2011 Deck – Week 18

On May 14, 2011May 14, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography12 Comments

I’m still playing “catch-up”, still a week behind in the blog, and months behind in reading 🙂 Today marks one year since I actually registered as a WordPress user, although I didn’t start blogging until one week later, so I feel compelled to at least update the blog today, so I’ve managed to choose a photo from Week 18 of this year, processed it in one of my favourite ways, HDR, and even uploaded it 🙂

On the 5th of May, Cinco de Mayo, Arrival Day, or whatever you want to call it, I went with Naseem and Nikhil for a drive and photo-jaunt between Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara and Rosignol at the mouth of the Berbice River (West Coast Berbice), needless to say we took a lot of photographs.

Our first stop was at the village of Enmore, we were going to go see the Enmore Martyr’s Monument, but the bridge we were planning on using was unusable, opposite that bridge there was a nice scene, so we took some time to “grok” it (as Nik would say) and even took some photos, I took a set of bracketed shots to use for an HDR rendition, and that’s what I present to you today. All the original images came out dark and desaturated as I expected, since I was shooting into the sun, but since I planned on using them in an HDR, that was OK 🙂

As an HDR, I really suggest you click on it to see it at the Gallery!

2011 Deck – Week 14

On April 11, 2011April 11, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2011 Deck, Photography12 Comments

It seems that there is seldom enough hours in a day, either that or I’m getting lazy 🙂 Saturday was a little rough, and I didn’t get around to posting my regular Deck blog-post, so it was left for today. SO, I’m squeezing in a few minutes to write this and post it.

In between being busy and being lazy, there are times when I just want to sit and stare at a scene that makes me feel at peace. to forget that there is war in the middle east, tragedy in Japan, injustices in Africa, crazy weather in North America, every country in the world has its problems, and we have impending elections here in Guyana; disasters every one of these thoughts.

This might help explain my choice for this week’s Deck photo 🙂

Sit back, relax, clear your mind, and just stare towards the setting sun…

Alone in the Crowd

On February 14, 2011February 14, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography34 Comments

This was the photograph I had in mind for last week’s Deck Photo, but then the horse-cart took over 🙂

I still find it amazing that in a crowded room or a public place full of people, I can be next to my wife, and feel as if we’re alone, just the two of us. It was one of those things you read about in poems and novels but didn’t quite get until it happened to you. For more than half of my life, that has been us, I can look into her eyes and we’d be alone wherever we were. I look forward to many more years like that.

Well, I took this photograph, so it’s not of us, but you get the idea 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Click to see larger on the site.

The Parallel Project – Starburst

On January 24, 2011January 24, 2011 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, The Parallel Project20 Comments

There are special filters that you can buy to create those “star-burst” effects from very bright points of light, but you can also do this by using a small aperture, the aperture rings in the lens will help to produce this same star-burst effect without you going out and buying those filters. Of course, the filters do give some very neat effects 🙂

I had intended this experiment for a night scene, but as I was in the park accompanying Nikhil, I thought I’d try it out using the sun as my source of bright light. (I even took shots with a larger aperture to make sure it was working as it should)

The Tree in the Park. 1/30s, f/16, ISO 400, 18mm

The Deck Week 30

On July 30, 2010August 28, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography3 Comments

This week, I’m off in Sint Maarten on holiday, so I have quite a selection of photographs to choose from for this week’s addition to the Deck. It was a hard choice, but I selected one that epitomizes the week I’ve had so far.

It has been a week of goodbyes and departures, of hello’s and discovery, of family and of friends, I have shed tears of sadness and tears of joy; in life there is light and darkness, the sun and shadow, deep blue heavens and golden sunsets. Life is about change, and as day changes to night, there is beauty to be found, beauty in the day that is ending, in the time of change itself and in the night to come.

So I give you this week’s Photo for the deck of the week.

Changes - Sunset at Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten

The Deck – Week 29

On July 23, 2010August 28, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography3 Comments

This week was a poor week for photography for me, didn’t take too many photographs 🙂

The deck photo is not the best photo that I’ve taken all week, but it is unusual for me, so that’s the reason for its choice. Aesthetically, it may not be pleasing to everyone, or as we say, not everyone’s “cup of tea”. I went to accompany Nikhil again, and not having too much time, we took a short visit to the Promenade Gardens again. I wasn’t in the mood for photography, but Nikhil said I couldn’t go and not take something, so after shooting a few things; a flower here a leaf there, I followed him to a spot where he would eventually get his photo of the day for his 365 Project, and the sun coming through the fabric of some leaves caught my eye.

When I put the camera to my eye, there was a spectrum of colours in the light rays that showed in the viewfinder and I was just hopeful that it would also appear that way when I snapped the photograph, to be sure I tried a few different exposures. When peering through th eyepiece of the camera directly into the light it does appear more vibrant, but I think I caught the nice effect that grabbed my attention in the first place.

The Deck – Week 22

On June 4, 2010August 28, 2010 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2010 Deck, Photography2 Comments

On Wednesday last (June 2nd), my friend launched his Blog “Bad Light, Good Light” (http://badlightgoodlight.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/origin-of-a-name/) with a post regarding the origin of the name of his blog. It just happens that the image he used to illustrate the point he was making in the post was one from a walk we went on the day before, and on that walk I took what would become my photo for the 2010 Deck for this week, and it is of the same location as his, although I’ll admit his image had a lot more artistic merit. 🙂

I’ve always been told “don’t shoot towards the sun”, and, by and large, this is usually good advice, but there are times when doing just that results in some nicely silhouetted images that have their own appeal. What I particularly liked about this scene was the portion of land to the right with the vegetation and the two boats anchored to the left, these made excellent silhouetted areas that contrasted nicely with the mostly clear sky, the low clouds were nicely “haloed” by the afternoon sun and that pretty much competed the scene for me.

I have always been an admirer of paintings by a local artist named V. C. Budhram, his renditions of water ans skies were always impressive, for that reason alone the ripples in the water reminds my of his work. His compositions, of course, were never like this, always more vibrant, full of life, and far more colourful.

This weeks entry for the Deck: Serene.