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.
During our recent spate of rainy weather, I chanced to be on the sidewalks waiting with my camera in hand and I grabbed a few photographs, of the set two stood out, but I only like one enough to use, so I chose here first before I post to Flickr.
Many of our pavements/sidewalks and streets in Georgetown flood as soon as the place gets cloudy, but the recent rains put a lot of pressure on our poor (excuse for a ) drainage system. 🙂
At least this fellow was prepared for the weather, not only with an umbrella, but with long boots as well. 🙂
Wednesday gone was our Republic Day in Guyana, and the big event was the Mashramani Parade, so I had already decided that I was going to pick one of those photos for this week’s Deck image.
After several days of torrential and continuous rain (that flooded my house) the day was Sunny, very sunny, still clouds on the horizon, and every once in a while, above us, but primarily sunny. My head now looks like a large cherry on top my shoulders, I am sunburnt. But hopefully after I upload all the selected images from the day, I’ll think it was worth it 🙂
I chose one that I think represented the exuberance and gaiety, the sheer joy of tramping and mashing down the road that the revellers seem to possess (on and off) through their parade.
I’m a bit under the weather, so just a quick one to tide me over.
In almost every village area in Guyana, you either have walking, riding or driving vendors crying out their “wares”, I think some of the famous ones are “Broom Here!!!”, “Papers! Papers!, Kaieteur, Chronicle, Stabroek, Times! Papers!” and of course “Chips! Chips! Chips!, fresh chips!”
Maybe I’ll get the others another time, but for now here’s one of the Chips salesmen 🙂
Chips!
Click on the image to see it larger on the site, and of course, browse the sight at will 🙂
This was the photograph I had in mind for last week’s Deck Photo, but then the horse-cart took over 🙂
I still find it amazing that in a crowded room or a public place full of people, I can be next to my wife, and feel as if we’re alone, just the two of us. It was one of those things you read about in poems and novels but didn’t quite get until it happened to you. For more than half of my life, that has been us, I can look into her eyes and we’d be alone wherever we were. I look forward to many more years like that.
Well, I took this photograph, so it’s not of us, but you get the idea 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Strange enough I had a totally different image in mind for this week’s Deck Photo, I hadn’t processed the images as yet, but I had sorted out in my mind the images I had taken and had somewhat settled on a particular image. On importing the photos into Lightroom, I saw one that I had dismissed mentally, it was taken hastily and I did not think that I had captured what I wanted. As I looked at it I realised that it had some merit, and as I processed the image it grew on me to the point that I haven’t bothered to process the rest until I finish this blog post 🙂
It was a nice lazy afternoon at Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara, and I was probably on my fourth Cuba Libre, and I saw them coming down the street, barely time to put down my glass (carefully), go for my camera bag, take out the camera, frame up and shoot. There was no second take, just the one shot.
The sky that day was a photographer’s dream, nice variety of clouds, a slowly setting sun, as Nikhil mentioned once “even a monkey could have gotten good photos that day”. I’m not entirely sure about the monkey, but I know we came away with some good ones.
For me, I liked this one because of the clouds, and then there’s the lone man walking along the wall, and the lone bird soaring in the sky.
I recently put this image on Flickr, and I got some favourable responses, and because I haven’t blogged in a few days I thought I should put it here as well 🙂
I was sitting in the vehicle waiting for my wife to finish up in a Supermarket on Regent Street, I was reading on my phone (at this time it was “The Witching Hour” by Anne Rice), and in my peripheral vision I say some movement in the distance. Yes, it’s a busy street, but I’m sure you get my point.
His name is probably not Compton, but amidst the multitude of things adorning his attire is a name-tag proclaiming him to be Compton. He is a colourful character, and you seldom see past the spectrum of colours, the purposeful stride and the “insane” air about him.
I hurriedly put the phone down, reached into the back-seat for the camera, and quickly composed and clicked to get my shot. I had to wait two seconds while the camera took the shot since I had forgotten to reset the timer from the previous night, so he is two seconds out-of-focus.
My first photo for this year’s Deck Project. I received so much support, feedback and appreciation on the last project that I decided to do it again this year. I called it The Deck because I was doing one photograph per week of the year (whether it is the best for the week or not), as a year has 52 weeks, and a deck of standard playing cards has 52 cards, not counting the Jokers, I thought the name The 2010 Deck sounded better than “A Photo per week for 2010” 🙂
I also think I learned a little more and got more familiar with my camera a lenses during the year.
