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.
This last week I took quite a number of photos, and the choice for the image for the deck was a little more difficult. In the end it came down to a choice of several from the Trip out west that Nikhil, Naseem and I took last weekend.
I will eventually process all my favourites from that trip and load up an album, but for now I will just give you the one I chose for the 2011 Deck as well 🙂
Of all the water crafts that were at the conservancy, one in particular caught my attention, it was a tug-boat (I think they’re called that), it was quite distinctive from the other shallow boats and canoes on the water, and definitely more appealing than the barge that was moored nearby 🙂 It reminded me of cartoons I watched as a child, and I fully expected to see either Bluto or Popeye on deck!
My first photo for this year’s Deck Project. I received so much support, feedback and appreciation on the last project that I decided to do it again this year. I called it The Deck because I was doing one photograph per week of the year (whether it is the best for the week or not), as a year has 52 weeks, and a deck of standard playing cards has 52 cards, not counting the Jokers, I thought the name The 2010 Deck sounded better than “A Photo per week for 2010” 🙂
I also think I learned a little more and got more familiar with my camera a lenses during the year.
Up to now I’ve only taken 42 photographs this week (and I doubt that I’ll take any more today) and those photos cover only 10 subjects, two of which were not meant for the project in the first place, those being some family photos and a house interior sequence. That left me with only a few choices this week, and you would think that would make it easier to choose, but it made it harder, I was down to four choices, and while I can usually pick one out rather quickly, this week was harder, either the images were all good, or all mediocre 🙂
I ended up choosing this one below for it’s content, I liked how all the pieces fit! It’s hard to see on the small image here on the blog so click on it to see the image on the site larger. The afternoon rainy clouds, whiter clouds, an aircraft, a sail-boat, the rock line, a man and his dog, all in one image. I hope you like it.
A Man and his Dog. Canon T1i, 35mm (Tamron 18-270), 1/400s, f/11, ISO200
My Last blog post of the year! So I take it to do a small “family letter”, or as close as I’ll get to that in a while 🙂
As two of my brothers have already written or expressed through video, this has been an “eventful” year.
Maureen and I, as well as Andre and Areza, celebrated a decade of marriage, Miriam did well in school, although she says she did not do so well, her overall percentage fell, but she did her best and we are proud of her. Joan Ann got married to Jerry and has migrated to Barbados, God called into his arms two of our loved ones, Granny Correia and Uncle John (Moll), they are both missed and we pray for their souls and the strength to carry on without them. Aunt Kumarie (Maureen’s mom) was diagnosed with Gastric Cancer, the surgery was successful and her chemotherapy begins soon, we hope we have the strength to support her, but she is a strong person and may be our support even through her own trials. I started my own blog and am enjoying my photography even more through it. Nikhil and I were robbed whilst in pursuit of our photography endeavours, quite an experience. This year I also went with my family to Sint Maarten, where I got some amazing photographs and was called Blog-o-matic for the frequent blogging I did from there, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
Areza and Ariel migrated in time to begin Ariel’s new school, and she is doing wonderfully, a real champ, my niece. Andre followed them shortly and their family is now re-united and moving forward.
Of all these events Andre’s parting has affected me the most, I couldn’t even take a focused photograph at the airport as he was leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my grandmother dearly, and I do miss Joan a lot, but there is something about the three eldest brothers that was just different. Together we were MAN (Michael, Andre and Nicholas), we complimented each other, as different as brothers usually are, but we grew to be not just brothers, but friends. That friendship with my other siblings is still developing, but with the three of us it was forged in growing, in fights, in scheming together, in church and in the schools we attended together, in Karate classes, in playgrounds, and even in our varying tastes in music, and with Andre, we were in the choir together (shhhh!), both of us later found mutual friends at University, and a common interest in photography.
Father and Son
This photograph is not the one I wanted, I really wanted a good one of him boarding the aircraft, but my eyes and hands betrayed my at that time. But this one is typical of the males of the Lam family, we hug very seldom, we shake hands more than not, and even more often we just smile and acknowledge each other. We seldom say “I Love you” or “I am proud of you” or say in words how much we care, it is mostly a nod and a smile and that is enough for us, we KNOW!
This photograph gives thanks! Thanks for the many years God has given us with our Dad, his wisdom, his sense of right and wrong and his commitment to the family! On the wall in the background is the transplanted family photograph or Andre, Areza and Ariel. Thanks for all that they have been, for what they mean to al of us, and always will. And the brass Chinese character hanging on the wall, a reminder of our ancestry, where we have come from, the generations of Lams who have been born on Guyana’s soil, and those from mother China whom we never knew but owe our genes to 🙂 That chinese character is the symbol for Longevity or Long Life, symbolic and serendipitous.
To all our friends, our family, and anyone reading this, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2011, and Longevity.
