Photography; I shoot what I like, and sometimes people like what I shoot. All photos are copyright to Michael C. Lam unless explicitly stated otherwise.
It’s not what I was looking for, but sometimes you have to use what you have and not wish for what isn’t there 🙂 I have been looking in my rear view mirror on my way home every evening for that nice twilight glow, the sunset that has left variations in colour in the sky and the winds that have left scattered clouds or wispy clouds that add that little extra “umph” to the scene. Well, this isn’t it, but I decided to try a few long exposures and while I was at it, an HDR 🙂
I woke early this morning, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I came in to process this early, in a standard photograph you wouldn’t see anything in the foreground, but in this HDR quite a bit can be seen, the sky is lighter than the actual scene. but that’s because of the HDR processing, I think it balanced the scene out nicely.
I’ve been considering a parallel project to this year’s 2011 Deck Project, but I am still not sure if I am going to go through with it. It was my thought to experiment with different techniques and use the results from those experiments to do the project.
In the event that I do go through with it, this would have been my first image for it 🙂
It uses the idea of using a “wrong” white balance for a scene, to give a different temperature impression, usually to give the “right” impression.
When I was at the wall the place was very cool, breeze blowing in off the ocean, and the rain clouds scattered across the sky, with some blue showing. The sun was beginning to set and was casting a few (not many) warm colours on the eastern clouds. To give the cooler impression the white balance was adjusted to give a cooler or “bluer” image. In the old days this was called “camera tricks”, but it gives the “feel” of the scenery and sometimes that is what is important 🙂
My first photo for this year’s Deck Project. I received so much support, feedback and appreciation on the last project that I decided to do it again this year. I called it The Deck because I was doing one photograph per week of the year (whether it is the best for the week or not), as a year has 52 weeks, and a deck of standard playing cards has 52 cards, not counting the Jokers, I thought the name The 2010 Deck sounded better than “A Photo per week for 2010” 🙂
I also think I learned a little more and got more familiar with my camera a lenses during the year.
Up to now I’ve only taken 42 photographs this week (and I doubt that I’ll take any more today) and those photos cover only 10 subjects, two of which were not meant for the project in the first place, those being some family photos and a house interior sequence. That left me with only a few choices this week, and you would think that would make it easier to choose, but it made it harder, I was down to four choices, and while I can usually pick one out rather quickly, this week was harder, either the images were all good, or all mediocre 🙂
I ended up choosing this one below for it’s content, I liked how all the pieces fit! It’s hard to see on the small image here on the blog so click on it to see the image on the site larger. The afternoon rainy clouds, whiter clouds, an aircraft, a sail-boat, the rock line, a man and his dog, all in one image. I hope you like it.
A Man and his Dog. Canon T1i, 35mm (Tamron 18-270), 1/400s, f/11, ISO200
This week, I complete my Project for the year, the 2010 Deck, 52 Photographs, one for each week of the year. There were times when I thought I would have to upload a photograph of my shoes, that was when a week was tough, and other times I had difficulty choosing from the ones I had taken, so taking too many is just as bad as taking too few photographs.
I am not sure that I have grown as a photographer over this year, but I do have a better appreciation of the photography of others as my blogging has introduced me to many other wonderful photographers, many of them with superior talents and images, and others learning as I am, as we take our photographs whether daily or weekly.
Although the sun sets on this year’s project, I look forward to renewing the project next year and hopefully finding a new perspective on photography through the inspiration I gain from the works of others and the encouragement of my family and friends, online photographers being a new and integral part of my new friends.
I hope 2010 was filled with as many learning experiences as you could handle, and I wish that for 2011, you see the world with fresh eyes (or lenses) and appreciate each passing moment for what it is, whether it can be captured digitally, on film, or just in your heart.
Well, it’s not the first time I’ve had a photo used in a project, but this is the first time since I started a blog 🙂 I had two photographs printed in the 2010 Calendar for the Guyana National Trust.
Scotiabank (Guyana) did their 2011 Calendars through a firm called KRITI, who approached a number of photographers who had some local scenes with a slight emphasis on the skies above, be it dramatic skies, overcast skies or just beautifully clouded skies. Of the six photographs featured, there were five “local” photographers and one foreign photographer (who lived here for two years, so he’s as local as foreigners get).
