2011 Deck – Week 4

On January 28, 2011January 28, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography14 Comments

I went out on at least two occasions this week with the sole intention of using the Sigma 10-20 Ultra-wide angle lens. Just so that I didn’t disappoint myself I made sure I chose one of those for this week’s Deck photo 🙂

This is what remains of the building that housed Frandec Travel Service and Frandec Health Insurance, it was one of Georgetown’s old wooden structures, nothing as fancy as a Victorian Styled Mansion but nevertheless, it gave the area some of it’s character.

It was burnt down this January, suspected arson.

100

On January 21, 2011January 21, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography13 Comments

Normally on a Friday, I post the newest photo for the Deck Project, but I will have to post that tomorrow. This is my one-hundredth post since starting this blog, so I was looking for something special to do to mark it.

I decided to go through the photos that I’ve taken since using this current camera, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i, and I found three images that I thought would mark the occasion nicely.

Firstly, an image taken on the one-hundredth day of 2010, I only took photos on one subject that day, so I had to choose one from those, and one that I had not already uploaded. I may never see Washington DC (especially when the Cherry Blossoms are blooming) so this tree is our Guyanese version 🙂

Secondly, the one-hundredth photograph, or more specifically the one-hundredth shutter-activation of the T1i. This was from a project I did for Banks DIH, they were soon to open the new fine-dining restaurant and bar now known as OMG! This scene is from inside the restaurant, This is among the first experiences I’ve had with a Digital SLR camera.

Thirdly, I had reached and surpassed nine-thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine shutter actuations on the camera, and the numbering had started over, so the next photo is the second one hundredth image by number on the camera, so technically it’s the ten thousand and one hundredth image.

I started this blog with a post called “Before Our God”, with an image taken at the funeral of my maternal grand-mother, coincidentally on the one-hundredth post, an image from that same day is numbered 100.

For all those who have gone before us, those with us and those to come after us, most of us eventually realize that photography is more than just clicking the shutter-release button, it’s about the Moment, the Memory and the Meaning of the scene you have captured.

Compton

On January 20, 2011January 20, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography15 Comments

I recently put this image on Flickr, and I got some favourable responses, and because I haven’t blogged in a few days I thought I should put it here as well 🙂

I was sitting in the vehicle waiting for my wife to finish up in a Supermarket on Regent Street, I was reading on my phone (at this time it was “The Witching Hour” by Anne Rice), and in my peripheral vision I say some movement in the distance. Yes, it’s a busy street, but I’m sure you get my point.

His name is probably not Compton, but amidst the multitude of things adorning his attire is a name-tag proclaiming him to be Compton. He is a colourful character, and you seldom see past the spectrum of colours, the purposeful stride and the “insane” air about him.

I hurriedly put the phone down, reached into the back-seat for the camera, and quickly composed and clicked to get my shot. I had to wait two seconds while the camera took the shot since I had forgotten to reset the timer from the previous night, so he is two seconds out-of-focus.

The Deck – Week 49

On December 10, 2010December 10, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography15 Comments

This week sees a continuation of the monochromatic trend of late, but instead of just a straight BW, I went for a sepia with a vignette. It was on one of those walks with Nikhil, while looking for his Photo for his 365, and even though these waterways have been done, and over-done, I thought I’d give it a try, with the over-cast sky and perpetuating gloom of the afternoon this was pre-destined to be a monochromatic photograph.

After minimal processing in Lightroom, I did the monochromatic rendition in Nik Silver Efex, it came out rather nicely.

The Deck – Week 45

On November 12, 2010November 12, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography4 Comments

There’s an old Koker (or sluice) on Camp Road outside of the Guyana Technical Institute that I have been keeping an eye on for months, I always want to stop and photograph it, but most times there are some homeless men or just loafers around it, then at other times, the scene just wasn’t appealing to me. I was accompanying Nikhil as he headed up to David Street to photograph a scene his wife had pointed out to him when I noticed the lighting and the overall scene and asked him to stop so that I could get it at least this once.

I was a bit pressed for time this week, I haven’t processed any of my other images for the week, I took the easy route and did some minor “light” editing in Oloneo for this week’s image.

