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.
Supermarkets are usually very busy places, especially during the hours I can shop in them. During this time when people are trying to practice social distancing, its probably not surprising that I can actually get shots that are not too “busy” 🙂
Wet Floor – 20-0812
Cleaning (and hopefully sanitizing) the shopping environment.
Chill – 20-0810
What caught my attention here was the slight distortion that the cold frosted door caused to the image of the man there as opposed to the clarity of the man beyond the door.
Packing – 20-0822
Tilted images are not my thing, but sometimes they are necessary and sometimes they work.
20-0801
Some people can’t leave their children at home, so it becomes necessary to take them into potentially dangerous areas. Who would have thought that we would ever describe a supermarket as a potentially dangerous area…
Inside supermarkets are not easy to shoot, at least not for me, the lighting is not optimal, being relatively low light, especially in narrow aisles, the diversity of images may not be as ideal as out on the streets, and the space tends to be cramped, luckily, these allowed for some space due to a sparsity of people. 🙂
As you might notice, there is no prevalence of masks, not because Guyanese are conscious of the actual dangers of that, or the possible benefits, but because its not part of our preventative measure, just like staying at home isn’t….
The WHO recently reiterated its position on who should wear masks and when, as always, its about educating ourselves on these things.
Click on the images to see them in the Gallery along with other photographs “In the Streets”.
Yesterday I decided to literally take a walk around the block, just to see how the COVID-19 and its repercussions might be affecting the neighbourhood (my work neighbourhood, that is). So as not to waste the opportunity, I walked with my DXO camera as well.
As street photography goes, nothing great, but a few decent ones 🙂
20-0782
You probably can’t see it, but in that vendor’s section is some Nenwah Husk, used my many a Guyanese as a body scrub.
20-0783
Being the lone Chinese walking around I kinda attract unnecessary attention, this lady kept a close eye as I walked by; good thing I didn’t sneeze or cough.
Ras – 20-0785
This rastafarian on crutches carefully made his way along the pavement, but was very observant of all the stalls he passed, might have been looking for Nenwa. 🙂
Mango – 20-0786
In her hand is a bag of sliced green Mango, I can only assume that maybe it also had “loud pepper and salt”
Gyaff – 20-0787
Almost as if COVID-19 were not on our shores, these gentlemen were busy “gyaffing” and the topic as I passed was all politics, aka GECOM-20
Less people than normal during midday, but still enough, and as you can see, not much social distancing occurring.
Click on the images to see them in the Gallery along with other images “In the Streets”
Depending on where you source your information from, some places are saying that wearing masks will help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease, some are saying the masks won’t help prevent you getting it, but if you have symptoms, then you should wear a mask in public… regardless, in some places in Guyana, masks are starting to appear with more frequency.
Before I myself am sent into lockdown, I think I’ll keep trying to capture street scenes.
Packing – 20-0736
Many supermarkets, staying open to supply us with our necessities, are mandating that their staff be masked, some are assisting with sanitisers as you enter, one I went into even gave me a mask to wear while in their store.
Inspect – 20-0753
Taking no chances, this Chinese man masks up in the market, probably getting some fresh produce for his restaurant. Some Chinese restaurants have taken to doing Take-Away only, through a window, helping to limit exposure while still serving their customers
Unpack – 20-0756
At a shopping “mall” – even though this isn’t the sharpest image, I’ve always found that for Street Photography, the story matters more than the technical perfection of the image.
Packing – 20-075820-0777
Take every precaution possible. Be informed, beware of fake “cures and remedies”.
And the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a trusted source of anything health related, including COVID-19, Keep checking their page for Updated information and guidance; here’s a link to their COVID-19 Advice page.
Please desist from spreading via social media (especially WhatsApp, unconfirmed data or things you’ve heard; be informed, be safe, be responsible.
Click on the images to see them in the Gallery, along with other images “In the Streets”
In my previous post, I showed what would have been my “select 5” images from a walk in Mon Repos Market, select as in those I’d choose to enter into the VISIONS Exhibition 2020 (were I to submit). Today I’d like to share another five images from that walk.
Any place where people are involved with activities of interaction or even just on the move, are places where you can find a treasure trove of Street Photographs 🙂
Easy – 20-0685
Some people make shopping look fun, getting a smile on the face of someone fetching several bags, priceless 🙂
Outer-Roast – 20-0691
These guys are using a blow-torch to sear the outsides of the poultry, never saw this before.
