Tag: old

Pakaraima Mountain Safari 2012 – Pt. 2

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

When on Safari, we tend to want to get up early, not just to get ready, get breakfast, break camp etc, but to ensure that we get our ration of fuel for the day  🙂  And that the convoy doesn’t leave us behind.   I jest, they wouldn’t do that, would they?

We awoke early at Karasabai and broke camp, after the morning ablutions, breakfast and so forth, we then had some time for a few photos as we waited for the convoy to assemble

Karasabai is not a cluster of huts, but a wide area.

Naseem poses for the Cameras

Bicycles, the main method of transportation, after walking

Jan gets ready for the days drive

Our first full day in the mountain trails, and we even had a few stops where we could take more photographs 🙂

Bush Cowboys

One of the Army vehicles making its way through a rocky part of the trail.

Cecil Beharry, and his Land Rover from Jamaica!

Just after a rather steep mountain pass, we stopped at a village called Karabaiko, where Eddy even got into doing some repairs.

A portion of a hut at Karabaiko

Mechanics on the go

We visited the village of Tipuru on the way.  Tipuru has a nice little shop that has lovely indigenous food and drink for sale, like Cassava bread and “Fly”, a potato liquor.

Thence to our final stop for the day at Rukumotu (not our planned stop, but it was too late and too dangerous to proceed any farther.

End of day at Rukumoto

At Rukumotu, they gave us permission to camp out on the grounds or in the school, we picked a nice hard spot outside the school, that ended up bending at least one of our tent pegs… we were definitely in the mountains, not soft Rupununi soil at all.

Click on the photos to see them in the Safari 2012 Gallery in the Collection.

Goodbye Uncle Harry

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography19 Comments

Growing up, my maternal grandfather was seldom seen in the congregation of the church, he was always at the back “helping out” Uncle Harry.  I grew up knowing Uncle Harry as Uncle Joe, then others called him Harry, when I asked my grandfather about it he said that he is Harry Joe!  You never question wisdom like that!

Uncle Harry would be there to open the church, he’d be there to close the church, he was the man to go to to get your weekly Catholic Standard, or the tickets for the next Festival of Carols.  He would hand out the collection baskets to the people who would be needing them for each mass, and he’d have Bibles, Hymnals and other little books on sale too.

He was as grumpy as he was jovial.  He was a New Year baby, born on the 1st of January, worked for many years at Banks DIH, from all the way back when it was known as D’Aguiar’s, and he worked at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for as long as my memory serves, up until he was retired a few years ago.

After retirement from his duties in the church he’d try to attend either the early morning 6:00 am mass, or the next one at 7:30 am on Sundays, rain or shine, in his long pants, dress shoes, shirt-jac, umbrella, hat and his spectacle case and pen in his top pocket.

He died on Sunday 17th March 2013, St Patrick’s Day, at around 2am; it was his time.  May his Soul Rest in Peace.

I had taken that photograph of him (candidly) two days before my own birthday in 2011, and he was sitting there staring towards this altar below:

Aye, Eye, I

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

I was passing along the seawall when I saw this piece of driftwood sticking up over the wall, and for some reason all I could see was some sort of animal, a giraffe, or a donkey with it’s neck stretched upwards, or a dragon.  I know that anthropomorphism is the attribution of human-like features to other animals or objects, but what is attributing other animal-like qualities to other objects?  I haven’t a clue!

Here’s the driftwood!

Click on the image to see in in the Odds and Ends Gallery, you may see other odds and ends that you may like 🙂

Mashramani 2013

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

I know that most people’s Mashramani photos are already out there, and I have to say that this year saw a large increase in not only the amount of photos out there but also an increase in the quality of the photography of the event.

In trying to “cover” the event I take a lot of photos, which means I then have to process those photos.  This year I used two cameras, I had a wide-telephoto Sigma 17-50mm on the Canon Rebel T1i body and the slightly longer telephoto Canon 18-135mm kit lens on the Canon 60D body (my favourite lens for the event, the Tamron 18-270mm, has an issue I cannot resolve as yet, it’s slow to focus, which is not good for moving subjects).  My favourites from these events have always been close shots rather than wide, but I decided to try to get a variety anyway.

As I expected, my favourites are still the close-up shots  🙂

Click on the Image above for the full Gallery

For a hand-picked selection, click on this Link, I selected my favourites, not necessarily the best ones, just the ones I like  🙂

2013 Deck – Week 04

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography4 Comments

On some photo-walks you just never know what you’ll come away with.  We were walking around the area near Parliament Buildings and Big Market (Stabroek Market), when we noticed this building.

It was aging, had a nice muted colour (due to faded paint by the harsh sun), and the paint was peeling.  If only I had caught someone leaning on the building!  But I still think it’s a nice shot, even without the person leaning on it  🙂

Click on the image to see in the Gallery.

2013 Deck – Week 03

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Although I like to think of myself as a photographer who likes to take Landscape photos, there is not a lot of scope for that living in the city, but I’ve always had an interest in capturing images of buildings, especially old ones that may not survive due to neglect or just continued development (or any number of other reasons)

During the third week of the year, I had an inexplicable desire to take some photos of St Rose’s High School, just before attending a presentation by Hew Locke (an artist with some amazing work), Nikhil and I took a walk around the block, and I got my chance to take a few images.

To emphasize the building more, I used an “orange filter” setting whilst processing, this darkened the sky and made the building more pronounced.  Although I did not intend to combine “street photography” into it these two boys strolled past just as we were there.

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

2012 Deck – Week 45

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography4 Comments

I was checking out some photos taken by a young lady recently who aspires to become a professional some day, and there were a few images that had a distinct style that I think she can build upon.  One of the images were of some wind chimes, and because she approached the subject from a different perspective than we normally look at wind chimes, it was interesting.  Changing your perspective and shooting an object/subject from a lower or higher perspective, or a closer or wider perspective can alter the impression significantly and lend to the story you are telling.

Changing your perspective need not be only from a physical standpoint, as in where you place the camera in relation to a subject, but also a mental shift in perspective.  I see some things everyday, others less frequently, but they quickly become part of the fabric of life as I know it, yet sometimes its important to look at things with fresh eyes, or to remind ourselves that what we take for granted, others may be intrigued by.

This was taken on a walk through Bourda Market…

PT 938

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery!

2012 Deck – Week 42

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Sometimes, in any art form, you have to break away from the norm, step away from the straight and narrow line that you’ve followed all along, and try something different.

I’ve broken the rule about shooting into the sun before, so this is not new…. but trying to get the palm tree and horse as the focus while doing so was different for me, and even then I was not ecstatic about it, when processing, I went for a duotone processing that I don’t do, and I though that the result was pleasing.

Although the original duotone processing had much more colour to it, I toned it down a bit to bring the focus back to the photo rather than the duotone, and the result; “sunset Liliendaal” 🙂

sunset Liliendaal

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