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.
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
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..
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.
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.
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.
The seawall is a frequent haunt of mine, well, as frequent as it is possible. It is a place of solitude, tranquility, inspiration and sometimes perspiration.
I sometimes see things that I want to photograph; a few years ago I’d just shoot it and not worry too much, now I see it and can often not “see” the photograph I want, or not be able to execute it as I wish.
Over the years my view of what I want to capture has changed, maybe evolved, some might say devolved, but it’s no longer just about shooting wildly, unless it’s a situation where the excitement overrides my senses. Each scene takes some amount of consideration, whether it’s milliseconds or minutes.
Even though I may try and try to get a particular subject in as expressive a manner as I want, it does not always work out, I took about 17 exposures of one single perspective/angle of this one, and even when I chose the one that appealed to me the most, I still think I missed “the shot”
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other pieces from this year’s Deck Project.
Balance is over-rated… it’s boring, right?
I mean, eat a balanced diet… where’s the fun in that? Balance your time between sleep and wake, work and home, business and pleasure…. you get the drift… keeping the balance is just too hard; of course, going totally unbalanced is not good, not good at all, trust me, I know.
I was out along the seawalls on a midday walk (yes, no one who is balanced would be doing that either!), and I was composing some shots, I normally do not position my horizon in the centre anymore (that was the default position when I started taking photos), but something about this scene made me want to balance the earth to heavens proportion in the frame.
My thought processes often differ from the moment of pressing the shutter-button to the time of processing, and that might be a good thing, at the time of processing, I was looking at the elements and the thought that came to mind was a bible verse… no, I do not normally go around quoting bible verses… but this one many people already know; it is from what we know as The Lord’s Prayer
“… on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)
I think it fits… in a way 🙂
OK, so I’ve babbled enough nonsense to confuse even myself, here’s the photo:
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 10mm, ISO 100, 1/200s, f/10
Click on the image to see it in the gallery along with others from the Sewall album
This blog is now 5 years old…. it doesn’t feel like it. Today I am feeling somewhat introspective….
I am not my parents…
I am not my ancestors…
I am not a representation of one particular political party or the other, of one race or the other, of one ideology or the other…
I am the debris upon our coast, that which is a product of the actions of others, whether deliberate or accidental.
I have been cast upon the shore, faithfully placed or carelessly thrown.
I have been left on my own, to survive or perish.
I may be strong or I may be weak, but mother nature will still prevail.
I may be solitary, or in the company of others…
I am the debris upon our coast.
Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery
I was going through a few photos from last year, and I can across a set that I had not processed, and I thought “no one wants to see another Jhandi flag photo”… but I couldn’t resist it, I just had to choose one of the set and process it.
There’s just something about a flag fluttering in the wind that draws the attention… who am I fooling? Even when it’s hung limp with the wind abated I’d probably still take a photo.
This one appealed to me because of the contrast that the rich red flag had against the sky, the line of the seawall and it’s curve towards the koker made it a better composition than just a plain flag 🙂
OK, yes… I did seriously think about doing it in BW (still pondering it) but I rather like this version 🙂
2014 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Ogle, East Coast Demerara, Guyana
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from when I’m “Out and About”
This is not normally a photo that I would share, I snapped it at the seashore and didn’t think much of it, but when I was looking at it in Lightroom I kept getting drawn into it, there was a sense of unease, of vertigo even… there’s a depth to it that I can’t easily describe in words…
Of course, it could just be that I was hungry at the time 🙂
2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with other “Odds and Ends”
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