Camp Road Koker - 1/125s f/8.0 ISO200 10mm

The Deck – Week 42

On October 22, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography14 Comments

I almost didn’t get to sort out this last week’s photos, and I may have already used my best image for that last post 🙂

This week’s image has a little novelty, a small moon in the background. While this week’s image may not be too special, today is special for myself and Nikhil, we were both chosen as “Featured Local Photographers” for an event being held by the Demerara Tobacco Company as part of the Dunhill Experience, so a few of our images will be on display at a semi-private event and we are expected to be there to discuss our photography with the guests. This is a first for me, my fifteen minutes of fame (or shame, if I can’t put two words together correctly). Wish me luck, I am not too worried about my friend Nikhil, he’s a lawyer, he’s faced worse people 🙂 I think that they will feature other photographers at later events, so we’re like the opening act 🙂

Anyway, here’s the photo of the Susamacher Methodist Church 🙂

Late Afternoon @ Better Hope

On October 20, 2010October 20, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography23 Comments

Recently I have taken to “not” reviewing my images until Friday morning, when I would choose my photograph for the 2010 Deck collection on the main site. But this week I broke from the norm to attempt another HDR (High Dynamic Range) image. I went with Nikhil out to get his daily photograph, and we turned down the dividing road between the villages of Better Hope and Vryheid’s Lust, I wasn’t much inspired by the things I saw, but the sky was very nice, and I thought that a wide-angle HDR would turn out nicely. I had also just downloaded my trial version of Nik HDR Efex Pro and I wanted to try it out.

I have blogged about how I normally process my HDR images before, so this post is more about showing the results of trying the new software from Nik. I was impressed with the similarity it has to the other Nik software I’ve tried (like the Nik SIlver Efex) and it is easy and intuitive to use. I did not try to learn too much on this first try, just played with the basic settings to see how it stacked up against Dynamic HDR from Mediachance.

I think the resulting image speaks for itself, both Nik HDR Efex Pro and Dynamic HDR were able to help me to portray the variety of tones that I saw, in this case I was facing the slate afternoon sun, so the image has a lot more detail than a standard shot of the sky which rendered the buildings in the foreground as mostly silhouettes.

Take a look and let me know what you think 🙂 If you click on the image the site has it a bit larger.

Late Afternoon at Better Hope — 3 Image HDR, processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro

The Deck – Week 40

On October 8, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography16 Comments

Something has changed… although I am not sure what it is, it has affected my photography, or maybe it has affected how I see my photographs. I was very disappointed with this last week’s photographs, either I have lost the zeal or I am more critical of the images, or I have simply taken bad images this last week. Of the one hundred and five images taken over the last week, there was one that I was somewhat pleased with, a location that I had photographed before, but never posted an image of it for The 2010 Deck.

We revisited the Kitty Market Square, and I took this image, I liked it in colour, but I also liked it in monochrome… after some consultation, the monochrome edged out the colour 🙂

Lawyer and/or Photographer

On September 22, 2010September 22, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography18 Comments

I’ve had this one in my upload folder for some time now, since Nikhil tried his self-portrait, and I thought at the time to just get a slightly different angle to his “back-of-the-head” shot he was going for. Of course, my version is a little darker and more moody, but I rather liked it, but I don’t think that Nikhil liked his “stomach” showing as much as I have it 🙂

Nikhil: attorney-at-rest, photographer-at-work

I happen to think he is a very good lawyer, and quite possibly a much better photographer, but what do I know?

Fence Topper

On September 11, 2010September 11, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography9 Comments

One of my favourite photographs is one that I did twice 🙂 You know, so nice I did it twice? Anyway, I took it originally when I shot with the Canon PowerShot S5, a beauty of a camera, bigger than a compact, but a super-zoom with amazing results, and then when I moved onto shooting an SLR, I tried again to shoot a similar shot, similar because you can never get the same shot twice, not really. That was my “Fleur de Lis Fence Toppers“, and although I was less pleased the second time around, it was probably because I was expecting more.

Recently I took another shot of a Fence Topper and did a monochromatic rendering, several of them had already “disappeared” off the fence, so instead of trying to catch several of them I concentrated on one and tried to get a nice background, nice not as in scenery, but complimentary.