Tag: seascape

0001

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

For photographers, or I should say digital photographers, that 0001 number usually means you’ve cycled through the 9,999 actuations on your camera and you’re starting over, or some photographers actually do a reset to 0001 when they start a new year, or whatever period they decide to set for themselves. More commonly, it usually means a new camera, fresh out of the box.

Late last year, someone (or maybe a few someones) broke into the office where I work (photography is not my day-job, or night-job for that matter) and they stole my camera bag with all the gear in it, to date we have not recovered anything from that. So, after several years, I’ve had to acquire a new camera, at least one for now, I can’t quite replace what’s gone, but I’ve started somewhere. Thanks to a little saving and a lot of help from friends I don’t deserve, I got what’s essentially a mid-range mirrorless camera.

So here’s the first image from the new Camera:

23-0001 | Seascape – Thomaslands Seawall, Georgetown, Guyana – 2023

For those interested in the gear, don’t wait to be impressed…. its a Canon EOS R7, the lens I used for this image is the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other Seawall images. Keep Shooting!

Sons of Stribog

On By themichaellamcollectionIn PhotographyLeave a comment

For most people who have followed my photography for any time, they know that I have a penchant for seascapes, and especially for high contrast black and white images of those scenes. This one falls right in to those. As a matter of fact this one is the latest addition to the ongoing Oniabo series of such images.

This was taken with the Canon 60D using a Sigma 10-20 ultra-wide angle lens, this combination was my favourite; I had gotten quite attached to it, quite familiar with the ultra-wide aberrations that I could use to advantage, and I even became quite fond of some of the softness I got from multi-layered scenes.

My processing is by no means unique, and I have no secrets about it; this one was cropped ever so slightly to adjust for the horizon, it was processed in Lightroom for brightness, contrast, texture, etc., then I took it into DXO’s Nik Silver Efex for the final black and white treatment, using a High Structure harsh approach with some localised adjustments in the sky and near the koker (sluice), with a red-filter applied for the darkening of the sky. Nothing was added or removed (aka Edited), just processed for the final look.

Sons of Stribog – 20-7135 | Abandoned Koker, Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana. 2020

…the winds, the sons of Stribog, blew as keen daggers.
The earth groaned, the waters thickened, a pall of mud
lay over the fields and the very folds of
Igor’s standards shook in agony.

The Tale of Igor’s Campaign

Those kokers that just sit there off the shoreline always fascinate me, they remind me that our shoreline was once further out, and that mother nature (or the Gods, whichever ones you care to blame for it) has reclaimed it. The quote above is from a Slavic poem, the mention of the winds, the Sons of Stribog were synchronous with the look of this image, with the seemingly forceful dispersal of clouds by the winds. Weird associations and thoughts often happen with me 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Black and White Gallery, along with many other images there. Keep Shooting!

At Day’s End

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography8 Comments

I don’t want to be the one telling you a story in words, I want to be the one telling you a story in a photo, but who’s story is it?

Are you seeing and interpreting the scene in the same way I do?  Does it matter?

The photograph as it was taken tells one story, what that story is may be entirely up to the viewer, after I have processed it, there are some subtle and some not so subtle changes to the finished image (not edited, nothing has been taken out or added), in this manner, I hope to direct the line of thinking in a certain way, whether it works or not is another matter, but in this way I am interpreting the scene my way, and lending to it my feelings; how the viewer sees it is still up to the viewer.

Many people take scenes literally, others concoct long tales based on the elements in the frame,  others may just have an emotional reaction but not know precisely why;  if it affects you, then I am happy.

At Day’s End – 14-3289  |  Lusignan, East Coast Demerara  |  2014

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black and White Collection.

Discovery

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography2 Comments

– 1499 –
Imagine that somewhere on the horizon is a line of three Galleons…
okay, fine, Galleons are more impressive looking, but we’ll revert to the truth;
there’s a line of Caravels, three of them, heading from the north-west, somewhere where the clouds disappear into the distance.

If you grew up as I did, you were taught that many of “our” countries were discovered by that fellow Chris, but the leader of that flotilla on the horizon was not Chris, but Alonso.

