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.
In one of those whirlwind type moves, the local chain of Texaco Service Stations was taken over, and before most people realised it, they were being rebranded to the new name of “Rubis”
Fortunately, I managed to take a long exposure of this one at Liliendaal, Georgetown, just days (or day) before they began the rebranding.
As Christmas draws near, I think it is important to remember the real reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who came for one reason and one reason only, to save us, unworthy humans, whose faults and failures make life the interesting journey that it is.
Probably the most quoted verse of the Bible is from the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, Verse 16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He came to teach us how to love and how to live life through love of our fellow man (and woman), and for his teachings, for his belief, he was crucified and died for us, for our sins.
We celebrate the birth of a man who came not to live for us, but to die for us, that we may live, love and be loved!
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, along with the other images for the Deck Project to date 🙂
From the top of the Bank of Guyana, looking onto the intersection of Avenue of the Republic and North Road.
I haven’t done a lot of Night Photography in recent times, and I’m afraid it shows 🙂
I was checking out some photos taken by a young lady recently who aspires to become a professional some day, and there were a few images that had a distinct style that I think she can build upon. One of the images were of some wind chimes, and because she approached the subject from a different perspective than we normally look at wind chimes, it was interesting. Changing your perspective and shooting an object/subject from a lower or higher perspective, or a closer or wider perspective can alter the impression significantly and lend to the story you are telling.
Changing your perspective need not be only from a physical standpoint, as in where you place the camera in relation to a subject, but also a mental shift in perspective. I see some things everyday, others less frequently, but they quickly become part of the fabric of life as I know it, yet sometimes its important to look at things with fresh eyes, or to remind ourselves that what we take for granted, others may be intrigued by.
This was taken on a walk through Bourda Market…
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery!
I was passing by one of my favourite buildings in Georgetown, the City Hall, when I noticed the tree to it’s south-western corner in bloom, pink blossoms that I thought added a little colour to the imposing edifice 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery 🙂
Humankind has relied on various methods to awaken them throughout the ages, as in to awaken them in the morning for the new day.
From the bright rays of the newly risen sun on your face, to the crow of the rooster, from that great invention; the alarm clock, to the thump from an angry wife who wants the garbage taken out, from the gentle sounds of the animals in nature, to the roar of early morning traffic (if you wake that late), from the shouts of a mother “You’re late for school!” to the electronic beeps of new messages on your cell-phone, maybe even something like the much exalted smell of fresh coffee in the morning, there have been things to awaken you.
My phone has an annoying alarm that certainly wakes my wife, and eventually myself, but nothing can compare to the sound of a regular visitor we have to our area. For years he (or one of his family members, at any rate) has come during the first minutes of the brightening day to begin his rat-a-tat outside my home and continue for what seems like hours (ok, maybe one hour). A Pilleated Woodpecker who lives somewhere in the vicinity, chooses the utility post in front of my house to sharpen his beak every morning, and he doesn’t only peck at the wood, he pecks upon the galvanised metal protector that runs up the post too! He actually seems to prefer that!
So what did I do about it? One morning I took out my Canon and shot him… several times… at least until I was fairly certain that at least one of the shots would produce a good photo 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the gallery along with other Sunrise and Sunset images.
No animals were hurt during the writing of this blog nor in any of the events leading up to it. 🙂
I processed this photo yesterday after having the pixels just sit there for a year, and I wondered at the diversity of materials used in the construction and the “architecture”. This morning I caught a snippet of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show speaking about the Diversity in the Democratic Party (funny stuff!), and I wondered at the coincidence of my thoughts on a building and his thoughts on a political party.
Growing up in Guyana, I never felt “race” play a part in my life until in my teens, before that it was always that we were different people, individually, not as a “class” or a “race”. What happened when I was a teenager? I learnt about politics and the struggles of the main political parties vying for power and each using the “race” card for their own ends regardless of what it did to the youth and the future of the country.
You can build a house entirely out of wood, you can build it entirely out of concrete, you can build it out of any one substance you feel like, it may or may not stand up to the elements (just imagine a real Gingerbread house in the rainforest! And no offence to the Igloos of the arctic and antarctic), but I’ve found that a good architect/contractor can take a variety of materials and produce not just a shelter from the rain, but a thing of beauty to “live” in, just as a good leader can make the best of the talents, varying and diverse, of the people who place their trust in him.
Click on the Image above for a better view in the Gallery, along with other images in the “Out and About” collection.
Someone may have to correct me if I am wrong (and I may very well be), but it seems that the Government can usually get funding (international) for the “construction” of a hospital or a new building at the hospital compound, but not funding to maintain and keep the existing structures.
The Public Hospital is a sea of ever-changing tides, and as the years go by the shape and structure of the hospital change with the funding. I remember when this portion was new, and it had the brand new Emergency Room and Ambulance driveway, now it is no longer there, I had taken this last year on a walk to town.
I think that a photographic history of the Public Hospital would be fascinating, I wonder if anyone has ever tried it? 🙂
Click on the image above to see it in the Gallery along with other “Odds and Ends” 🙂
Some things are worth saving.
A friendship of many years is certainly worth saving, after a while you get to the point where an argument is just an argument, not a reason for “falling out”.
A job is worth saving, especially when there are fewer to find and when you have more to think about than just yourself,
Memories, as in letters and photos, video-clips and newspaper clippings, are worth saving, it is a record of the things we’ve done, things we’ve seen, and it becomes a story to tell our children and grand-children.
In this century (and the end of the last) there’s a great movement to save our forests, certainly worth saving if we intend to continue to breathe.
Endangered species are worth saving, why let a species go extinct because of the actions (or inaction) of another species, especially when we (humans) may be the main cause of their dwindling numbers.
Recently, there’s been a movement (championed by Annette Arjoon-Martins) to save the mangroves that form part of our sea-defence, I certainly don’t want my house washed away because people burn garbage in the mangrove areas, destroying our first line of sea-defence, so that is certainly worth saving.
I think most people may agree with much of what I’ve mentioned, many more will have other things to add to this list, but is a building worth saving? Is a building that is older than any of us, that has seen more mayors than we have fingers, that is one of the few remaining structures of its kind, that is a reminder of our colonial history worth saving?
Should we let the markers of our heritage, the work of the hands of our ancestors, the beauty of a golden age, fall into disrepair,slowly disappear and be forgotten?
Clink on the photo above to see it in the Gallery, along with other photos from around Georgetown, Guyana.
One of the first things I tell people asking me about getting better at their photography is to get to know their camera, regardless what camera it is, and I tell them that one of the ways to do this is to “read the manual”, you don’t have to understand all of it at one go, just read it 🙂
Each manual has some safety precautions that they list, one of them is “Don’t shoot directly at the sun!”. My friend Nikhil repeatedly tells me that you have to know the rules and understand them, so that you’ll know when to break them 🙂
I hope this was one of those instances where it worked since I totally ignored that rule about the sun… and I even liked the lens flare I got in the process.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery, along with the previous images in the Deck Project for this year.
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