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.
Although I am much behind in my current Deck Project, I thought it prudent to choose and process photos from last weekend’s Children’s Mashramani Parade.
As usual, I am seldom disappointed with the parade itself, the Children are always great to see, I often say it is better than the Adult’s Parade…
I will be making a shortlist of these photos soon, but for now you can click on the image below to see the current images in the Gallery
This week I will let the photo do the talking.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
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
Have you ever latched onto a word with unusual fascination? When I first read or heard certain words, there was an undue fascination that I got for them, one of those was “singed”… No, it has nothing to do with singing, so no funny quips about that 🙂 Another one was “chaos”, that one was simply because I’d read it in a book and had formed this pronounciation in my head that turned out to be completely wrong.
So… back to “singed”
It was the first week of 2014, and I was walking the seawall looking for a few photographs when I came across the piece of singed wood… it was laying across another piece of wood forming a cruciform shape, the harsh midday sun cast a strong shadow and I decided that it might make a decent photograph 🙂
I also took the opportunity to try out LightZone to process it from start to end… I finally found how to straighten the horizon in it… using the crop tool just like in LightRoom (silly me couldn’t find it the first time I was processing an image in it). I must say, that while there are some things I miss from this piece of software, it is a very powerful application, and the integration of the changes into the saved file (JPG or TIF) makes it easy to go back and adjust the processing.
LightZone also professes to be able to work as a plugin to LightRoom, so if you just want some of the neat features in LZ, you can try it as a plugin. For an OpenSource (read that as FREE) software, it is powerful and user-friendly, this is not a stripped down software, but a full fledged product for RAW image processing.
Now… to the image. It probably won’t rank as a great photograph, but I liked it and it gave me a good opportunity to try out LightZone
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 1/160s, f/9, 10mm, ISO 100
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black and White collection
Many times, I just want to sit upon the seawall and not think… to just forget that there is a world where I have to work, where there is anything of purpose to be done… to just sit and stare out to sea.
The problem with me going and sitting and relaxing, is that it is at just those times, when my mind is almost blank that all the thoughts that I’ve been avoiding or maybe not even thinking about come rushing to the fore and I cannot block them out.
When I sit upon the shore and stare out to see, when I enjoy the sea-breeze, the open-ness of the ocean before me, I think, and my thoughts are somewhat clearer, less muddled…
This was one of those brief moments… and I took a photo to remind me to try once in a while to leave the world behind, and breathe.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
On a midday walk with Nikhil, We had to pass a Hindu family on the Seawall who were conducting a ritual, supposedly to Mother Durga (Goddess Durga), because of the yellow Jhandi flag.
I didn’t want to intrude, so I took a photo from a distance (and subsequently cropped it for composition), I thought it was a scene that should be recorded (even if just for myself)
I’ve always seen the various Jhandi flags along the coast, but only recently decided to ask about the colour, specifically in this instance. There is so much of the Hindu culture that is unknown to most of us, and the significance of various rituals and items are lost on us. I even tried searching the internet for Yellow Jhandi Flag, and got a Trinidadian website telling me that the yellow is for Lord Krishna, while a local hindu woman told me it was for Mother Durga and that it was customary to have it alongside a Red flag.
It’s not a great photo, but it is representative of part of our culture here in Guyana, and it is a period piece, with a modern mode of transportation in evidence 🙂 It is also a scene that I don’t see often enough.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
Sunrises and Sunsets are considered a cliché type of photograph by many, yet I am still drawn to them, not as often as before, but I still enjoy a good sunrise or sunset, and I enjoy taking photos of them too 🙂
When I take a photo of a sunrise or sunset, I try to include some other object of interest, since a sunrise is just a sunrise and a sunset just a sunset (well, most times, there are possibly exceptions).
I was driving home, when I saw some lovely pastel to darker colours in the late afternoon sky, and thought I should at least stop somewhere to see if I could get a nice photo, the tide was in, and I spotted someone line-fishing, probably for Cuirass, and quickly snapped off a few shots before walking to the seawall to see what else there may be.
As it turned out, I’m very happy I took those shots, it came out well. I hope you like it.
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery
I got what amounted to somewhat unsatisfactory choices of photos for this week, so I chose one that had some appeal, and then, at a loss for words to accompany it, I then wrote an almost equally unsatisfactory poem 😀
Take a break from the working day
And take a stroll outdoors,
Out where the ocean meets the sea,
where winds blow and birds soar.
Feel the sand between your toes
And the shells under your feet,
Inhale the salty sea breeze
Get away from the streets…
Let the wind blow your hair
Let the sun warm your face
Let’s go to the beach,
Let’s get out of this place.
The Main Street Avenue is one of the few tree-lined avenues left in Georgetown, offices like the GRA and others believe that parking is more important than trees, shade, cooling and the beauty of the avenues, I believe that the “parking preparations that they have done to Waterloo street will result in those trees that remain there dying sooner rather than later.
Often, when walking down the avenue, I’d glance up at the lacy canopy and admire the shapes and patterns, and a few of those times, I’d even take a photo; this is one of those photos.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
Some scenes catch your eye, and you just have to try and get it on film or pixels, or a sketch. I was walking with Nikhil around Bourda Market, primarily looking for some of his previous victims (photographic subjects) to whom he wanted to give a print of his labours… it is always interesting to watch their faces when he presents them with the print… indescribable, especially since most of them never expect to receive one :-), enough digression… yes, so… I was walking with Nikhil, taking the odd Street Photograph or two, just for practice, since mine never come out as good as Nikhil’s or Avinash’s.. and this scene presented itself to me as I looked back up Bourda Street towards Regent Street.
It’s a scene I know Nikhil would have shot had his hands not been full of envelopes 😀
Street Photography isn’t everyone’s thing… I hope you like it.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
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