Below are some snapshots of the calendar with links to the photographer’s pages that I could get. (Click on the photos to go to the photographer’s pages)
Starting of was Nikhil’s image along the LBI (La Bonne Intention) shore,
Nikhil Ramkarran: LBI Foreshore
Then Dwayne Hackette’s Sunset along the Berbice River,
Dwayne Hackette: Sunset on the Berbice River
Phillip William’s Earth Station photograph,
Philip Williams: Earth Station, Carifesta Avenue, Georgetown, Guyana
Rustom Seegopaul’s Georgetown from the Harbour Bridge crossing the Demerara River
Rustom Seegopaul: Georgetown in the Horizon, view from the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Demerara River
My Lonesome Tree photograph from the Hamburg (Tiger Island) in the Essequibo River (taken when I shot with a Canon S5 Bridge Camera
Michael Lam: Lonesome Tree, Tiger Island, Essequibo River
and to top it all off with James Broscombe’s Great Balls of Fire, from the Rupununi
James Broscombe: Great Balls of Fire
To be absolutely frank, the image of James’ Great Balls of Fire in the calendar does not do the original photo Justice, definitely click on the image above for a good look at the photo on his blog.
It should be noted that these cover all three major rivers of Guyana, the Georgetown Coastline and the Interior. If you are a Scotiabank Guyana customer, make sure to collect your copy 🙂
Thanks to Scotiabank and a special thanks to Sita at KRITI.
This week was fairly good as photography goes, I took a lot of photographs, 311 of which I’ve downloaded, the remainder were from a wedding that I was helping my bother Andre out at.
Choosing an image for this week’s deck proved more difficult than I would have thought, but that is mainly because the image I wanted to use, I decided to relegate to another blog-post for tomorrow. The image I eventually decided upon was chose for the unusual perspective, at least for me, I am usually more of an angular person when it comes to the direction from which I generally point the camera, Nikhil is usually the one who goes for “head-on” views.
I had the Sigma 10-20mm Wide angle lens on my camera, and I thought that the image would look good from a head-on view facing the horizon, unfortunately the shoreline and the horizon were not exactly parallel at this point, but I think I got the image to where I wanted it 🙂
This was taken along the seawall somewhere between Montrose and Le Resouvenir on the East Coast of Demerara.
I decided on the name before I realised that I have one that was actually taken in October, but since I am unable to come up with a new creative sounding name, it remains as September Monochromes.
I want to start off with a Sepia image, it’s not necessarily a great image, but I liked the elements; seashore, people – young and not-so-young, and a fishing rod.
Afternoon After-school
The next is the first of the Black and White images, it is one that I recently entered into a DP Review challenge called Clouds, I was experimenting with a borrowed Canon 80-200mm lens and most of the images came out very low contrast, so like the Sepia one above, most of the rest I’ve rendered in monochrome. This one came out much better than expected, I had to give it a title for the challenge, so that’s how the title came to be.
Sail-winds and Silhouettes
Along the seashore, you are sure to find a coconut washed ashore by the waves, this one was partway up a concrete sloped walkway on the seawall, maybe washed there but probably kicked there by some youngster.
Coconut
The final image is the one taken in October, after our Robbery ordeal and we daringly went right back to the Kingston Promenade, I like the clouds in the sky and thought that the lighthouse silhouetted against it would look nice 🙂
They were doing some renovation work to the lighthouse, so you might notice the scaffolding on the sides of it there.
I took photos on three days of the last week (from last Friday to this Thursday) but most of it is not worth even processing. The day that I took this photograph was eventful, so I will mention some of that after I put the photograph up. I was going to just put the photo up and leave the rest of the story out, but many people are expecting the story, so I will put some of it up.
The photograph is one of those Sunsets where the area around the sun is now warming up (so to speak) and the remainder of the sky is a cooler blue.
Kingston seashore, Georgetown Guyana. 5:37pm, September 28, 2010
Nikhil and I were out on the Kingston seashore photographing driftwood, waves, and whatever else caught our eye, including the setting sun and the resulting effects in the sky. Approximately 10 minutes after I took this photograph, we were back on the Promenade area around the area by the “Roundhouse”, there are usually some homeless men living in the Roundhouse. We were looking in that area for other things to photograph when we noticed that the sunset had changed to a much more orange and red cast and decided that we would return to the end of the promenade to photograph it. Just about this time two young men on bicycled passed us and stopped their cycles on at the end of the Roundhouse and disappeared behind the wall there. As we approached the end to photographed the sunset, we noticed that they were urinating and we naturally averted our gaze and concentrated on the sunset.
We were focused on the scene before us when they finished their business and walked behind us towards their bicycles, the next thing I knew I was falling to the ground and being attacked about my body by one of the men who now had a piece of wood in his hand. We were being robbed. My spectacles had fallen off and I could barely make out the man now shouting at me and hitting me, I told him to stop hitting and just take whatever it was he wanted, we were not going to fight them. It seemed he didn’t believe me and shouted to his companion to throw the gun. I repeated myself and seemed to get through to him, he searched my pants pockets and took all my cash and my cellular phone. He threw my wallet and licence on the ground and demanded that I not get up and try to follow them.