Greens – 20-0693
One of the few that I felt should be left in colour.
Mon Repos – 20-0695
The dynamics around this stall caught my eye, not sure I got what I wanted but I got a decent one either way 🙂
Shade – 20-0711
This lone young girl at this stall right at one of the exits also caught my eye, another angle that I took was better, but the image quality was not, so this one works 🙂
Click on the images to see them in the gallery along with other images “In the Streets”
With unrest in town since the General and Regional Elections as well as less people in town due to the COVID-19 arrival on our shores, I had a Saturday morning off, and went into the Mon Repos market for a short walk.
Mon Repos is a village on the East Coast of Demerara, not too far before the large Lusignan Village. Saturday is Market Day at Mon Repos, and while I’ve walked in there a few times, this time I think I came away with a few good shots. whilst processing them, I couldn’t help but think that if I were submitting images for this year’s intended VISIONS Exhibition 2020, I might actually choose from these. In that spirit, I went through the ones I had earmarked as keepers and chose five to share,
VISIONS allows photographers of Guyanese descent or even non-Guyanese who live and work in Guyana, to submit three to five photographs; the photographs should be chosen with a theme in mind, a theme of the photographer’s own choosing. The submitted photographs are then collected by the curator (or curatorial panel) and viewed together as an entire collection of images from a variety of photographers, and naturally, there will be a variety of genres as well as themes. From this collection a narrative (or narratives) emerge, and it is this narrative that the curator works towards telling with the images chosen for the purpose.
Since it isn’t a competition, many excellent images are not included, but be assured that all those that are used are not only well suited to the narrative, but are also exemplary works by the photographers who submitted them.
Packing – 20-0687Lighter Side – 20-0690COVID-19 – 20-069720-0700Sharp – 20-0717
I’m not much of a Street Tog (photographer), but these would be my picks for VISIONS is I were submitting. Quite a switch from my usual seascapes 🙂
To see them in the Gallery “ In the Streets”, click on the images, you’ll see them there along with other images in that Gallery.
I tend to take photographs with composition in mind, maybe except when I’m trying Street Photography, but other than that, its usually about how the scene shapes up, where the lines go, how much foreground versus background to use, and sometimes, even where the main subject should fall, although that is not always the case.
Because of that approach, and because I seldom think about the “colour” of the image, I tend to see the resulting image in terms of black and white, shades of gray, more about form and function, lines, elements, etc.
These were just some thoughts going through my mind while processing this image:
Cyclist on the dam | 20-6775
At Lusignan its currently more of a dam than a seawall 🙂
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some others from the “Up East” album
The powers that be decided to declare Elections Day in Guyana a national holiday, so we have a long weekend.
I decided to share five photos from my last month’s walking about, whether you see anything in them that appeals, or shows diversity, I can say that these show people, the quintessential “man in the street”, or if we’re going to be politically correct, “person in the street”, the people who will be affected by the outcome of Monday’s vote, and any events that may occur because of the elections, the parties and the electorate’s response. These are the people for whom “life goes on”, regardless of what happens.
Babies Day Out – 20-052820-0539 | Church St, Georgetown, Guyana20-0551 | Coconut Vendor on Main Street, Georgetown, Guyana20-0557 | Robb Street, Georgetown, Guyana20-0558 | Robb Street and Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown, Guyana
Hope you like one or two of those. Click on them to see them in the Collection along with many more images from my album “In The Streets”
Shooting in the streets can be a hit and miss form of photography, especially when you’re doing it “on the move” like I do. I know many Street Photographers sit and wait for things to happen, and these result in some extraordinary images. I tend to take photos on the street while I’m walking, either to a particular destination or just walking like a rabid dog in the midday sun (the words of the song go “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun…”, and since I’m not an Englishman, I must fall into the Mad Dog category)
On this particular day, as I walked beneath the midday sun, I took maybe about 19 photos during the space of a half hour, I think a normal day I’d get a lot less. Of these 19, I had set aside 4 keepers and a possible two others for later consideration. Of the four, one I posted directly to Facebook, another I gave over for use in a poetry blog, and of the remaining two, I had one that I thought was quite the catch in terms of Street Photography.
