A fascination with skies

On March 8, 2011March 8, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography21 Comments

Many of my favourite images have had some amount of sky in it, I usually get very “miffed” when shooting landscape or even people and building shots and the sky is just a drab gray, I like blue skies, plain blue, hues of blue, I just really like blue skies, if there are errant clouds then all the better, but a sky fully covered with clouds usually gets to me, I found a way to deal with that over time, I look for a good scene that will process better as a monochromatic image.

While I have gotten better at that, I still like the blue, and I like dramatic skies, streaming clouds, or clouds spotting the vista to the horizon. The last Deck photo was taken on a day that had a nice variation of clouds in the sky, and I got a few others that I thought were worth sharing.

These were taken with the full intent of getting as much out of the sky as possible while still retaining some foreground interest. All were taken with the Sigma 10-20 Ultrawide Lens. I hope you like one or all 🙂

The temptation to render any of the three images into monochrome was great, but I resisted, barely. I felt that the colours in the sky and the foreground were more truly representative of the “feel” of the afternoon, than a monochrome would express, although I think I could probably have gotten more drama out of the images in monochrome 🙂

Click on the images to see them larger in the Gallery, I think I may have to print the one title “Inland Bound” larger for better scrutiny myself 🙂

2011 Deck – Week 9

On March 4, 2011March 4, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography22 Comments

This week I almost didn’t have anything to upload, and I almost went for Sasi’s idea of using the eggs 🙂 Fortunately, Nikhil had a desire to go check out the Kingston Promenade again, so we took a few minutes and went.

I started out with my Tamron telephoto lens but quickly switched to the ultra-wide Sigma 10-20, I had noticed the skies were nice, some clouds, some patches of blue showing, some streaky areas, and some heavily clouded areas, so I thought something good can come of that.

I got a few keepers from the shoot, but this one stands out, somehow a coconut got wedged or nestled into the hollow of a tree trunk on the beach… Nature’s “hole-in-one” 🙂

Click on the image for a larger viewing in the Gallery.

Soaring over the Seawall in September

On February 8, 2011February 8, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography26 Comments

The sky that day was a photographer’s dream, nice variety of clouds, a slowly setting sun, as Nikhil mentioned once “even a monkey could have gotten good photos that day”. I’m not entirely sure about the monkey, but I know we came away with some good ones.

For me, I liked this one because of the clouds, and then there’s the lone man walking along the wall, and the lone bird soaring in the sky.

The Parallel Project – Creative White Balance

On January 11, 2011January 17, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, The Parallel Project11 Comments

I’ve been considering a parallel project to this year’s 2011 Deck Project, but I am still not sure if I am going to go through with it. It was my thought to experiment with different techniques and use the results from those experiments to do the project.

In the event that I do go through with it, this would have been my first image for it 🙂

It uses the idea of using a “wrong” white balance for a scene, to give a different temperature impression, usually to give the “right” impression.

When I was at the wall the place was very cool, breeze blowing in off the ocean, and the rain clouds scattered across the sky, with some blue showing. The sun was beginning to set and was casting a few (not many) warm colours on the eastern clouds. To give the cooler impression the white balance was adjusted to give a cooler or “bluer” image. In the old days this was called “camera tricks”, but it gives the “feel” of the scenery and sometimes that is what is important 🙂

Two from the Shore

On August 28, 2010August 28, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography12 Comments

I was going to title this post “Two from the Seawall” but since the seawall itself does not feature prominently in either of the photos, I changed my mind.

I had taken these since the 20th of this month, but never moved them to the Seawall album, nor blogged it until now, my Deck photo that week took precedence and these fell by the wayside (so to speak).

Of course, I prefer one over the other, and I suppose everyone will have a preference, but I have found that when it comes to photography, there is never a time when everyone can agree on which photograph is the “better” one. When I first started taking photographs, I had often tried to upload photographs that I thought others would like, then quickly realized that this didn’t work for me. Now, I upload what I think are good photos, even if there are two or three that look similar, if I like them enough, up they will go. By doing this, I have found that there is a great diversity in the “likes” and “dislikes” of those viewing my images, some that one group will like another will dislike and so forth.