Tag: sky

Bask

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, PoetryLeave a comment

In going over older photographs, I usually have an easy time of picking out the ones I want to keep and those that I either will never use or would come back to later (eventually).

This one sort of nagged me.  I don’t think it’s a particularly great shot, but I kept going back to it, I decided yesterday to process it and see what developed, and although I still think it’s just a photo of a rock on the seashore, I’m partial to it.

Click on the photo to see it in the gallery along with others in the Black and White Collection.

Bask

Battered by the pounding waves
at times of high water,
stood upon as a refuge
from the swirling foam…
pinched by crabs as an anchor
from the pull of the receding waters,
Covered by shifting sands,
and uncovered by the waves,
ebb tide is past and
the waters are gone
basking in the warmth
of the sun, this fine dawn.

2014 Deck – Week 11

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

This week’s photo is about Implied Motion.  OK, I lied, it’s a photo of a Jhandi flag at the Kingston seashore, but as it turns out it is one of those images that displays implied motion (at least for me)

Whenever we try to convey the idea of motion in a still photograph we usually do one of two things, we either have the main subject show motion blur with the background or rest of the scene in focus (such as light trails at night on the street, or a speeding cyclist, slightly blurred with the track sharply in focus)  or we do the reverse, with the main subject in focus but the background blurred (such as in panning shots, or a pedestrian in front of a speeding minibus – by “in front of” I mean with respect to the camera, not the business end of the minibus – although that would make a dramatic photo of a different sort).  🙂

Another method might be to blur everything, such as taking a photo from inside a moving vehicle, creating that “vortex” look (on a side note, using the zoom on the camera while standing still produces neat effects too)

Chrono Photography is also a neat trick used to convey motion, by capturing multiple instances of a moving subject and then layering them in your favourite photo software creates a good sense of the subjects path through the frame.

After babbling about all these ways to create a sense of motion in a still photo, I will just say that I used none of the above for this photo.

This photo is either serendipitous or pure photographer’s luck (hmm, maybe one has something to do with the other).  I had stepped out of my office intending to walk around a few blocks, upon looking up at the sky I notices the clouds in a lovely “blown” pattern, I decided to walk to the seawall instead.  I have taken many photos of the roundhouse before (and will probably take many more), I have also  taken many photos of Jhandi flags before (and will likely take many many more), but that day I saw the clouds in a dispersed pattern, a Jhandi flag blowing in the wind with the roundhouse as a backdrop, and I decided to compose and shoot it, I took a few exposures, then saw five birds flying from the roundhouse towards me… Serendipity!

I was also shooting with the Sigma 10-20 Ultra-wide lens on the camera, so I also got a bit of lens distortion at the edges that helped with the appearance of motion in the clouds toward the edges even more.

That’s a lot of preamble for one photo, but I hope I bored you enough that the photo is now more pleasing 🙂

Canon EOS 60D  |  Sigma 10-20mm

1/250s, f/11, ISO 100  |  6°49’34” N 58°9’45” W

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

Perception

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, thoughts1 Comment

Lately, I’ve been very busy, although depending on your point-of-view I might also have been giving priorities to the “wrong” things; for my myself, I say I’ve been busy.

I tell people that I’ve been busy, so I haven’t updated this blog, and updated the Deck Project, they look at me askance and think I’m either lying or stretching the truth, but it’s a matter of perception I suppose.

Often, what we see in a photograph is also a matter of perception, this image is one I overlooked when choosing my photo for week 9 of the Deck Project this year; when I say “overlooked”, I mean that I did not see then the potential that I saw when going back through the images the second time.

I was looking at a photograph recently of what appeared to be a woman holding a young girl lying limp across her arms, I later realized that it was a young man in her arms, but the combination of dark hair and a dark material near the head gave the long hair I usually associate (firstly) with girls, the features of the youth were very smooth and “pretty”, and he was attired in a hospital gown, all adding together to skew my perception.

I’ve also been trying to look at scenes differently and change my perspective, also altering my perception of the scene itself.  Anyway, all of this preamble is just to introduce you tot he image that I had also titled “Perception” 🙂

12:55 pm  |  Red filter  |  Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm lens

1/320s, f/11, ISO 100, 10mm  –  Processed in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex

Click on the image to see it larger in the Black and White Gallery of the Collection.

2014 Deck – Week 10

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography, Poetry2 Comments

Once called the Garden City, now laughingly referred to as the Garbage City, Georgetown was known for it’s tree-lined Avenues and streets, and the tree-lined canals and trenches that divided the wards of the city and provided drainage for a city that was built upon land reclaimed from the ocean, and sits six feet below sea-level.

Today many of those drainage canals have been filled in for pedestrian walkways (most notably those running north-south such as along High Street, Carmichael Street, Waterloo Street and Camp Street).   Many of the trees that lined the avenues, streets and canals have died (or been cut down) and have not been replaced.  For many of us, we still see the trees that line our streets as being numerous, but this was a much more verdant city, we see it in the old photos and paintings.