If you can see the flotilla, imagine now that one of those caravels has separated and is heading our way, in a more south-easterly direction along the coast, the remaining two are heading further west and stopping at the mouth of the Essequibo;  Alonso is now the first European to be recorded as seeing and touching our shores… and in that south-easterly heading caravel is Amerigo, who is on his first voyage (second, if you believe a disputed letter), and it is after this explorer that the joint continents of “America” are named.

As for that fellow Chris, this voyage by Alonso, his pilot Juan and navigator Amerigo quite displeased his followers, which resulted in quite a fracas in Hispaniola 🙂

If you stand on our shores and stare toward the horizon, you will not now see those caravels, but in the wake of those voyagers, using the trade-winds and ocean currents, are many ships; and I wonder, what are those sailors thinking as they look towards land?  Are they thinking of those days of discovery?  Are they thinking of the journey home?  Do they see the stars as did those long-ago conquistadors did?

I was processing this image when thoughts of the actual “discoverers” came to mind, hence the long messy thought process above 🙂

“And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.”

Robert Frost – The Road not taken

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2015 Deck – Week 46

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography, Poetry2 Comments

Oniabo

A different scent
in the air,
sounds of birds,
fishermen toil;
Clouds adrift
upon the horizon,
a distant sun
in heaven’s vault.
The moon upon
the oceans pull,
the fish upon
the tide at play;
Meandering shore,
of rocks and
mangroves,
shore of sand,
mud and life,
Oniabo I hear,
the sea, it calls,
Oniabo I fear,
the sea, it calls!

Oniabo is the name I have given to a currently ongoing Black and White Seascape collection of photographs.  Oniabo is an Arawak word meaning “water”; the selection that I used for a presentation at Moray House Trust can be seen here.

A video of that presentation can be seen alongside other presentations of The Photography Sessions at Moray House Trust at www.ThePhotographySessions.com

Oniabo 15-0380  |  Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm

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

2015 Deck – Week 22

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography4 Comments

Come away with me…

As I sat and processed the image, those words came to mind, as I sit and look at it after I have finished the processing, it still remains lingering and softly playing over and over again in the cerebral auditorium.  I titled it simply “Basket”, but the feel I get is still “come away with me”…

Each photo has a different effect on each viewer, but this one, more than most recently, has a deeper more calming effect, I can feel the breeze, smell the salty air, hear the sound of the surf, feel the warmth of the sun on my skin…  I can hear the voice of Ms. Jones, soft, sultry, creamy, crooning to me to come away…

Kingston Seashore, Guyana, South America.

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

2015 Deck – Week 03

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I don’t normally do abstract photography, actually, even including this photo I’m not sure I’ve ever done abstract photography, I just don’t see the world that way.

This photo I liked, I am not sure why, it just appealed to me, even when taking it.

To me it has an amalgamation of the things that make me “feel” like I am where I feel most comfortable, where I was born, where I was raised, where I belong…  I am of Guyana, I am in Guyana, I am Guyana!

Now that I’ve gotten the crazy bits out of the way, here’s the photo 🙂

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  1/125s, f/10, ISO 100

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

…. and yes… that bit in the top right hand corner was knowingly left in the frame 🙂

Smoke Signals

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Seascape3 Comments

There was this “plume” of clouds in the sky that reminded me of the smoke signals I remember seeing in old Western movies, except that it was more contiguous than the separate puffs that I remember from the movies.

I was trying to get an average exposure, but no matter what I did that day the birds in the boat just “glowed”, the intensity of the afternoon sun I guess was just too much for my camera lens/sensor.

I only looked back at this image today and decided to process it through anyway 🙂

Canon EOS 60D  |  Sigma 10-20mm EX Lens (@20mm, 1/125s, ISO100)

Click on the image to see it in the Black and White Gallery, along with many other of my Black and White images.

2014 Deck – Week 40

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography4 Comments

It is not often that I am at the seawalls when the tide is at its highest and the waves are crashing against the sea defences, when that does happen, I usually take some photos, but seldom use any; mainly because I never seem to get one that I think stands out enough.

I think I may have gotten one that passed muster this last occasion 🙂

Crashing Waves – Georgetown Seashore

On this one I did some unusual processing (for me), I “cooled” the lower area with the rocks prior to applying the red filter, without that the details in the rocks were getting lost 🙂