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.
What can I say…?
It’s a photo… of some items left after a Hindu religious ritual on the seawall…
The colours caught my eye, the dropped and discarded incense sticks caught my eye… and I thought it would make a good photo.
It’s a photo. 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
This week, I’m adding a new image not only to the Deck Project but to my slowly growing (as yet untitled) Seascape project.
It may be more a combination of landscape and seascape, you can see the road and the seawall, but I still consider it part of the Seascape set 🙂
Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, ISO100 | Red filter in Post-process
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery.
The Driftwood.
Have you seen the driftwood that climbs the rocks,
and basks in the midday sun?
The one that crossed two oceans and a sea,
Yes, that’s the one.
It was cast adrift by a little boy
who threw it from the shore
To see if it would then return
back to him once more
He watched it bob among the waves
until it was lost from sight,
Then away he ran to play among
the children of the night
Upon many beaches it took a rest,
then washed to sea again
until it touched upon our shore
and bathed in sun and rain
I doubt that you will find it now
for I passed a hobo this morning
And I thought I smelled some fish broth
and the scent of driftwood burning.
During this season when many people wish for World Peace, Goodwill among Men, we also see many young lovers finding new ways to express their love for each other.
Many novels and movies have lines like “I’ll shout it to the Heavens”, but it seems that in Guyana, we have a new method… “I’ll paint it on the Seawall!”
Some man (or woman, we are living in a new age) seriously meant for the subject of their amorous intent to see the writing on the wall 🙂
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with other images done using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) multiple exposure method.
This image is an HDR composite of three exposures, I stood there waiting for the traffic to clear long enough for the three exposures 🙂
On a recent photo-walk with Nikhil and Sharon on the seawalls up the East Coast of Demerara, I found myself looking at the scenes around me and shooting without really thinking too much about it, almost on automatic. I saw things to photograph, they caught my eye and I took a few snaps.
I wasn’t inspired, and I thought to myself that I’d be coming away with something “normal”, something that I would be happy with but not overjoyed.
On the walk back to the vehicle, I happened to walk under a fisherman’s shed, and the scene that caught my eye was different in a few ways from all that I had seen, nothing spectacular, but just different enough for me, and I stopped, took the time to set up the camera for a few bracketed exposures, and took two sets of exposures for later HDR-processing.
This was the result: At Rest.
Click on the image above to see it better in the Gallery.
In June of this year Imran Khan had done an article on the new insurgence of young (and not so young) Photographers in Guyana in the form of the Facebook Group Guyana Photographers, this was recently re-blogged on the GuyanaPhotographers.com site. In it he mentioned that the Seawalls seem to be a favourite or default location for their “treks”, this is very true.
With most of the population of Guyana living on the Atlantic coast, this is inevitable; with the majority of (accessible) roads meandering along the coast, this is inevitable; with the majority of the coastland given over to farming (and now housing) leaving the only scenic areas being the seawalls stretching from east to west along the coast, this is inevitable.
I’m not saying that there aren’t more places that would make nice photographs, there are, they are just not as “easy” to get to. You can read “easy” as being “not too expensive to get to”, “not too arduous to get to”, “not needing to plan a trip weeks in advance” and ‘not requiring a four wheel drive vehicle with a winch and hi-lift” to get there. 🙂
So, for someone who has a full-time job but would still like to get a nice photograph, as Imran so accurately pointed out, the Seawall becomes the “default” location 🙂
With that said… here’s a pair of Jhandi Flags… on the sea shore, just in front of the Seawall
Click on the image to see it better in the Gallery, along with all the other entries for this year’s Deck Project.
This was one of those weeks where I had not taken a photo at all until I was forced to take something on the last day or abandon the Deck Project. To be on the safe side, I stopped on the seawall to take a few photos for another “Seascape”, this would have been around the Bel Air / Sophia area.
As things turned out, I took the family out to the seawall near Lusignan, as it was nearing sunset, I took some photos in general, then settled down amidst some rocks and waited for the sun to drop to just the right height. This was one of the few times that I had “planned” a shot (or rather the general concept of what I was looking for). I took several at different times in different orientations, but this one was the one that appealed to me the most.
As always, click on the image for a better view in the Gallery.
Under clouds of gloom, tread lightly in fear,
unknown dangers may lurk quite near
Yet onward walk, for we must see
what lies upon yonder sea
It is our goal, our sole intent
today to capture the coming rent
in clouds that cover, yet soon shall show
upon the sea a hopeful glow
for but a moment shall it be
a fleeting time, then it too shall flee
as the sun continues its descent
we try to capture the fleeting rent.
Getting out to take photographs seems harder recently, but living on the coast means that there is always the seawall 🙂 I took a drive up to Enterprise to pick up something and thought I’d just drive up to the wall and see what, if anything, there was to photograph. There were a couple boats out there, but it didn’t move me, but there were two bicycles left near/on the wall where two boys had left them to go over the seawall.
This posting is somewhat appropriate as I (that is, my family and I) are about to go to a family reunion. So, while we will be leaving the comforts of our home, the familiarity of other family and friends near to us, we do so knowing that the material things we leave temporarily are being taken care of by people we know, and the people we leave behind have their own family and friends to keep them occupied while we’re away 🙂
For many students in the trimester system, it is now the end of the school year, the end of projects and assignments, the end of homework, the last of the tests and exams until the next academic year begins.
I find it fitting that the image I chose reflects some of this; hands raised in joy as the sun sets on another day. The end of one thing usually marks the beginning of another, soon we begin the “August” or summer holidays, although those in the semester system have already begun theirs 🙂
After two years of doing this, I think that this is what keeps me intrigued in photography, the weekly search for a photograph. While Nikhil has embarked upon his Daily Photography project this year (I hope he goes the full 366) I know my limitations, I won’t be trying that anytime soon.
I think that this image is somewhat appropriate to the year, the crazy Armageddon stories and to my photography. If you believe the Mayan Calendar theorists and many of the other Doomsday predictions regarding the year 2012, then you’re probably hoping, like myself, that I get some really good photographs this year! 🙂
This was taken on New Year’s Day, because of my interests in HDR, I thought that I would try another Black and White HDR, this one was taken at midday, I think the originals were 2ev apart.
It was a breezy day (forgot my tripod again, so this was hand-held for all three exposures), and very overcast, lots of clouds as you can see.
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