Georgetown, Guyana

On September 20, 2016 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography6 Comments

It’s been 50 years since some forward thinking people declared Independence for this little nation we now call Guyana. They were looking forward to their futures, some idealistic land of self-rule and happiness for the masses I suppose.

I think by now, most of them have all gone and left many of us wishing we were still under colonial rule, it wouldn’t have been that bad, would it? We’ll never know, and doing the whole “what if” dance is not going to help anyone.

Sadly, even though many of the idealist have gone, there remains some of the followers who can’t seem to open their eyes and realise that the old way can’t work and that the path the country is on is not the right one, that implementing old ideas, once discarded, will not bring about new changes.

I babble… I’ve been staring at this photo for weeks and didn’t know what to write and now I write something quite out of character and from way out of left-field.

Here’s a photo 🙂

Wrong-way Rider 16-1092 | Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L | Croal St, Georgetown.

Click on the image to see it in the gallery along with other images in the Black and White Gallery

Charlestown

On July 11, 2015July 13, 2015 By themichaellamcollectionIn Photography5 Comments

I lived in Charlestown (Georgetown, Guyana) for a short while after we got married, if I crossed the street, I’d then be in Albouystown. Back then I had my first access to a digital camera, an Agfa ePhoto 1280 (Megapixel? what’s that?). It was mainly for work purposes, but through it I learnt a few things about digital photography, and it probably rekindled my interest in photography at the time.

I had read somewhere that Charlestown (and Charles Street) was named after the Duke of Brunswick, Charles William Ferdinand (or Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, his original German name), but why a Ward of Georgetown, Guyana is named after a German Duke is a question I can’t answer.

Charlestown, at the time I lived there, was still quite “quaint”, in respect to the type of buildings, but even then things had begun to change, with one or two square concrete building being erected where once stood more aesthetic wooden structures, but times change, and change is inevitable. Fortunately, change is also slow, comparatively, and some of the older buildings are still standing. I walked, rode or drove past an old wooden building on the corner of Broad Street and Charles Street for many years, when I took up photography a bit more seriously, I kept an eye on it and kept putting off taking a photo, one day I decided that the “For Sale” sign meant that it may be bought and torn down, so I made the extra effort to stop and spend a few minutes grokking the scene seeking out a nice photo, waiting for the “perfect” photo was out of the question, so I just wanted a “nice” one.

Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-500 | 1/400s, f/10, ISO 400

Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images in the “Georgetown, Guyana” album.

2014 Deck – Week 30

On November 20, 2014November 20, 2014 By themichaellamcollectionIn 2014 Deck, Photography2 Comments

Street photography (next to event photography) is probably the least predictive sub-genre in Photography, and that’s one of the things that draw a certain type of photographer to it.

I was on Sussex Street one Sunday and this car parked in front of an old vine-covered shed/shack caught my eye. Behind that scene was the old Gafoor’s warehouse (not sure if it is still occupied by them). I had taken a landscape oriented shot, then thought that I’d prefer more of the building in the background and recomposed a portrait oriented shot when this cyclist pedalled into the frame 🙂