Up to now I’ve only taken 42 photographs this week (and I doubt that I’ll take any more today) and those photos cover only 10 subjects, two of which were not meant for the project in the first place, those being some family photos and a house interior sequence. That left me with only a few choices this week, and you would think that would make it easier to choose, but it made it harder, I was down to four choices, and while I can usually pick one out rather quickly, this week was harder, either the images were all good, or all mediocre 🙂
I ended up choosing this one below for it’s content, I liked how all the pieces fit! It’s hard to see on the small image here on the blog so click on it to see the image on the site larger. The afternoon rainy clouds, whiter clouds, an aircraft, a sail-boat, the rock line, a man and his dog, all in one image. I hope you like it.
A Man and his Dog. Canon T1i, 35mm (Tamron 18-270), 1/400s, f/11, ISO200
My Last blog post of the year! So I take it to do a small “family letter”, or as close as I’ll get to that in a while 🙂
As two of my brothers have already written or expressed through video, this has been an “eventful” year.
Maureen and I, as well as Andre and Areza, celebrated a decade of marriage, Miriam did well in school, although she says she did not do so well, her overall percentage fell, but she did her best and we are proud of her. Joan Ann got married to Jerry and has migrated to Barbados, God called into his arms two of our loved ones, Granny Correia and Uncle John (Moll), they are both missed and we pray for their souls and the strength to carry on without them. Aunt Kumarie (Maureen’s mom) was diagnosed with Gastric Cancer, the surgery was successful and her chemotherapy begins soon, we hope we have the strength to support her, but she is a strong person and may be our support even through her own trials. I started my own blog and am enjoying my photography even more through it. Nikhil and I were robbed whilst in pursuit of our photography endeavours, quite an experience. This year I also went with my family to Sint Maarten, where I got some amazing photographs and was called Blog-o-matic for the frequent blogging I did from there, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
Areza and Ariel migrated in time to begin Ariel’s new school, and she is doing wonderfully, a real champ, my niece. Andre followed them shortly and their family is now re-united and moving forward.
Of all these events Andre’s parting has affected me the most, I couldn’t even take a focused photograph at the airport as he was leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my grandmother dearly, and I do miss Joan a lot, but there is something about the three eldest brothers that was just different. Together we were MAN (Michael, Andre and Nicholas), we complimented each other, as different as brothers usually are, but we grew to be not just brothers, but friends. That friendship with my other siblings is still developing, but with the three of us it was forged in growing, in fights, in scheming together, in church and in the schools we attended together, in Karate classes, in playgrounds, and even in our varying tastes in music, and with Andre, we were in the choir together (shhhh!), both of us later found mutual friends at University, and a common interest in photography.
Father and Son
This photograph is not the one I wanted, I really wanted a good one of him boarding the aircraft, but my eyes and hands betrayed my at that time. But this one is typical of the males of the Lam family, we hug very seldom, we shake hands more than not, and even more often we just smile and acknowledge each other. We seldom say “I Love you” or “I am proud of you” or say in words how much we care, it is mostly a nod and a smile and that is enough for us, we KNOW!
This photograph gives thanks! Thanks for the many years God has given us with our Dad, his wisdom, his sense of right and wrong and his commitment to the family! On the wall in the background is the transplanted family photograph or Andre, Areza and Ariel. Thanks for all that they have been, for what they mean to al of us, and always will. And the brass Chinese character hanging on the wall, a reminder of our ancestry, where we have come from, the generations of Lams who have been born on Guyana’s soil, and those from mother China whom we never knew but owe our genes to 🙂 That chinese character is the symbol for Longevity or Long Life, symbolic and serendipitous.
To all our friends, our family, and anyone reading this, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2011, and Longevity.
This week’s photograph is not the best I’ve taken for the week, it is, however, somewhat representative of Christmas in Guyana. The Masquerade bands come out during the Christmas Season and then at Mashramani, although I didn’t see the “Mother Sally” and the “Bull” at this gathering, these gentlemen were out in the hot midday sun, entertaining the public and raising some funds for their future endeavours.
Merry Christmas to all who stop by to read this, busy though most of us are 🙂
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