a few of my images in their 2013 Calendars.

If my count is correct this is my 300th Blog post, also an achievement, since I never thought I’d have anything to write that anyone would want to read…of course, the photos help! 🙂 Now, I just have to make 2013 count! 🙂

Have a great Old Year’s Night, and a very happy and prosperous New Year in 2013.

2012 Deck – Week 50

On December 21, 2012December 21, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography2 Comments

In one of those whirlwind type moves, the local chain of Texaco Service Stations was taken over, and before most people realised it, they were being rebranded to the new name of “Rubis”

Fortunately, I managed to take a long exposure of this one at Liliendaal, Georgetown, just days (or day) before they began the rebranding.

2012 Deck – Week 46

On December 14, 2012December 14, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography2 Comments

From the top of the Bank of Guyana, looking onto the intersection of Avenue of the Republic and North Road.

I haven’t done a lot of Night Photography in recent times, and I’m afraid it shows 🙂

2012 Deck – Week 38

On October 3, 2012October 3, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Many moons ago, I sometimes took a few minutes to stare up at the stars and the moon, and let my mind wander, I haven’t done that in quite some time. If you look at a child’s drawing, or an icon that is supposed to represent night, the moon is shaped in the crescent form, probably because the full moon would look like just a circle, and can be interpreted in many ways, but the crescent shape is instantly recognizable as the moon.

In Guyana it is not very common, but I’ve often seen drawings or paintings, and scenes in a movie or show where an old outhouse (the pit latrine) had a Crescent Moon carved on the door. Many people see it as being decorative, the true significance have been forgotten by many and almost lost to the ages. Apparently in ancient times the doors of the latrines were marked to identify the gender, the sun or star being for males (after the sun god Helios or similar deity) and the moon for the women (after the goddess of the moon, Celine or Selene, or similar deity). So far the working theory as to why one with the sun or star symbol has been seen or recorded is that the women took better care of their out-houses 🙂

One night I got a message from Savita asking if I’d seen the moon that night, I hadn’t, and I told her so, she was excited that there was a star right next to the moon in the sky, and she hoped one of us could get a decent photo of it… I tried.

Not sure if you’ll see the star… but it’s there 🙂 Click on the image to see it better in the Gallery, along with a few other images in the Night album

2011 Deck – Week 49

On December 25, 2011December 24, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I think that Christmas Carols (and Christmas music in general) lends to the “feel” of Christmas as much as many of the other traditions associated with the Day and the Season. Whether its Carollers on the street or in the church, the chorus of voices or the clarity of the soloist singing those traditional carols (or the new songs) helps get me in the Christmas Mood.

This was a photo taken at the annual Festival of Carols held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Brickdam Cathedral), it is one of the few times I’ve attempted higher ISOs on the Canon Digital Rebel T1i, although there’s a fair amount of noise it wasn’t too bad for the shot, and I did a bit of noise reduction in Topaz 🙂

2011 Deck – Week 45

On December 21, 2011December 21, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography4 Comments

This week’s photo serves two purposes, one is a short explanation of “how I did it” and the second is… well, it’s a moon shot, what’s not to like 🙂

Someone recently asked me how I got the moon with such detail, I had to have someone give me tips once, so its easy to pass along what I know, hopefully someone else can improve and even tell me other things 🙂

Shooting the moon. First tip, use a tripod, it helps to have a stable camera when you’re doing this (most of my moon shots were without tripods though), The important bit is the metering, I use a spot metering mode. I simply set the camera to spot metering, (my camera only uses the centre focus point for this), I use the centre focusing spot in the display, make sure that is centred on the moon, and half-press the shutter-button to focus, then recompose and click. Really simple.

What the spot-metering does is meter the lighting for just the moon instead of trying to evaluate the lighting of the entire scene (in this case the whole sky)

Now normally we crop these images to show the moon in its full glory, well, I crop it since this is the whole image from my maximum zoom on the Tamron 18-270 lens. I left this uncropped because I actually like it this way this time.

The moon is set against a dark sky (it was somewhat lighter before I processed), I look at it and think that it must be lonely up there, I’ll never fly into space like those great astronauts and cosmonauts, not fly to the upper atmospheres like jet-fighter pilots, but I still think that even after the initial moments of wonder and awe, it must be lonesome up there. I am thankful for the family I have, the friends I have, the co-workers that I have (even those that have moved on).

If you’re ever feeling lonely, go out under the open sky, look at the moon and remember that under that same moon, there are billions of people, and somewhere there is someone who is thinking of you.

Because of the background colour (at the time of writing this) I suggest you click on the image for a better viewing at the Gallery 🙂

2011 Deck – Week 3

On January 22, 2011January 22, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography7 Comments

I almost thought that I’d have to re-post Compton as my Deck Photo this week, I didn’t do much photography until the end of the week 🙂

I had the chance to re-visit a scene I had done a few year’s ago, back when I was shooting the Canon PowerShot S5 IS, which I still miss. The scene was on Sheriff Street, and it was a photo that was “borrowed” from my Flickr photostream to be used on a Facebook page about Guyana.

Once again, it’s Twilight time and the sky is touched by the wings of the angels, the wands of the fairies, or just one of those physical phenomenons of light on particles in the air 🙂

I hope you like it.

Buddy’s Pool Hall give s a nice addition of lights to the street, and it is Sheriff Street, the street that never sleeps!

The Deck – Week 50

On December 17, 2010December 17, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography13 Comments

After three successive monochrome postings for the Deck project, I decided this week, that regardless of what the weather was like I wanted a coloured image,and I finally got something in keeping with the season, Demerara Mutual Insurance company lit up their building very nicely, and I took a few images at night to try and capture the spirit 🙂

Here’s the resulting image. Demerara Mutual has it’s main office on Avenue of the Republic in Central Georgetown, to the right of the photo, you can even see a portion of City Hall.