Late Afternoon @ Better Hope

On October 20, 2010October 20, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography23 Comments

Recently I have taken to “not” reviewing my images until Friday morning, when I would choose my photograph for the 2010 Deck collection on the main site. But this week I broke from the norm to attempt another HDR (High Dynamic Range) image. I went with Nikhil out to get his daily photograph, and we turned down the dividing road between the villages of Better Hope and Vryheid’s Lust, I wasn’t much inspired by the things I saw, but the sky was very nice, and I thought that a wide-angle HDR would turn out nicely. I had also just downloaded my trial version of Nik HDR Efex Pro and I wanted to try it out.

I have blogged about how I normally process my HDR images before, so this post is more about showing the results of trying the new software from Nik. I was impressed with the similarity it has to the other Nik software I’ve tried (like the Nik SIlver Efex) and it is easy and intuitive to use. I did not try to learn too much on this first try, just played with the basic settings to see how it stacked up against Dynamic HDR from Mediachance.

I think the resulting image speaks for itself, both Nik HDR Efex Pro and Dynamic HDR were able to help me to portray the variety of tones that I saw, in this case I was facing the slate afternoon sun, so the image has a lot more detail than a standard shot of the sky which rendered the buildings in the foreground as mostly silhouettes.

Take a look and let me know what you think 🙂 If you click on the image the site has it a bit larger.

Late Afternoon at Better Hope — 3 Image HDR, processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro

The Deck – Week 41

On October 15, 2010October 15, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography19 Comments

This week was fairly good as photography goes, I took a lot of photographs, 311 of which I’ve downloaded, the remainder were from a wedding that I was helping my bother Andre out at.

Choosing an image for this week’s deck proved more difficult than I would have thought, but that is mainly because the image I wanted to use, I decided to relegate to another blog-post for tomorrow. The image I eventually decided upon was chose for the unusual perspective, at least for me, I am usually more of an angular person when it comes to the direction from which I generally point the camera, Nikhil is usually the one who goes for “head-on” views.

I had the Sigma 10-20mm Wide angle lens on my camera, and I thought that the image would look good from a head-on view facing the horizon, unfortunately the shoreline and the horizon were not exactly parallel at this point, but I think I got the image to where I wanted it 🙂

This was taken along the seawall somewhere between Montrose and Le Resouvenir on the East Coast of Demerara.

The Deck – Week 38

On September 24, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography14 Comments

This week was busy, I got more photographs than usual 🙂 I have quite a number that I would love to use as the photo for The 2010 Deck this week, but I have to choose one, so after some thought I chose one that I am unlikely to replicate anytime soon, it is a wide-angle shot from a low perspective:

Lighthouse, Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana

This is the “Lamp Room” at the top of the Lighthouse in Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana. It was taken from the stairwell at the level with the floor.

The Deck – Week 34

On August 27, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography13 Comments

I have always been fascinated by the “Kissing Bridges” in the Botanical Gardens, ever since I was a child and saw paintings of it on someone’s wall or prints in the old GTC telephone directories. These bridges have been photographed and painted for decades and I find it hard to do a current photograph of it, I have tried a few times and never been satisfied with what I came away with.

It may also have to do with the time of day that I’ve tried 🙂 recently it has always been midday, I really should try an early morning or afternoon and see what comes of it.

I was back in there again this week with Nikhil, trying to get his photo for his 365 Project, and there I was faced with the bridge again. This time, I came away with something that I was happy with, it may not be the iconic images that live on in my memory and on canvas, but I think it speaks for itself.

My photo for the 2010 Deck for the thirty-fourth week of the year: The Kissing Bridge