This week, I complete my Project for the year, the 2010 Deck, 52 Photographs, one for each week of the year. There were times when I thought I would have to upload a photograph of my shoes, that was when a week was tough, and other times I had difficulty choosing from the ones I had taken, so taking too many is just as bad as taking too few photographs.
I am not sure that I have grown as a photographer over this year, but I do have a better appreciation of the photography of others as my blogging has introduced me to many other wonderful photographers, many of them with superior talents and images, and others learning as I am, as we take our photographs whether daily or weekly.
Although the sun sets on this year’s project, I look forward to renewing the project next year and hopefully finding a new perspective on photography through the inspiration I gain from the works of others and the encouragement of my family and friends, online photographers being a new and integral part of my new friends.
I hope 2010 was filled with as many learning experiences as you could handle, and I wish that for 2011, you see the world with fresh eyes (or lenses) and appreciate each passing moment for what it is, whether it can be captured digitally, on film, or just in your heart.
This week’s photograph is not the best I’ve taken for the week, it is, however, somewhat representative of Christmas in Guyana. The Masquerade bands come out during the Christmas Season and then at Mashramani, although I didn’t see the “Mother Sally” and the “Bull” at this gathering, these gentlemen were out in the hot midday sun, entertaining the public and raising some funds for their future endeavours.
Merry Christmas to all who stop by to read this, busy though most of us are 🙂
After three successive monochrome postings for the Deck project, I decided this week, that regardless of what the weather was like I wanted a coloured image,and I finally got something in keeping with the season, Demerara Mutual Insurance company lit up their building very nicely, and I took a few images at night to try and capture the spirit 🙂
Here’s the resulting image. Demerara Mutual has it’s main office on Avenue of the Republic in Central Georgetown, to the right of the photo, you can even see a portion of City Hall.
This week sees a continuation of the monochromatic trend of late, but instead of just a straight BW, I went for a sepia with a vignette. It was on one of those walks with Nikhil, while looking for his Photo for his 365, and even though these waterways have been done, and over-done, I thought I’d give it a try, with the over-cast sky and perpetuating gloom of the afternoon this was pre-destined to be a monochromatic photograph.
After minimal processing in Lightroom, I did the monochromatic rendition in Nik Silver Efex, it came out rather nicely.
I am pretty much disappointed with this week’s photographs, I have one of my wife that I thought was a great shot and was very tempted to put as the photo for this week’s Deck entry, but she would never forgive me if I did, so I had to settle for this one.
I intentionally took multiple exposures most of this week because I intended to do some more HDR attempts, but this one didn’t come out as expected. For some reason my alignment was all wrong and there’s quite a bit of haloing as a result. I did intend a BW HDR, so this I used as much to my advantage as possible.
I did the HDR merging in Nik HDR Efex Pro, and also added a vignette to it there. The final touches were added in Lightroom using a BW POP preset I got from Eric Kim, who does really great Street Photography, I hope he doesn’t mind that I used it for something other that Street Photography 🙂
I rather liked the lone tree and it’s reflection, so that’s why this was my choice this week.
As has been the norm of late, my week was busy, I only got to take photographs on three days, but I did manage to get a very nice photograph that was actually enhanced by the crazy cloudy weather we’ve been having recently.
This week I give you a scene from the Botanical Gardens, I was in the central area of the Seven Ponds, where some of the Nation’s revered men have been laid to rest; including the first Guyanese Governor General, Sir David Rose, the First President of Guyana, Arthur Chung and the great Guyanese poet Martin Carter.
Facing the ponds is The Mausoleum where the body of the second president of Guyana, Forbes Burnham, is entombed. Linden Forbes Samson Burnham was the first Executive President of Guyana, and was called the Founder Leader during his tenure as president.
The Mausoleum is a recent addition to the Gardens being built in 1986, it has numerous sculptures on the interior walls done by Ivor Thom.
The reflection in the pond was what drew me to this scene, I hope you like it.
It’s been another crazy week, somehow not finding the time to do certain things, like check out other photography blogs and process some of my photos. I took photographs on only three days this week, so one of them had to work for this week’s Deck Photo.
It has been a while since I tried out my Macrography (or Macro Photography), and since I came upon a moth recently in the house, I was quick to grab the opportunity to try some out. Since I don’t have a nice Canon Macro Lens, I went the old route, I grabbed my 18-55 Kit lens and my Raynox M250 Macro Lens, snapped them on together on the camera and experimented with the subject.
I didn’t have a lighting option available to me, neither softbox nor macro flash, so I was relying on natural sunlight, with it being an overcast day, that wasn’t too helpful either, but I think I got a good shot none-the-less.
I have the Raynox lenses from when I shot with the Canon PowerShot S5, and I love them both, the 250 is a larger magnification, so since I was only using a maximum of 55mm on the kit lens, I went for that one, how they work is that you screw in the Raynox lens onto an adapter and snap it onto the front of the camera lens.
Here’s a portion of the moth’s wing:
Macro of Moth Wing - Canon 18-55mm with Raynox M250 Macro Lens
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