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.
When I got my hands on the first DSLR that I could say was “mine to use”, you know; not borrowed for a short time, I decided that I wanted the first exposure (or the first frame) to count, to mean something, or at the very least, to be a special photo 🙂
I had just gotten my hands on the Canon Digital Rebel T1i (500D), and I had not too recently been viewing some photos by Dwayne Hackett, and there was one that had inspired me, it was of St. George’s Cathedral, and I decided that I wanted that to be my first shot. As it turned out, even though I tried to time it right, a vehicle sped into the frame just as I clicked, so the second actuation was my photo instead.
I have now gotten my hands on an upgrade, so I thought I’d do the same thing, try for a special photograph. Week after week I pass the St Philips’ Green and think about how I would photograph the Church there (under renovation), but I am usually afraid to stop because of the type of desolate area it is. They had just finished clearing the area close to the road and the Church was quite visible from the road across the cleared land, and the branches from the trees helped to frame it nicely, so that was to be my first actuation on the Canon 60D.
I have to begin by apologising for the amount of photographs in the album on the site… I normally go just for fairly close shots, but I thought that this year I’d try to get some of the whole shots with the costumes, I’m not too good at it, but I’ve been asked many times about why I don’t have the nice big costumes. Also, the Children’s parade this year was very engaging and the costumes very nice, and I think there were more of them too 🙂
Every year I think that the Children’s Parade is better to attend than the Adult’s Parade, it is shorter, even though the amount of entrants might be on par, even though they don’t speed down the road, they seem to be more organised and better managed, and this results in a very good flow of groups and floats down the street.
The sides of the street is also less crowded so as a spectator, I can enjoy it more and as a Photographer, I can get the photographs easier 🙂 without being elbowed and shoved, and possibly trampled.
I know it may be a lot of photographs, but I think you may find at least a few that appeal to you 🙂 Click on the image below to see the entire collection in the Gallery. Or just click this TOP 25 link for a select 25 images.
After years of trying to avoid the label, I have to accept what I am, and I can say I am proud of the journey and what I have achieved so far with the help of everyone I know, not a single person has ever tried to tell me that my photographs are bad, many said they were good (and worth improving many times), mostly these were family and friends, so they are expected to say that 🙂
Today, 16th February 2012, I will stand beside one of my best friends and fellow Photographer, Nikhil, as our work goes on display at the National Gallery, Castellani House. It will be a month-long show, ending on March 17th, 2012. The Gallery will feature at least 20 pieces from each of us, and we are proud of our work. (he exhibition is open to the public from tomorrow through the 17th March)
Although in the beginnings of my photographic journey I seldom saw the call of monochrome photos, I seem to have changed quite a bit in that respect, the majority of my photographs on display are monochromatic. Many years ago I was well known by my friends for detesting heavy cloud coverage in the skies as I loved blue skies in my photographs, that has also changed, most of the landscape images on display show dramatic clouds and tumultuous skies.
I encourage anyone with a few minutes to spare to stop in at Castellani House and take a look, I’d hate to be known as the exhibition that no one bothered to go see 🙂
This week, I give you an image taken on a PhotoWalk with the Guyana Photographer’s Group, my more spectacular images were posted to the group (I hope to share them here later), this one I saved for use here, I was planning a post on the effective use of vignettes, but I don’t have that much to say on the subject yet, so here’s how I used a vignette in post-processing an image, and it’s a sepia (monochrome) image, and there are clouds in the sky, no true blue skies for me that day either 🙂
Often enough, I happen to see a beautiful sunset when I’m in the middle of a housing area or similar, with lots of utility posts and wires mangling the view, or a very plain area with nothing of interest other than the sky itself.
Last week, it happened again, and as I was driving out I decided to stop at the closest thing approximating to a “nice” scene, and get a shot including part of the sunset that day. 🙂
There was a challenge recently in the Guyana Photographer’s FaceBook page, it was about silhouettes, while there seemed to be various interpretations on the theme, I noticed that not everyone had the same idea of a silhouette.
Although many dictionaries seem to have similar definitions, they usually go back to the original meaning, referring to “cut-outs”, the explanation that I like the best I came across on Wikipedia (yes, I know, not always the most reliable of sources, but its accurate here), “A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black”. I think this explanation covers the idea of a silhouette regardless of the medium used to illustrate it.
This image I intentionally under-exposed when I took it to capture more detail in the sky and less in the foreground and objects between myself and the horizon, although I did under-expose I apparently didn’t do so enough since I still had to adjust the black levels to get what I wanted 🙂
Although the tree-line takes prominence in this image, the real interest is the child on the wall walking into the sunset. Intentionally under-exposing the photograph is one way I know of getting the silhouettes that we try for in images like this. Getting the right exposure is important, goodness knows I’m still trying with that, but learning when to over-expose the photograph and when to under-expose it can create those moments that are more memorable than an average exposure 🙂
The Walk Home
For a better look, click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
I think Week 50 was the worst photographically for me this year…. I have one photograph. According to Dwayne Hackett even if I took a hundred shots of the same subject that day and I used one, it’s still only one photograph, I didn’t take a hundred photographs, just a hundred attempts 🙂 I took three photographs of the same subject that week. Three!
If I thought things couldn’t be worse, I had forgotten to reset the settings on the camera… so they were taken in bright sunlight at ISO 1600.
Reminder to self (for the thousandth time) always reset your camera immediately after a shoot (or whatever session) or else you have to live with whatever the camera hands you next time!
