Tag: photograph

2015 Deck – Week 18

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck2 Comments

I’m not a street photographer, far from it, I am not only very hesitant to engage with people on the street, I am also very afraid that when taking candid shots they will see me shooting and think I’m up to something nefarious and then accost me (verbally and physically).  While I like the genre, understand some things about it, try to encourage others into pursuing it, I don’t see myself excelling at it at any time.

While there are times when I am afraid to take a photo of people as they go about their daily lives, there are those other moments when the people of Guyana surprise me (whether they mistake me for a tourist or are just in that mood, I don’t know) and they literally ask for their photo to be taken, most times I am still hesitant, but I do sometimes simply swing the camera in their direction and shoot.

Georgetown Seawall  |  Seawall Public Road

By the way, that’s a Banks Beer in his hand 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 16

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

I was wondering why I found this particular photo appealing… not great, just appealing… then realized my eyes kept following the branches all over the place like a maze, or one of those optical illusion drawings that keep looping back impossibly onto itself.

It’s just a tree, one that was uprooted on the seawalls, and even though the roots are above ground, it just refuses to die 🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  10mm, 1/160s, f/8.0, ISO 100

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

Serenity of the Shore

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography1 Comment

Whether it is the soft roar of the waves as they rush to shore, the melodic crash as they break upon the rocks along the seawall or the almost deafening calm that engulfs you when the tide is at its lowest, there is a serenity that reaches deep within and soothes like a herbal balm, and sets your mind, your soul, your very being at ease.

I remember the afternoon I took this, there was a girl walking a dog along the seawall, a few boats were moored at the usual spot near the Lusignan/Anandale outflow canal, my daughter and her cousin were playing among the rocks, then later they played on a swing (old tyre on a rope), the tide was so far out that it would take quite some time to walk to the tideline, I was out there hoping for a nice sunset or interesting clouds to make a good scene…  I took quite a few photos, this one being among the earliest, not because it jumped out and screamed “take me”, but just because I was there, the scene was there and I felt like shooting something… it happens sometimes.

Revisiting the image after two years, I saw the potential that my subconscious saw… or I only now have a different detached perspective on it, whichever excuse works for you, I think I finally got what the scene was saying to me.  🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Tamron 18-270  |  84mm, 1/160s, f/5.0, ISO 160

Click on the image to see it in the Black and White Gallery, that gallery now holds quite a number of my monochromatic images that I am very fond of..

2015 Deck – Week 15

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

Other than being in the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook Group, I’m also a member of a few other Facebook photography groups…  one of them is the Guyana Mobile Photographers, which focuses on photographs taken with mobile devices, such as my phone.  There was a suggestion of there being “challenges” for the members to push themselves, I had just walked out of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on a Sunday morning when Avinash suggested to the group to use “worship” as the theme, I quickly ran back inside with the phone in hand to see what I could snap…  I couldn’t believe my luck at this scene.

From the time I uploaded it I knew that I’d be using it as the Deck Photo for that week…

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos  |  Instagram

Click the image to see it in the Gallery, you can also check out how my experiment with mobile photography is going over on Instagram.

Charlestown

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

I lived in Charlestown (Georgetown, Guyana) for a short while after we got married, if I crossed the street, I’d then be in Albouystown.  Back then I had my first access to a digital camera, an Agfa ePhoto 1280 (Megapixel? what’s that?).  It was mainly for work purposes, but through it I learnt a few things about digital photography, and it probably rekindled my interest in photography at the time.

I had read somewhere that Charlestown (and Charles Street) was named after the Duke of Brunswick, Charles William Ferdinand (or Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, his original German name), but why a Ward of Georgetown, Guyana is named after a German Duke is a question I can’t answer.

Charlestown, at the time I lived there, was still quite “quaint”, in respect to the type of buildings, but even then things had begun to change, with one or two square concrete building being erected where once stood more aesthetic wooden structures, but times change, and change is inevitable.  Fortunately, change is also slow, comparatively, and some of the older buildings are still standing.  I walked, rode or drove past an old wooden building on the corner of Broad Street and Charles Street for many years, when I took up photography a bit more seriously, I kept an eye on it and kept putting off taking a photo, one day I decided that the “For Sale” sign meant that it may be bought and torn down, so I made the extra effort to stop and spend a few minutes grokking the scene seeking out a nice photo, waiting for the “perfect” photo was out of the question, so I just wanted a “nice” one.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-500  |  1/400s, f/10, ISO 400

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the “Georgetown, Guyana” album.

2015 Deck – Week 14

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography3 Comments

I never really liked the whole Kite-flying thing…  don’t get me wrong, the idea always appealed, but the fascination wore off minutes after the kite was actually airborne.  As Easter approached each year (when I was somewhat younger, anyway) I would look forward to the whole idea of visiting relatives, flying kites, picnicking and so forth, but in hindsight, it was the totality of the experiences that made Easter special, not just kite-flying.

One of the fun parts for us as kids was helping to decorate the kite, finding magazines to cut things out of, or gift paper, or any printed matter with an image on it, that was to add to whatever fancy snow-flake pattern a parent, aunt or uncle had already cut out of coloured paper to stick as the centre-piece.

I thought of that as I saw this kite-vendor choosing pre-printed stickers to apply to his kites, was the child who got the kite going to think that he /she missed an opportunity to decorate their own kite, or would they be happy that they got one already prettied up and ready to fly?

Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF40mm f2.8 STM  |  1/250s, f/8.0, ISO 200

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 13

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography3 Comments

As strange as it may sound, sometimes when I can’t find a paragraph or two to express what I want to say, the words come out as a poem…

HOME

The call of the Kiskadee
on a rain-kissed afternoon
The sung sweet melody
of an old Tradewinds tune,
The shout of a passing man,
“Creketeh! get yuh Crawbeah!”
And the woman just behind
singing “Broom ay, broom ay”
Sundays- dressed, in church,
And the Saturday movie night,
A show for the family,
or maybe one with a bit of fright,
The sweet salty scent
of the breeze on the seawalls
A tasty mouthful
of pholourie or egg-ball,
Walking the water’s edge,
feeling sand, feeling the foam,
It’s where I belong,
this is Guyana, this is home.

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

2015 Deck – Week 12

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography, Poetry2 Comments

Sometimes we become entangled in the minutiae of our daily lives and forget or overlook the things that are truly important, I’m no philosopher but sometimes introspection leads to thoughts about things that I often figure are best left to wiser men to figure out – like, why does the toilet paper always seem to run out when you really need it and can’t reach a new one easily? 😀

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I saw this cloth tied to a bamboo pole on the seawall, not sure if it was part of a Hindu ritual, a flayed and battered Jhanda (Jhandi flag) or just a piece of cloth tied to a pole…  It intrigued me enough that I took quite a few photos of it, trying to catch it and freeze it’s motion with a fast shutter speed… and when I was processing the photo, only then noticed the bit of seaweed tangled in some of the threads… this might have been a bit of that Sargasso Seaweed that recently washed up on our shores.

Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF24-105mm  |  105mm, 1/500s, f/8, ISO 200

A cruel world, tears and flays
The skin and nerves apart
Love and life, soothes and calms
This tender fragile heart

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

500

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

The Art of Photography and Photography as Art

2015 – Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

This blog post is a milestone of sorts, it marks my five hundredth blog post.  It began on a sad note, with a photo from my maternal grandmother’s funeral, it has been more of a photo journey rather than a photo blog, more about myself and the photos than about the photos themselves I suppose, so it’s rather like a journal…almost… of sorts.

On this journey I’ve learnt a lot, with still much more to learn, I’ve met many other people with a passion for photography, and many who love to look at beautiful imagery.

I have learnt that there is a difference between the Art of Photography and Photography as Art, and I believe that it is a realization that comes to most of us who pursue it with an aim for creating “art”.

2010 – Canon T1i, Sigma 18-270mm

It sounds presumptuous even to my own ears to refer to anything that I produce with the camera as “art”, but people like my friend Nikhil would thump me behind the head for even saying that.  Not everything I take can be considered as art, so I humbly submit that I have a few that may be taken into consideration by those who are more knowledgeable than myself and more in-tune with the art world to be judged and pronounced as art.

Nikhil would also tell me that I have had work exhibited once at the National Gallery of Art (Castellani House) and have also been among the finalists in two of the recent Guyana Visual Arts Competitions, so I can’t get away with trying to play modest about being called an “artist”.

2011 – Canon Rebel T1i – Tamron 18-270mm

I began as most of us probably did with learning to use the camera and just snapping away at anything and everything that caught my eye.

After a while it began to be more important to learn and understand the art of photography, to understand how light plays an important part, where paying attention to composition results in a much better photo of the same subject.  The art of photography is to know your camera (whether it’s a mobile device such as cellphones or a larger DSLR) to learn what it can and cannot do, and to know how to use it to accomplish what you want.  Like any craftsman worth his salt, the art of the craft is the union of the person and the tools at hand.

It is good to learn different techniques, different approaches, different styles; that can be part of your arsenal, but it need not define the photograph you take.

2012 – Canon T1i, Tamron 18-270mm

The photograph is an extension of your self, it is a product of your own thoughts and skills, when the photograph stops being just a snapshot and becomes an expression of an idea, a concept, more than just a moment frozen in time, then it is possible that you have created a piece of art.

Photography as Art has to be more than just a pretty photo of a pretty scene or even a technically perfect photo of a dilapidated house, for a photograph to be Art it should have soul, it should convey an idea, elicit a reaction from the viewer, it has to be seen, talked about, appreciated or ridiculed even.

2013 – Canon EOS 60D, Tamron 18-270mm

Not many of us in Guyana can successfully claim to be original in our photographs, most of it has been done before and by better artists than ourselves, Photography as an Art has to overcome the fact that everyone now has access to a device that captures images, and in the maelstrom of images swirling around the internet we have to produce a piece that stands out, that makes people stop and look, but also to have them remember it afterwards, to recall it and speak about it.

Art is subjective, that’s basically saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it is not enough for the creator of the piece to want it to be art, the viewer has to appreciate the piece, not necessarily from the perspective of the creator but from how it affects them.

2014 – Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105mm

All the images in this post are “new to you”, they are from the six years than span this blog, 2010 to 2015, one from each calendar year.  I went through the files looking for images that I have overlooked, or just not processed,  not looking for any subject in particular, but for images I think worth processing, worth sharing and reflect what I would like to show others.

I hope that at least one strikes your fancy.

Click on each one to see them in their respective galleries in the Collection.  Thank you for being a part of my journey so far.