My Jhandi addiction

On February 20, 2015February 20, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

I was going through a few photos from last year, and I can across a set that I had not processed, and I thought “no one wants to see another Jhandi flag photo”… but I couldn’t resist it, I just had to choose one of the set and process it.

There’s just something about a flag fluttering in the wind that draws the attention… who am I fooling? Even when it’s hung limp with the wind abated I’d probably still take a photo.

This one appealed to me because of the contrast that the rich red flag had against the sky, the line of the seawall and it’s curve towards the koker made it a better composition than just a plain flag 🙂

OK, yes… I did seriously think about doing it in BW (still pondering it) but I rather like this version 🙂

2014 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Ogle, East Coast Demerara, Guyana

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from when I’m “Out and About”

Saturday Smoker in Sepia

On January 27, 2015January 27, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

I was actually thinking Coppertone CIgarette as a title since I actually used more of a Coppertone than a Sepiatone on this one… eventually the actual image remains mostly Untitled, except for the numeric designation of 15-5337.

Taken during the second week of this year, I gave it a single star rating so that I’d remember to go back to it for further attention.

I liked this one, even though I could not line up my composition in time for what I am accustomed to doing, getting the thirds sorted out, the vanishing point more thorough, and my lines running where I wanted… either in spite of that or because of that, I think it came out well 🙂 As I’ve been told many times by Nikhil, we need to know the rules so that we can know when to break them effectively.

2015 | Ogle, East Coast Demerara, Guyana.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other Sepia type images in the Collection.

Glee and Garbage

On January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography, thoughts5 Comments

It is usually a breath of fresh air to read in the newspapers that some small group of people have embarked upon a “clean-up campaign” along our seawalls; one of the more recent ones would have been the one involving the Ministry of Natural Resources, the EPA (Guyana) along with the Pick It Up Guyana campaign, in the past the Guyana Shines group did a stint, on International Coastal Clean-up Day various NGOs came out in numbers, even the national Football (real football, not that American thing) Team even joined Youths For Guyana on a round of cleaning.

I prefer to re-iterate that cleaning up is an after-the-fact solution, our primary goal should be NOT to litter in the first place, we should be encouraging our peers, and children on a daily basis to do the right thing and put it in the trash!

How hard is it to keep your trash with you until you reach a suitable receptacle (the garbage bin in your yard works marvellously for this) to dispose of it in the right way?

When I take photos along our coast, invariably there is trash within spitting distance, much less within the scope of my camera lens, some of us include it deliberately to make a point, many of us (myself inclusive) try to compose to minimise the presence of the debris and detritus.

When I took this photo two years ago, I dismissed it out of hand as not appropriate for what I was doing at the time, but now, I think it makes a statement. Why should our children, who look forward gleefully to playing on the seawalls and seashore, be subject to the dangers, physical and health-wise, of the abundant and widespread disposal and accumulation of garbage on the seawalls?

We shouldn’t have to “Pick It Up” because we shouldn’t have thrown it down in the first place, let us live not for now, but for the future, our children’s future.

Click on the image to see it in the “Streets” gallery

Perception

On May 6, 2014May 6, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, thoughts1 Comment

Lately, I’ve been very busy, although depending on your point-of-view I might also have been giving priorities to the “wrong” things; for my myself, I say I’ve been busy.

I tell people that I’ve been busy, so I haven’t updated this blog, and updated the Deck Project, they look at me askance and think I’m either lying or stretching the truth, but it’s a matter of perception I suppose.

Often, what we see in a photograph is also a matter of perception, this image is one I overlooked when choosing my photo for week 9 of the Deck Project this year; when I say “overlooked”, I mean that I did not see then the potential that I saw when going back through the images the second time.

I was looking at a photograph recently of what appeared to be a woman holding a young girl lying limp across her arms, I later realized that it was a young man in her arms, but the combination of dark hair and a dark material near the head gave the long hair I usually associate (firstly) with girls, the features of the youth were very smooth and “pretty”, and he was attired in a hospital gown, all adding together to skew my perception.

I’ve also been trying to look at scenes differently and change my perspective, also altering my perception of the scene itself. Anyway, all of this preamble is just to introduce you tot he image that I had also titled “Perception” 🙂

12:55 pm | Red filter | Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm lens

1/320s, f/11, ISO 100, 10mm – Processed in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex

Click on the image to see it larger in the Black and White Gallery of the Collection.

2013 Deck – Week 52

On December 31, 2013January 7, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography, Poetry5 Comments

Skies above and oceans below,
Soar above the tethered boats
Down winding creeks and rivers brown,
Past piers, docks and abandoned forts.

Wind beneath my outstretched wings
Sun upon my feathered spans
Gliding, soaring, questing far
Over seas and distant lands.