This building is right behind DeSinCo Trading (Sheriff Street), in the little side street, I think its Craig Street, I had never noticed it before, I was waiting in the vehicle while my better half was in DeSinCo, I just couldn’t help myself after staring at it for several minutes, just got out of the vehicle and snapped three shots just to satisfy the little voice in my head that said “go take the photo, go take the photo!”
Church Closed
Its a sad sight to see places of worship that become abandoned, usually because of a lack of attendance over the years, I don’t know the story behind this one, but I was reminded while writing this post of my most recent experience in church, I was saddened at the poor attendance to Christ mas Eve’s Midnight Mass. I remember when I was younger (much younger) the Midnight Mass at the Cathedral was always packed, maybe some of the pews in the wings would be empty, but the centre of the church would be filled. Have we lost the faith that we once had or has the commercialisation of Christmas finally overtaken the true meaning for the Season?
Click on the image to see it better in the Gallery.
UPDATE: I was told by Dave that the property is now owned by DeSinCo, Frank (owner of DeSinCo) built a new church for the parishioners on Middleton Street (a short distance away), so this one was not closed for a lack of attendance but for a more practical and financial reason. 🙂
I think that Christmas Carols (and Christmas music in general) lends to the “feel” of Christmas as much as many of the other traditions associated with the Day and the Season. Whether its Carollers on the street or in the church, the chorus of voices or the clarity of the soloist singing those traditional carols (or the new songs) helps get me in the Christmas Mood.
This was a photo taken at the annual Festival of Carols held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Brickdam Cathedral), it is one of the few times I’ve attempted higher ISOs on the Canon Digital Rebel T1i, although there’s a fair amount of noise it wasn’t too bad for the shot, and I did a bit of noise reduction in Topaz 🙂
Monuments. That is basically what a tombstone or tomb-marker is, whether it’s a simple slab with a name on it or an obelisk, it’s a monument to the person interred, a reminder to the living of a person now dead.
These markers fade with time, and people forget, generations pass and the dead are lost to the living. Some are forgotten entirely, some are just names on a family tree. Do we all want to fade from memory like dawn fades to day, once there, once unique, never to be seen again, never to be remembered and referred to?
Most of us will do just that, but the few who are exceptional will live on as legends and icons of History. Whether we are remembered as tyrants or dictators, philanthropists or inventors, pioneers or adventurers, famous artists or infamous criminals depends on the decisions we make daily.
At times like this, when my thoughts stray to these realms, I remember two phrases from my early High School days. I attended St. Stanislaus College, it was a Catholic School before the government took everything over under early PNC rule in Guyana. Some things had remained as part of the teaching and tradition of the school.
The two phrases I remember were from different sources.
One was given to us as four letters to be written at the top of every page, I believe it was handed down from the Jesuits who taught at the school when it was a Catholic School; the letters were AMDG, a shortened form for Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, which meant “For the Greater Glory of God”, it was meant to encourage you to try to make everything you do, everything you say be geared towards that goal.
The second phrase was the school’s motto, Aeterna non Caduca, literally translated to “eternal non perishable”, but we were told that the motto translated to “Not for this Life, but for Eternity”. Whatever we do should not be just to have an effect now, in our lifetime, but for eternity.
Taken together they can be a driving force for a truly spectacular life, a life of meaning, unfortunately, not many would adhere to such a strict code.
Many people who happen to drop in to read my blog-posts are fellow aspiring photographers (in one way or another), we may never be an Ansel Adams or a Nick Brandt, a Frank Horvat or Mario Testino, an Irving Penn or a Steve McCurry, a Joe Rosenthal or a Don McCullin, an Henri Cartier Bresson or a Vivian Maier, but what we can do is aspire to show to anyone who will look, how we see the world through our eyes, our view-finders, our lenses, make them feel what we feel through visual stimulation (and if necessary a few words) 🙂
Can I do that? Can we do that? I don’t know, but I am sure going to give it a try!
Monument
This was taken during a photo-walk arranged by the Guyana Photographers Facebook group, lots of people thought it strange to arrange a walk in a cemetery 🙂
Click on the photo to see it larger in the Gallery.
Many times on a walk in the city I would take a photo of The Lodge, I don’t think I’ve ever used any of the photographs before, and since this week had very slim pickings, I chose one that I took in passing. Actually I had a choice from eight subjects, this one just seemed better than the rest. 🙂
This is one of those photos that when writing about it I feel very silly. I don’t know anything about this place and I’ve seen it all my life. Its one of those places that everyone just refers to as The Lodge, and they give you a knowing look, so I never asked, and was never told. I’m sure those conspiratorial glances were more ignorance rather than knowledge.
So it seems to me that maybe I should ask someone… what is that place and what really goes on in there? Do you think I’ll get answers on the blog? 🙂
The month of October is earmarked in many countries as Breast Cancer Awareness month, and although I have quite a number of photos for the week, but I happen to think that this one has a more meaningful effect for me and for others.
While I do not normally go for these selective desaturated images, or the “accent colour” black and whites than some others do, but I thought that it was something that worked for this particular image.
The Beauty and Home Systems Inc. Guyana (the local Avon people) annually make a big deal of this and the wrap the trees lining the avenue down Camp Street with Pink cloth (possibly as a representation of the Breast Cancer Pink Ribbon), for a few years I have been meaning to stop and take a photograph, but never did until this year.
Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery.
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 