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.
I normally try to get impacting photos for my Deck Project, but this one I wanted to include because of the message…
Our shorelines are collecting more and more garbage and it is getting more and more unsafe for our children. In this season of giving, this season of Joy, let us think to the future, and with regard for our fellow man, with respect for our planet, do our little part in disposing of our garbage in a responsible way.
1/320s, f/13, ISO 200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
So, it’s not Abbey Road, but i like the little twist on the idea… Something about these young ladies crossing the road made me want to snap the shot…
1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
I don’t often do these types of shoots, but when I do I usually have fun, it allows me some experimentation and I get to be in a place that few would have seen before… A new Bar.
My friend Diane asked me to take a few photos of a new Bar that she was going to run, well, sorta new, it was originally located at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, but has now been relocated to the Midtown Hotel, it’s Friendly’s Bar, and it’s pretty cool.
The nice thing was that she and Larry did not want people in the shots at this time (hopefully I get to go back to do some with people), so I got to be as free with my shots as I liked (and a couple free drinks)
Friend;y’s Bar, Midtown Hotel, Georgetown, Guyana.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
I could have just kept on walking, but while I visit the seawall fairly often, scenes like this don’t occur with much frequency while I am there, and the juxtaposition that I noticed in walking could not be ignored, so I shot it, a few times…
In a small print or viewed small this won’t look like much, I really do have to set this one aside for a large print.
And yes, I did keep it in colour, shocking, isn’t it? 🙂
The Open Temple – Kingston, Georgetown. Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
That photo I used for Week 44 was different, yes, I think it’s good, is that what I want to be doing at this time?
So, back to our regular programming… a high contrast monochrome from the seashore. I was hoping that the fisherman/sailor would just sit and stare at the sea for a while, at the time I shot this I think he was securing the bow line.
This is a scene that was a no-brainer for me, it had everything I usually want… Jhandi flags, a boat, a fisherman, a good sky and little garbage in sight within the frame 🙂
24mm, 1/1250s, f/5.0, ISO 200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck Project
Looking for more meaning.
Although I did not intend for this photo to be associated with these thoughts, this is where Fate stepped in.
I have finally gotten to have a series of photographs that I think embodies an idea that I can convey through a collection, and then I had a very short but enlightening (maybe even a little dampening) conversation with Mr Carl Hazelwood, the chief judge at the 2014 Guyana Visual Arts Competition. He basically told me that while I have “nice” photographs, the ones he sees lack that little something extra that would make it more than a pretty picture… and here in the last two years I thought I had gotten past the pretty picture stage 🙂
This man knows what he’s talking about, and if he says that I don’t make the cut, then I don’t, and I am grateful for that honesty, I may never make that transition, but I will surely try.
I processed this photograph last week (I only had this conversation last night with Mr Hazelwood), and I almost chose a different photo, one more in keeping with my seascape series of recent, but this one had a few elements that appealed to me a little bit more, and I wanted the diversity for the Deck Project 🙂
This one probably would not hang in a gallery among great works of art, but I ask myself if I would hang this on a wall, yes I would, but would you?
Seashore – Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105, 105mm, f/9.0, ISO200
Click on the image to see it in the gallery.
Washed clean by the receding tide, the patterned sand drew my attention, the reflection of the sky and clouds in the still foreground waters belied the turmoil and power that the distant waves possess.
In my learnings about landscape photography, I’ve learnt that it is often important to include a point of interest to grab the viewer’s attention, especially when the scene can be described as plain or boring or bland… I thought so of this scene at first, others may still think so.
Sands – Kingston Seawall, Georgetown. Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
Winslow Craig is one of my favourite local sculptors, his work appeals to me more than most, probably because I know so little about the art-form that I cannot appreciate the intricacies of others (particularly those that bested him in the 2012 GVACE; he placed third)
I was at Moray House for his recent retrospective presentation, and took a photo that I quickly grew fond of, and so did someone at Moray House; although I originally processed it in monochrome, they requested a coloured version for their inaugural magazine “Ku’wai”, as a non-profit organisation and one that supports the Arts in Guyana I really couldn’t say no, and I was honoured that they wanted it for the cover of the magazine.
Since I had only uploaded the monochrome processed version to Facebook, I decided that the coloured one worked nicely and I would also use that for the Deck Project.
Moray House, 21st October 2014 | Sculptures on display by Winslow Craig
The piece on the table was loaned to the presentation by the current owner, the one in the background is called “Saving Seeds”, it was the piece that placed third in the 2012 Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition; to my understanding, it is a wire-framed structure covered with a material that Winslow made called Sawdue (sawdust and glue).
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, and to see Winslow’s current entries in the 2014 GVACE, visit the GVACE 2014 Exhibition which opens on Thursday 18th December 2014, exhibition of pieces are likely to be at Castellani House and the National Museum.
People write all sorts of things in the sands at the seawalls… and beaches worldwide, from Love Letters (Pat Boone sang about this), to drawings, to directions to the nearest Qik Serv, to Hearts with cupid’s arrows through it and the Lovers’ names inscribed, all to be washed away with the next high tide.
Those messages are as transient to us as we are to the timeless sea; and yet, we keep making those markings and the sea wipes them out again.
I snapped a photo in passing this fellow as he used quite a long stick to mark out something in the sand, I have no idea what it was he was drawing, maybe it was a message to an extra-terrestrial ship 🙂
Midday Markings – Kingston Foreshore, Georgetown.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
It is not often that I am at the seawalls when the tide is at its highest and the waves are crashing against the sea defences, when that does happen, I usually take some photos, but seldom use any; mainly because I never seem to get one that I think stands out enough.
I think I may have gotten one that passed muster this last occasion 🙂
Crashing Waves – Georgetown Seashore
On this one I did some unusual processing (for me), I “cooled” the lower area with the rocks prior to applying the red filter, without that the details in the rocks were getting lost 🙂
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