I was very happy with the overall capture, but more so of the expressions on the faces of the people within the frame, I hope you enjoy it, click on the image to see it in the gallery along with other images “In the Streets”
For me, the Photographic Process encompasses several stages, some think of it as simply taking a photograph with a device such as a camera or a phone, but I’d like to just mention the stages that I consider part and parcel of the Photographic Process, all of this just to speak specifically about one part that has to do with some of my black and white images.
The photographic process begins with the Photographer’s Eye, seeing that which is intended to be captured, since we all see things differently, this first part starts the differentiation of one image from the next and “my image” from “your image”. Secondly, our camera adjustments, for many this is done using the automatic settings, but for others it may entail making several adjustments to modes and setting values for shutter speed, aperture and ISO; these settings are usually determined by the lighting conditions and the desired “look” of the resulting image. Next comes the composition, determining what to include in the frame, what to exclude, and a variety of other compositional techniques. Then we click the shutter button.
In our current digital age, this is usually the end of the process, it gets shared on social media, etc., some may pass the image through a simple software for preset filters etc before sharing. For photographers, this has only been half the work, the next stage is to process the image, depending upon the ultimate use of the image this can be done in a myriad of ways; for me, I seldom do weddings or portraits, so generally the image is intended as ”art”, yes, it sounds pretentious, but that’s what I usually intend, so I would often process the image through Adobe Lightroom, and for many of my black and white images, I also use DXO Nik Silver Efex for the black and white processing. Once the image is processed to my satisfaction, it is then shared to my site or to social media. For me, however, the process ends at another stage, when I actually have the image printed.
Out There – 14-5265 | Oniabo Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana | 2014
The size of the printed image is usually limited by a few factors, including the size (usually in megapixels) of the original capture, the content of the frame (composition) and the type of processing done to the image. Some of my black and white processing can result in things that would not look well if printed large, such as today’s image. I used a high contrast process and worked to heighten the structure and clarity of the image, in so doing there is a resultant “haloing” in existing high contrast areas of the image, when enlarged this can lend the impression that the image was “edited” that portions were spliced in, when in fact they were not. So, in short, I most likely would not print this image large, possibly 16” x 24”’ as the largest print, this would retain the integrity of the image for me.
This is not a new photograph, it lay unprocessed in my files since 2014, I went scanning through the archives again this morning and spotted it, wondering why I never processed it (as usual). It is not the latest addition to the Oniabo Collection.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the Black and White album.
I’ve been out of circulation for a while, many things have happened and life has moved on. I’m trying to get back to some sort of “normal”, and one way was to start back my midday walking, so I went out for a short walk (much shorter than usual) to dip my toes in the water 🙂
Over the years, I’ve gotten used to walking with come device to capture images while I walk, whether its a full DSLR camera, a mobile phone or the DXO One that I have for such walks. There are times I walk and never take a photo, and there are times that I take many but never use any, then there are the other times that I take some and get a few keepers.
Chicos y bolsos – 20-0489
The thing about Street Photography, and something many still don’t understand, is that its not about photographs in the streets, its about people. It’s about people and the environment, whether they are identifiable or not is unimportant, its their way of dress, or their way of walking, their antics or the way they “pose” as in lean on a post or sit on a chair, its about their behaviour in a crowd, or among others, or by themselves – its about life, the life that they show, the life that is implied, the life that we see as a photographer,and the life that you see as a viewer.
Partaking of the Harvest – 20-0492
For my part in taking street photography, I try to be outside of the events, not interacting with the subjects,but inevitably there will be some interaction, being of mixed ancestry with an outwardly predominant asian visage, I tend to get noticed on the streets 🙂 Using a discrete device to capture images does help minimise the likelihood of the subjects being aware that they are being photographed, and thereby preserving the scene. There are many times when I’ve watched Nikhil interact with people, then take their photos, and the results are usually quite amazing, but that’s just not me, so what works for him and others, don’t work for me, and vice versa.
Charlie Brown makes me laugh – 20-0501
I don’t consider myself a good street photographer, I do have an understanding of the genre, but I definitely place my images way below those of many other local “street togs”, but sometimes I have a few that I think are worth sharing 🙂
Hope you like them, click on them to see them in the Gallery along with other images “In the Streets”.
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 