2012 Deck – Week 16

On May 31, 2012May 31, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography5 Comments

I’ve been staring at this photo for weeks, and finding the right words to accompany it in the blog seems to be hard…

It’s a great spot, it has the Kissing Bridge, popular with brides and lovers, photographers and kids who like to run over it back and forth. The pond has the manatees, where kids come to feed them on afternoons, there are little spots where families picnic and relax, and it’s where budding artists sit and sketch simply because there is so much of interest around.

Does it have too much? is the photo crowded? Am I just being hard on myself? Who knows…. but this is the photo for Week 16 🙂

Click on the photo for a much better view in the Gallery

2012 Deck – Week 15

On May 18, 2012May 18, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography5 Comments

Easter Week. I suppose that the easiest thing to try to get photographs of for Easter Week is of children flying their kites (at least in Guyana, anyway). On Easter Monday we went to the seashore near Annandale (someone referred to the spot as “Friendship”), on the Easy Coast of Demerara.

I was taking a photo of a spot where an old Koker (sluice) once stood, and my daughter and her cousin came over to play/annoy/get in the way and so I made good use of them as they were already in the scene 🙂

For a better view of the photo, please click on the image above to see it in the Gallery.

Pakaraima Mountain Safari – Destination Orinduik

On April 6, 2012March 29, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

The endpoint or destination of the Pakaraima Mountain Safari is Orinduik Falls, so I thought I’d end this series with one of my favourite photos of the Falls itself.

Orinduik falls is a series of small drops, This is a small portion that I thought was framed nicely.

Hopefully this year I come away with some nice photos again 🙂

In 2009 I was shooting the Canon PowerShot S5 Superzoom bridge camera, it was shortly after this photo (in time and shots) that I fell and damaged the camera. This year, I’m trying for surer footing (maybe my additional weight will help keep me stable as well) 🙂

Since I had damaged my camera, my brother loaned me his Nikon D80, my first shots on an SLR 🙂 I took the liberty of including one with him under the falls 🙂

Pakaraima Mountain Safari – Sleeping by the Ireng River

On April 5, 2012March 29, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

When we arrived at Orinduik, we decided to see if there was a spot by the river to camp, the thought of the sound of the running water seemed like a good idea. Orinduik Falls is situated on the Ireng River that forms part of our border with Brazil.

This photo was taken in the “blue hour” of the Sunset,

I find it very calming 🙂

Pakaraima Mountain Safari – The Falls at Kato

On April 3, 2012March 29, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

There’s a place called Kato, that has a Waterfall that’s very beautiful to a traveller, I was so enthralled and excited that I have to admit to taking very lousy photographs of it.

In this photo you can see some of the travellers enjoying the refreshing waters of the falls, this is a short drop, there was a larger one not too far off (not too large though 🙂 )

2012 Deck – Week 11

On March 29, 2012April 13, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography4 Comments

I try not to do single image HDRs, that is, using a single exposure and tone-mapping it for greater detail throughout the scene, but sometimes I can never quite seem to get the processing on an image quite right in colour, and sometimes its an image that I would prefer not to use as a monochrome, so then I tone-map it in an HDR software to bring out that detail that I know is there.

This photo is of the Moravian Church in Queenstown, Guyana. It is more than a hundred years old.

It stands at the junction of Anira Street and New Garden Street, and there are utility posts and wires on two sides of it, I composed this to minimise the effect of those wires.

Touch of the Goddess

On March 21, 2012March 22, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry18 Comments

Although I am a Catholic, I have always been fascinated by the old myths and legends of ancient civilizations, so sometimes that comes through in my art 🙂

As Selene departs, another night done
She comes charging, the day’s begun
Sky aglow from her robes of saffron
As her mighty steeds keep galloping on.

Firebright and Daybright in the cool early morn
together they pull her Chariot along
the harbringer of Helios; the master of day
she dispels the night with her soft golden rays

Mother of the winds and the Morning Star
lighten the darkness, let night leave no scar
Upon a world of cold night chills
bring warmth, bring light, bring what you will

The Dawn-bringer comes, her tears on the flowers
creatures of dark, well should you cower
I stand on a mountain in the far distant west
And patiently await the touch of the Goddess.

Please click on the photos in this post to see them larger at the Gallery, I think the small sizes here may do them an injustice.

200

On March 19, 2012March 19, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

Just over a year I took this photo, I wasn’t very satisfied with it then, but then there was another image that had pulled most of my attention away from that same day. There’s just something about fishing boats that pulls your attention though, for this image I had wanted to incorporate the rocks, the boats, the heavily clouded sky, try as I might I could not get all the lines parallel, so I went for an image of divergent lines.

This post will mark the 200th post for this blog (I think that counts the “Hello World” post as well. I suppose if I did a daily photo project and blogged each one I’d be way ahead in count 🙂 For me, its not enough to just post a photo, I want something else to go along with it, some of my thoughts, or insights (or lack of)

There were some little things that I liked about this image; the water pulling away from the area just in front of the rocks, the waves breaking on the lower wall, the two boats at rest and, of course, the clouds 🙂

Be sure to lick on the image above for a much better view in the Gallery.

2012 Deck – Week 9

On March 15, 2012March 15, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2012 Deck, Photography6 Comments

As things got busy, I got fewer photos, but I was still left with a choice for Week 9, in the end I decided on this one. Nikhil was trying especially hard to get photos of some wall-walkers with the boats in the background, I wasn’t inclined to do the same at the time, but as I walked on the lower section later, this guy passed me and I thought I’d catch a shot of him walking away. As it happens the boats were in nice positions at this point 🙂 Dumb Luck 🙂

Kaieteur

On March 13, 2012March 13, 2012 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

The mighty Kaieteur, the largest single drop waterfall (by volume) in the world. Let’s not get confused, it’s NOT the tallest single drop waterfall in the world, but when you’re comparing the sheer volume of water flowing over it, it is the largest single drop waterfall in the world, make note of that distinction. It has a single drop of 226 meters (741 feet), and averages about 663 cubic meters of water per second (23,400 cubic feet per second). It is awesome!

For you Canadians and Americans, it’s about five times the height of Niagara,

You can read more about the falls and its history on other sites, I’m not about to go regurgitating all that data here 🙂

For years I’ve always avoided flying into Kaieteur because I could always say that my money would be better spent (in terms of distance and longevity) in going to one of the Caribbean Islands, it was cheaper to go to Trinidad (and stay for a week or two) than to go to Kaieteur and spend two hours.

My first visit to Kaieteur was in 2009, and if I could give up my day-job and become a guide for a tour company just so I could see Kaieteur every week, I’d do it, but then again, I like my job 🙂

This photo was resurrected from my files recently, I had taken three exposures for an HDR, and I decided to re-process those files and see what happens. It won’t be great (especially to enlarge it), it was taken with the Canon PowerShot S5 IS bridge camera with a Raynox 0.66x wide angle adapter attached, You can probably see some of the lens distortion at the edges.

This is my favourite view of Kaieteur (other than the views from the airplane, of course) This is known as Johnson’s View, it’s the furthest view from the falls and gives a beautiful view on the vista.