See upon a curved horizon
Tree-lined coasts, and wave-swept beach
Flying high above ocean’s blue
Soaring forward, to sometime reach

A land with trees laden with fruit
Ponds and lakes with fish aplenty,
Seeking always rich lands afar
Always knowing, there will be many.

Returning home, back to my shore,
To mangrove clumps and fishing boats,
To fly along the creeks that wind
And from its waters, slake my throat.

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with the entire collection for this Year’s Deck Project!

2013 Deck – Week 45

On December 13, 2013December 13, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography4 Comments

Sunrises and Sunsets are considered a cliché type of photograph by many, yet I am still drawn to them, not as often as before, but I still enjoy a good sunrise or sunset, and I enjoy taking photos of them too 🙂

When I take a photo of a sunrise or sunset, I try to include some other object of interest, since a sunrise is just a sunrise and a sunset just a sunset (well, most times, there are possibly exceptions).

I was driving home, when I saw some lovely pastel to darker colours in the late afternoon sky, and thought I should at least stop somewhere to see if I could get a nice photo, the tide was in, and I spotted someone line-fishing, probably for Cuirass, and quickly snapped off a few shots before walking to the seawall to see what else there may be.

As it turned out, I’m very happy I took those shots, it came out well. I hope you like it.

Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery

2013 Deck – Week 28

On September 12, 2013September 12, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography4 Comments

I had stopped near the Shell Service Station at Ogle on the off-chance that there’d be something over the seawall to shoot, this was one of those times when I was not disappointed…. I took quite a number of photos trying to capture the mood, and I think this one comes close… I have others that I may use at a later date, but this one reflects a lot of what I saw… and hopefully conveys the mood to you as well.

It’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon (remember we live in the tropics here in Guyana), but instead of a harsh overhead sun, we had very overcast skies, very fluffy clouds, not that dead-pan grey sky that depresses me, and the light filtering through the clouds was just enough to really lend something special to the scene.

As soon as I started walking along the wall I had company… a dog, apparently resident to the general area, but that’s a photo for another day 🙂 I photographed from on top the wall, from an eastern viewpoint, a western viewpoint, then went over the wall for another series of shots… all the while thinking about what’s the best angle…. what’s the best composition.

There are other photos, with other elements, but this one simplifies it for me and gets the idea across better 🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Canon 18-135mm Kit Lens | 1/400s, f/13, ISO320, 18mm

Click on the image to view it in the Gallery, while there check out the other images for this year’s Deck Project, and other albums as well.

On the Street

On January 17, 2013January 17, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

OK, maybe the title isn’t accurate, the photo I will use was taken a little distance from the street, but it’s also about a point I made recently.

On the Guyana Photographers Facebook page, we had a Challenge for “Street Photography”, and one of the points we made was that it did not have to be literally on the street; the genre encompasses images that capture aspects of “Life”, it will always have a human figure in it, because that’s what the genre is about, human’s and their actions . It can be a shot of a vendor on the street, or a vendor in a market stall; a woman riding a cycle down the road, or hanging out her laundry in the yard; a man on the corner reading the morning newspaper, or at his desk writing a memo. The best street photographers usually manage to tell quite a story in one image, there is often irony, or action; discourse or solitude and regardless of what story you get from it, it’s a story that you the viewer can understand whether or not its the story being told.

I am NOT a Street Photographer, I fail dismally at my attempts, but mostly because I am not into taking those types of images, except by happenstance. If you want to see good Street Photography by Guyanese photographers, check out the works of Nikhil Ramkarran and Avinash Richard, while neither do the genre exclusively, they both capture moments of time in the life of Guyanese that can be spellbinding.

This one is one of my better ones to date… but only because of the irony 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

My Tamron 18-275 lens has some dust inside it, by pointing towards the sun two spots showed up in the image which were later emphasized by the BW processing, those were cloned out 🙂

2013 Deck – Week 02

On January 16, 2013January 16, 2013 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography6 Comments

During week two of this year, I actually used at least three of my lenses, including the ultra-wide Sigma 10-20mm. On Friday, Fidal had arranged that we meet for a drink near Ogle, but before we went, he and Rosh suggested we go to the seawall nearby to get in a few shots 🙂 (we were joined by Savita and TJ, if you must know)

As it turned out, that was a pretty good idea, there was a lovely sky above and some unusual streaming clouds (probably from the jets passing), and I got down into the grass to get a low perspective shot.

While processing it I remembered a song that I probably hadn’t heard since I was much younger, I had come across it on an LP my father had, it was called “Grazing in the Grass” by Friends of Distinction; it was one of those 70s songs, and I didn’t understand the lyrics then, and I don’t quite understand them now (yes I went and listened to it again), but then, I probably need to be high on something for those lyrics to make sense to me. You can check the song out for yourself 🙂

As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery.