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.
Its a very rainy Saturday morning in Georgetown, much like many we’ve had this week and last week.
I just felt the urge to take a mobile phone photo, so here it is 🙂
Samsung Galaxy S7 | Lightroom Mobile Camera | Processed in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
I took this photo 5 years ago. (November 03, 2011, 5:06pm)
It’s one of those photos you take at the time, then just put aside; at the time it was just part of several images I took while walking along the northern and then the western side of City Hall, none of which were ever processed or shown to anyone.
I found a few dates about the building to be interesting; proposals for the construction of a Town Hall were endorsed in 1886, a design was chosen in 1887, and works completed in 1889, yet in the wrought iron fretwork design above this northern doorway is the year “1888”.
1888 – 11-6453 | City Hall, Georgetown, Guyana | 2011
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
The idea that someday, someone in power would choose to make the decision to fix the beautiful structure that is Georgetown’s City Hall is likely a dream, one that may remain unfulfilled.
As it is, most of us can see that is makes more financial sense to let it fall to pieces and then put up a square unattractive concrete block of a building with no character and no appeal, probably all because of years of neglect, and the squandering of taxpayers monies.
Should it be fixed? That depends on your view I suppose. Guyana’s tourism depends largely on natural wonders like Kaieteur and the animals of the rainforest, as well as upon the old-world Victorian/Colonial architecture that is still evident in many structures along the “Heritage Trail”, but are our tourist numbers enough to justify spending millions of dollars on rehabilitating this beautiful building?
What would I know? I’m just a citizen 🙂
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | City Hall, Georgetown, Guyana. 2015
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
Georgetown, Guyana.
The French called it Longchamps, the Dutch called it Stabroek, the British named it after King George III, Georgetown. Each generation always seem to wish for the “good old days”, but as I’ve aged and seen this edifice that I pass daily age as well, I think that City Hall has indeed seen its Glory Days, unless something radical is done quickly.
I look at the photo and the phrase that comes to mind is “everything looks better in the morning light”
City Hall, Georgetown, Guyana. Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20 Lens
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from the 2015 Deck Project
Keeping a photo project going is not easy, I found that many times I “force” the images by going out looking for things to shoot… and often times I’m not entirely satisfied with the results. Most of the images that I like are the ones that I just happen to see, being in the right place at the right time 🙂
I was on the pavement near the intersection of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic when I noticed the reflection of City Hall in the flooded pavement and road near to me, I actually had my camera in hand and tried to compose a few shots between people walking by me, and vehicles splashing the waters occasionally.
Some people can go out and “make” the photos, others are just the instrument that is manoeuvred into the right place at the right moment to see and capture what is shown to them 🙂
Canon Rebel T1i | Sigma 17-50mm | 17mm, f/8, ISO400
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with the other images in the 2013 Deck Project.
I had started processing this photo about two weeks ago, then left it off. I had cropped, rotated, and dropped the saturation a bit, but wasn’t satisfied. I pulled it up this morning, tweaked the highlights a bit and decided that it was done… that simple! Sometimes, all it needs is a little time 🙂
I noticed these at the side of the trench when I parked my vehicle, they were lower than the road, and the side of the trench was slippery, so I couldn’t get a foothold to get down to the level I wanted, so I adjust my settings on the camera and held it down to try to get the composition I wanted… never got the perfect one, and quite few were unusable, but this one I liked (after rotating to correct my badly angled dangling camera 🙂
Click on the Image to see it in the Flora Gallery in the Collection
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 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 🙂
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.
When the new owners of the Central Garage building began their renovation works, I asked permission to take a few photographs inside the building and also from the roof. Although I took quite a few, this one always nagged at the back of my mind (I’ve yet to process that set completely).
The front of the building was windowed in sections, and at the time of my visit the windows and their frames had been removed from the eastern wall, this wall has now been remodelled and houses large glass panels, so the view may be similar 🙂
I had originally thought that the new owners would remove the old building and replace it, but they chose to retain the existing steel structure, remove and replace the old wooden and asbestos outer walls. Although they changed more of the facade than I’d have wished, they retained more of the original building than was expected 🙂
This view shows mainly City Hall, which itself is in danger of crumbling, you can also see part of the ACME building, and part of the Victoria Law Courts. I liked the contrast between the darker interior of the building and the brightly lit City, framed by windowless orifices.
Please click on the image for a better view in the Gallery, this Gallery also holds other photos from around Georgetown, Guyana.
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