Nikhil helped me to my feet and also to find my spectacles, I really am useless without them. Some of the homeless men were returning to the Roundhouse after their evening bath in the sea and were shocked that in the short space of time that they had gone, we were attacked and robbed. Of course, we then called for help using the cellular phone that I had in my shirt pocket which they missed, we went to the Police and now one of them men has been captured. I learnt from NIkhil that although he was not assaulted with a piece of wood, the man who robbed him had a pistol. Amazingly, I still had my camera, but Nikhil’s camera was gone.
Fortuitously, one of the photographs I had taken earlier had captured the two men when they had passed us, that photograph assisted the police to identify the men and thus far apprehend one of them.
We are both fortunate to be alive. I have always been told by people wiser than myself that in a robbery, do not be a hero! Give them what they want and live. Some of that advice must have sunk in since that is what I did after the initial resistance. Of course, a few blows to the back of the head and neck puts one in a more submissive mood.
The photograph may not be great, but it certainly is not the last Sunset that I have seen.
As I mentioned in previous posts, the island is divided into two portions, I would love to say halves, but I am not one hundred percent sure that the square mileage would be equal. Anyway, as I was saying, it is divided into two portions, one under Dutch rule and the other under French rule, and in my photo jaunts across the island I actually managed to take photographs for two Panoramas, one in Sint Maarten and one in Saint Martin, so neither side can claim I didn’t do one, right? Right.
That being said, I am no expert on photography, much less Panoramas, but I liked both that I took, they have their appeal and, of course, their faults, but I give them both over for your viewing pleasure (or disgust, whichever label suits you).
In Sint Maarten, the Great Bay is where the Cruise ships filled to overflowing with tourist anchor and dock, there is a roadway that winds its way up the hillside on the opposite side to the area where the ships moor, and there is even a lookout point on that road set aside for viewing the scene. Because of its vantage point high up in the hills, I needed only take three overlapping photographs to produce a simple panorama of this scene. Fortunately, there were two cruise ships in the bay that day, so the image has that little extra caveat.
Great Bay, Sint Maarten, Netherland Antilles
I was taken to a spot on the French side that is not frequented by people, my memory fails me a bit here, I think it is somewhere near Baie Rouge (I welcome any clarification). It was a little late in the afternoon and the sun was setting to my left, so I got a little colour change in the sky, I find that my best Panoramas (that include skies) usually are done nearer to the midday hour. For this Panorama I wanted to include the shallow waters near the shore as well as the skies, so I took the photographs in portrait orientation mode, this meant more photographs to encompass the view than if I had used a landscape orientation for the camera. In total I used thirteen (13) photographs for the panorama, and only cropped out a portion to the left that was too much into the afternoon sun.
Near Baie Rouge, Saint Martin, French Antilles
Sometimes one photograph of a scene is not enough to express the feeling that envelopes a person, that’s when you either take a veritable cornucopia of photographs of the large and small items of interest in the scene or you do a Panorama 🙂
I hope you enjoy the images I have shared, please click on them to see them larger (hopefully) at my site.
The eighth day of our stay in Sint Maarten, we started off with a visit to Fort Amsterdam, its ruins are a bit unusual, a part of it was apparently used as a radio station at one time. The attractions at the fort are things like the cistern or reservoir, long unused, the old buildings or what’s left of them, the canons of course, the views from the different parts of the fort, and while we were there one attraction was wildlife, specifically a young bird who let me get close enough for a few nice photographs.
The Cistern/Reservoir at Fort Amsterdam
Canon at Fort Amsterdam
Resident at Fort Amsterdam
A view from Fort Amsterdam
The fort, although something that would be considered a national heritage site, is located on private land behind a Hotel/Resort, so I had to take at least one photo in the compounds 🙂
We then went off to the beach near Maho where the beach curves around behind the airport, and the aircraft head straight down the sea, over the beach and onto the runway for landing, there was a photograph by Jesse Diamond that my brother had forwarded to me prior to this trip, and both he and Nikhil insisted that I try to take an inspired photograph like it, so that was the main purpose of going there, getting Coronas at more than twice the normal price was just incidental 🙂
Beach Flyover, Princess Julianna Airport, Sint Maarten
Before heading home, we took a stop at a Nature Reserve where they have horseback riding among other activities, got a few photos, but only managed to really like these:
Cactus
Duck!
Back home I waited for the evening to arrive so that I could play with the setting sun, seated on the veranda, camera at my side and a cold Heineken to my lips, life is good.
Walk along the beach
As usual, on this trip, I can’t put all the photos in the blog, so click on the ones here and go straight to the site for all 42 new additions to the Sint Maarten 2010 album.
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