Tag: Church Street

Tree of Knowledge

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography, Poetry4 Comments

Tree of Knowledge – 13-0493  |  Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-50mm

There was no good nor bad, just life
to this only man, and his given wife,
Days would pass, nights would fly,
animals their friends, of earth and sky;
Everything existed, no rhyme nor reason,
their world, their life, through every season,
All that would change with an admonition,
“Taste not the fruit of the tree, this one”,
All else permitted, this was forbade,
why not partake, why else was it made?
A question asked, a quest begun,
why shouldn’t they eat of this one?
A search for an answer, the first defiance,
revelations shattered the silence,
An answer found, more questions arise,
the world now seen through opened eyes.
The tree of knowledge, a planted seed,
And now it grows, it blossoms… indeed!

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery

© Photograph and Poem by Michael C. Lam, All Rights Reserved

2015 Deck – Week 38

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2015 Deck, Photography1 Comment

The Jerk Hut

With a name like that I was expecting Jamaicans, from the accent to the food.  Sadly I was disappointed on both counts when I was there.  The grilled fish was good, but with more bones than I like (quite acceptable to most people, I’m just quirky that way), but the Jerk pork was nothing like what I enjoyed in JA.  It seems I must plan a visit to my uncle 🙂  Speaking of which, trips cost mulah, and if you see something on my site you like, don’t hesitate to buy 😀

Anyway, fun aside… this place was RED, from the tent/roof, sides, tabletops, aprons… all RED.  So, it’s not that I overdid it on the photo, it’s just that the place was like that, and the poor phone camera had a hell of a time focusing because of it.  I’m glad I got the shot I did.

The Jerk Hut (Amaro)  |  Instagram  |  Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery!

Stride

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

This is Georgetown, Guyana, if you walk through the streets, you’re bound to come across a few characters before you walk a few city blocks, photographing them is a whole different story.

Most people are very wary of cameras, they believe you’re either some foreigner trying to “make money off their image” or “from the papers”, apparently people just being photographers who do it for fun or for art isn’t something they’ve quite gotten used to as yet.

When Nikhil pointed out this man to me, we were walking toward the curb, and I quickly snapped photos from the hip… almost like a spray and pray technique 🙂

I had the Canon EOS 60D with the Canon 40mm pancake lens on, as I never did get the “shoot from the hip” method quite right, this one had to have some rotational cropping done to make it presentable, but I really wanted one to share as there was something about this fellow that made a photo compelling.

Seen large, he’s wearing a t-shirt (or vest) under that shirt that has USA emblazoned across the chest… 🙂

2015  |  Canon EOS 60D, Canon 40mm Pancake Lens

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with some other attempts at street photography

Tree

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Commentary, Photography, thoughts2 Comments

Georgetown, the Garden City; our fair city, once replete with Victorian and Colonial architecture, dutch built and inspired drainage canals reminiscent of European cities, and tree-lined streets and avenues, now laughingly referred to by it’s denizens as the Garbage City, floods with the slightest rain, governed (I use that word as loosely as is possible) by a city council that was elected two decades ago (although faces have changed, but not through any democratic process that I know of), and, sadly, losing it’s trees through neglect, sabotage, and lack of foresight (or hindsight it seems).

Most of the trees lining our streets predate us, they were planted, nurtured and cared for by colonial masters (and slaves) before our independence, before the Republic came into being, before self-governance and the long road that led to where we are today.

As we have travelled that road through time, our leaders, our people, we ourselves have forgotten or ignored what it was, what it is that makes Georgetown a place we want to live in, to visit, to be proud of…  We as people, are not as welcoming as we should be, we as humans are not as caring of our environment as we should be.

Saving or replanting trees is not THE answer, but it’s a small part, one that is likely to go unnoticed or ignored.

Yesterday, Kamal Ramkarran wrote (on his own family’s place in our past and present):

As clichéd as it is, the lives of the six generations who followed them is the history of Guyana (from 1875 anyhow). All of us from here are, in a very real way, part of the history of this country. The history of Guyana is our own story, whether we know that story or not.

Since we are part of the story then, the story happening around us and through us, it ought to follow that we should make ourselves responsible for its present and future, just as we try to make ourselves responsible for the present and future of our own lives.

What part are we playing?  Will what we do stand the test of time as those trees still standing attest to the work and acre of our predecessors/ancestors?

2013 |  Tree in St Joseph Ursuline Convent compound, Camp and Church Streets.

Technically, the tree is in the portion of the compound now housing the St Angela’s primary school, the Ursuline compound also houses the St Rose’s Secondary School.  Schools once run by the Ursuline Sisters, but were “nationalised” under the PNC government.

2013 Deck – Week 09

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

I had never been into the Indian Monument Gardens before, and it seems that the one time I did venture in was when they were doing some new construction on a stage to the western end and had not done any recent cleaning near the monument itself, yet I still think I got a few usable photographs (if you ignore the weeds on growing near the monument and the stains on the base itself)

The monument itself commemorates the arrival of the East Indians to Guyana as indentured labourers, the first arrival being on May 5th, 1838, the first ship being the SS Whitby (symbolically represented in the monument).  The monument was erected in 1988 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of their arrival, a portion of the Merriman’s Mall was appropriated for the Monument Gardens.  (the area bordered by Church Street, Camp Street, North Road and Alexander Street.)

I found very little information in my short research, but it appears that a nationwide competition was held for the design, and after choosing the winning entry the design was made real by an “Builder” from India, the Gardens itself was laid out by two architects, one from India and one from Guyana (Albert Rodrigues).

I chose this angle because it shows some of the supporting structure of the Ship itself.

As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

2013 Deck – Week 08

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography2 Comments

Most of my photographs from the recent Mashramani parade for Georgetown were of one particular style, but somewhere in the middle of all the fast flying shots that I took I managed to capture one that was quite different from the wide shots of the floats or the half-body close-ups of the revellers

I don’t know if it’s the photography book I have been going through, but for some reason this image stands out from the plethora of photographs that I took on Mash Day.

The book is “Through the Lens – National Geographic Greatest Photographs”, and it contains some truly amazing photographs.  I am certainly not claiming that any of mine can class with anything from National Geographic, far from it, but the “feeling” that I got from this one was different from the rest, and I think that it is a better photo for that.

You have to see it large, please click on the image to see it in the Gallery.

For me, this shows a woman lost in the moment; it’s just her, the music, the rhythm, the motion…  alone in a crowd, part of the band bu apart from the band all at once.  This is “the moment” for Mashramani 2013.  I hope you like it.

Mashramani 2013

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography4 Comments

I know that most people’s Mashramani photos are already out there, and I have to say that this year saw a large increase in not only the amount of photos out there but also an increase in the quality of the photography of the event.

In trying to “cover” the event I take a lot of photos, which means I then have to process those photos.  This year I used two cameras, I had a wide-telephoto Sigma 17-50mm on the Canon Rebel T1i body and the slightly longer telephoto Canon 18-135mm kit lens on the Canon 60D body (my favourite lens for the event, the Tamron 18-270mm, has an issue I cannot resolve as yet, it’s slow to focus, which is not good for moving subjects).  My favourites from these events have always been close shots rather than wide, but I decided to try to get a variety anyway.

As I expected, my favourites are still the close-up shots  🙂

Click on the Image above for the full Gallery

For a hand-picked selection, click on this Link, I selected my favourites, not necessarily the best ones, just the ones I like  🙂

2013 Deck – Week 03

On By themichaellamcollectionIn 2013 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Although I like to think of myself as a photographer who likes to take Landscape photos, there is not a lot of scope for that living in the city, but I’ve always had an interest in capturing images of buildings, especially old ones that may not survive due to neglect or just continued development (or any number of other reasons)

During the third week of the year, I had an inexplicable desire to take some photos of St Rose’s High School, just before attending a presentation by Hew Locke (an artist with some amazing work), Nikhil and I took a walk around the block, and I got my chance to take a few images.

To emphasize the building more, I used an “orange filter” setting whilst processing, this darkened the sky and made the building more pronounced.  Although I did not intend to combine “street photography” into it these two boys strolled past just as we were there.

As always, click on the image to see it in the Gallery

An image for Mash

On By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography12 Comments

Recently, I was fortunate to have a photo of mine selected and used for the cover of the Caribbean Airlines in-flight magazine – Caribbean Beat (November – December 2012), and they have also used another to accompany an article in the current issue (January-February 2013)

Click on the image above for the full PDF article by Vidyaratha Kissoon along with the accompanying image.

Amazingly it was an image that I liked, but not one that got a lot of attention  🙂  Getting great images during the Mashramani parade is not easy, I’m thankful to come away each year with more than a few that I like.

Here’s the image: Click to see it in the Gallery along with a select set of photos from last year’s Mashramani