Some of the older trees remain and provide some shelter from the tropical sun that bathes our city daily, some are even large enough to help provide shelter from the sudden shower of rain that cools the land and washes away the surface dirt that blankets the city, mainly from our own daily activities.

Walking down the Avenues that are still lined with these sentinels, I often look up at the canopy of lace-like branches and leaves that provide a respite from the midday sun and often ponder on what might make a good composition.  I often take photos, but they just as often fail to live up to the ideals that reside in my mind’s eye.

Here’s a simplistic version that I favoured among the many that I took 🙂

Lacy Leaves

Leaves and branches adorn the sky
An organic filigree
Earthen wrought and weather tempered
It’s not just a tree.

Intertwined and interlocking
like a spider’s gossamer
A lacy parasol that once was
the city’s glamour.

Click on the photo to see it in the Gallery.

Midday Meditation

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

If I had the time in the middle of the day, I’d probably be doing just like this fellow in the photograph… sit and just stare out to sea for a while; but I was taking a walk and taking some photographs 🙂  (The walk ostensibly for health reasons and the photos for my sanity) I’ve photographed this spot many times, I was going through an old album when I came across this one and thought that a square crop would work nicely, then I saw the faint details of the clouds and thought that some tone-mapping would give me more detail and a monochrome version might just look nice, and voila!  I got a bit of haloing, but I can live with that 🙂

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in my Sepia Collection

2014 Deck – Week 09

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

The fascination with all things coastal continues!  Of course, it’s more like searching for images that I like and since most of my time seems spent on the coast, that’s what you’ll get 🙂

The fishing boats at Lusignan, always seem to compel me to take a few photos, even if I never use them, but this one worked well for me, I think my processing went a tad overboard (no pun intended) but at the end of it all I still liked the final image.

I was considering a Dutch title for the image since the word Moored comes from the Dutch word Meren (according to some dictionary I was reading), but then the name Lusignan was from France, so I went with a French title instead (not that anyone really cares) 😀

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm  |  1/250s, f/10, ISO 100

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

2014 Deck – Week 03

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Even though I don’t get out too often to take the landscape photos I yearn for, I do enjoy picking my daughter up from her Saturday “Revision Classes” on a Saturday and heading out to the seawall, she goes hunting for rocks and shells, and I hunt for photos.

This tyre with it’s bright paint caught my eye, and I was going for a simple photo then my daughter began running on the far side… resulting in an even better photo 🙂

I’ve been working in LightZone again for this one, and I really believe that it has a lot of potential, I really miss the gradient tool that I’ve become accustomed to in Lightroom, but it’s just like switching cameras, you just need to use the tools at hand to achieve a finished product that you can be satisfied with.

I used two localised masks in this one just to see how that would work, and it did a good job, I wanted some more clarity on the tyre itself without affecting the entire image, and I wanted to make local adjustments to the sky (I didn’t have a polarizer on the lens)

I hope you like it.

Clink on the image to see it in the Gallery.

Tree on the Avenue

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry4 Comments

I had taken this photograph of one of the many trees lining the Main Street Avenue, it struck me that I could look up at these canopies along the avenue and feel a sense of calm and even tranquility but when I look back down and around me I am surrounded by rushing people, rushing vehicles, horns blaring and exhausts fuming.

Whilst processing the image I couldn’t think of much to say about this to put on the blog here…  and I thought I’d take up a suggestion someone once made about using a Haiku Poem to accompany it (for some reason the image gave me an Oriental vibe).  I read up on Haiku and realised that anything I attempted would likely come out wrong… and probably be laughed at by anyone who knows about Haiku, so I decided to at least put in these two paragraphs to accompany the photo, and yes I will put the attempt at Haiku under the photo…  If you don’t know about Haiku, then I’ll be fine, if you do know about Haiku… just don’t laugh out loud 😀

Fresh scents, a clear day
Trees adorned with other life
A busy street thrives.

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

2014 Deck – Week 02

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography3 Comments

I selected one of the images I took from the recent Guyana Photographers’ Photowalk to the Conservancy via Canal #2 for my Deck Photo for this week.

While I’ve never swum or plunged into the Conservancy, I do remember the many outings to creeks and diving off of a tree at the side, even after being warned that it was either shallow or may have stumps unseen under the water.

This shot reminded me of those days.  Many other photographers on the walk captured this moment, one even at, what appeared to be, the same moment, but it still remains one of my favourite images from the walk.  When I noticed what was occurring, I knew I didn’t have time to stop, bring the camera to my eye, compose and shoot, so I shot it from the hip 🙂

Canon 60D, Sigma 17-50mm  |  17mm, ISO 100, 1/400s, f/9

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery