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.
Someone apparently likened this section of the trail to the Great Wall of China, and the name Great Wall has been used to identify it since then.
It is probably similar in its winding fashion and the fact that at least one side is a very large drop to the bottom.
This photos does not convey that sense of the steep drop, but trust me, when you’re in that vehicle and you look over the side, vertigo and fear step in 🙂
There’s a place called Kato, that has a Waterfall that’s very beautiful to a traveller, I was so enthralled and excited that I have to admit to taking very lousy photographs of it.
In this photo you can see some of the travellers enjoying the refreshing waters of the falls, this is a short drop, there was a larger one not too far off (not too large though 🙂 )
For anyone who has read the books by Terry Pratchett, specifically the ones dealing with the twin-city of Ankh-Morpork, you know about the City Watch, for those of you who have not read those books, I encourage you to try them, Terry Pratchett is a master story-teller and a comic genius.
But this is a photography blog, not a book review blog, and the title of this post has nothing to do with Samuel Vimes or the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, although now that I think of it, maybe I should have titled the photograph “Vimes” 🙂
Most of us get very few opportunities to rise above the humdrum of everyday life, to stand above it all and, with a calm that belies the hustle and bustle below, just take in the view of a city, our own city, noise-filled, garbage-filled, accident-prone, with a mix of colonial buildings and modern square concrete structures.
Imagine this; from one vantage point, you can see the hub of public transportation, the minibuses and taxis, a landmark eatery, hotel and beer-garden, the seat of government, hotels, churches (including one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world), the high court, one of the largest markets in the country, city hall, the busiest business district in the country, the Atlantic Ocean and so much more.
That is the view from the clock tower at Stabroek Market, and you haven’t even turned around to see the wharves and the mighty Demerara River with its speed-boat traffic, the ferry and the aging but impressive harbour bridge.
Click on the photo below, see it larger in the gallery and imagine yourself in that man’s position.
You know …no you don’t know what can happen after a shot is taken, after a single moment is captured and frozen in time. Sometimes, no, most times that image lives on long after the person or object is gone. Phillip Williams (on Facebook)
A photograph is a moment frozen in time, given how some of us take photographs it could be a moment that is a split second, or minutes (those nifty long exposures that show light trails at night or even star trails in the sky). Phillip Williams captured a moment, a beautiful photograph at Guyana’s Rodeo showing two lovely women on horseback. The one to the left with the blue tie around her neck is Cheryl, a friend of Cheryl’s told Phil that she took her own life late last year, may she rest in peace. I am not a reporter and I can’t verify this, but it’s not relevant to the emotions and thoughts that go through people’s minds when they hear things like this.
As photographers we should remember that we capture moments of people’s lives, and those moments are tied to memories, photographs can be very powerful when it comes to evoking an emotion. Phil’s photo makes me want to head off to the Rodeo to see what these young ladies would be doing, it gives me a longing for Lethem and the open savannah outside, it brings back memories of vaulted skies and distant mountains.
For friends and family of Cheryl, this photo may bring joyful memories of the Rodeo, of how she lived and laughed and loved, or it may bring back painful memories of her death and the sorrow that those who loved her felt at her passing, and the unanswered questions about the “why” of it all.
If you are going to call yourself a photographer, a photo-hobbyist, an amateur photographer, an aspiring photographer, and yes, even a snapshottist, what you produce with each shutter-click can be very meaningful. Will every photograph we take have that impact, probably not! Should we strive to make every photograph that we show to others have more meaning than just a shutter-click, definitely!
I wanted Phil to do a small write-up, but he said he is more of a “Visual” type of guy, no argument there, he’s quite a talented photographer and videographer, his photos and videos do their own story-telling, I seem to like adding words to mine 🙂
Click on the photo to see the original at Phil’s Flickr feed.
Mashramani. A Guyanese Celebration that has taken on the overtones of Carnival. The name, derived from an Amerindian word (Arawak) meaning “Celebration after hard work” has been synonymous with Guyana’s Republic Day celebrations for many many years. Although the original activity began in the mining town of Linden (known as Mackenzie back in those days), it spread quickly around the country.
It is probably hard to have grown up in Guyana (or at least one of the towns in Guyana) and not have attended and have memories of Mashramani celebrations, especially the “Float Parade”. But after reading Krysta’s blog post “Mash in Guyana, People going crazy”, my mind did that funny thing where it takes you back to remembering what it was like when you were a child.
Just for the record, her title was a reflection of a popular song for the Mashramani celebrations going back many years, it was written and performed by Rudy Grant and is yet to be replaced as “The” song for Mashramani.
So, back to my memories of Mash (faulty though they may be)!
I won’t go into any detail (since that is very much lacking in my memory) but I’ll tell you what I miss… the Low-bed trailers. I remember there being two very distinct types of “Floats”, one was the very mobile (often times extravagant) personal Float Costume, handled by one man or woman, who expertly maneuvered it down the streets, spinning and dancing and giving a very exuberant display, the second was the low-bed display, a very low (two or three feet of the ground low) trailer with an extravagant display on it, these were usually pulled by a tractor (I even remember a Tapir pulling one once).
These days I see the larger trucks which make seeing all the components of a well-detailed display hard to see. So, I miss the low-bed trucks or trailers that were used back then.
As a photographer on Mash Day, it’s a nightmare, the police have no control over the crowds, who fill up the street where the bands are supposed to pass, and when the Bands\Floats are passing they also walk alongside, in-front and behind, and sometimes even within! In doing so they obscure others from seeing and enjoying the beautiful costumes and other design works in the Floats and trucks. Of course, that also makes it really hard for a photographer to get “easy” shots, but we persevere and press on to get what we can 🙂
I’ve put aside (with Nikhil’s help) a Select set which is about a quarter of the whole gamut, you can click HERE for that, but I do encourage you to check out the whole Gallery by clicking the image below.
This photo for me is very much “Mashramani”, this is Slingshot, a Guyanese singer / Calypsonian, a few years ago he fell of the horse-cart and was injured, this year he was back, undaunted, and back on the horse-cart! Hats off to you Slingshot!
This week’s Deck Photo is taken from the Children’s Mashramani Parade this year, I previously blogged about that. (If you haven’t checked it out as yet, I think its a good view, the children really did well!)
Although this photograph may not have been the best of that set, there was just something, that “je ne c’est quoi” quality in it that I thought was more appealing to me. It was a beautiful costume, and a lovely young lady showing it off, and her smile lit up her face nicely too.
The costume wasn’t as colourful (you know, the full range of the Guyana flag, plus a few more) as others, but in its simplicity of colours it enhanced the beauty and detail of the design.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I have to begin by apologising for the amount of photographs in the album on the site… I normally go just for fairly close shots, but I thought that this year I’d try to get some of the whole shots with the costumes, I’m not too good at it, but I’ve been asked many times about why I don’t have the nice big costumes. Also, the Children’s parade this year was very engaging and the costumes very nice, and I think there were more of them too 🙂
Every year I think that the Children’s Parade is better to attend than the Adult’s Parade, it is shorter, even though the amount of entrants might be on par, even though they don’t speed down the road, they seem to be more organised and better managed, and this results in a very good flow of groups and floats down the street.
The sides of the street is also less crowded so as a spectator, I can enjoy it more and as a Photographer, I can get the photographs easier 🙂 without being elbowed and shoved, and possibly trampled.
I know it may be a lot of photographs, but I think you may find at least a few that appeal to you 🙂 Click on the image below to see the entire collection in the Gallery. Or just click this TOP 25 link for a select 25 images.
There was a challenge recently in the Guyana Photographer’s FaceBook page, it was about silhouettes, while there seemed to be various interpretations on the theme, I noticed that not everyone had the same idea of a silhouette.
Although many dictionaries seem to have similar definitions, they usually go back to the original meaning, referring to “cut-outs”, the explanation that I like the best I came across on Wikipedia (yes, I know, not always the most reliable of sources, but its accurate here), “A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black”. I think this explanation covers the idea of a silhouette regardless of the medium used to illustrate it.
This image I intentionally under-exposed when I took it to capture more detail in the sky and less in the foreground and objects between myself and the horizon, although I did under-expose I apparently didn’t do so enough since I still had to adjust the black levels to get what I wanted 🙂
Although the tree-line takes prominence in this image, the real interest is the child on the wall walking into the sunset. Intentionally under-exposing the photograph is one way I know of getting the silhouettes that we try for in images like this. Getting the right exposure is important, goodness knows I’m still trying with that, but learning when to over-expose the photograph and when to under-expose it can create those moments that are more memorable than an average exposure 🙂
For a better look, click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
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The final week of the year, and the final photo for the Deck Project for this year. This one I can say I like, it has been “edited” a bit in addition to the standard processing, I added a “purplish” gradient to the sky for effect.
Another year has ended, I am a bit disappointed with myself, and I think I need to refocus for the new year, I plan on restarting the Deck Project, it gives me a sense of purpose for my photography, so I wouldn’t want to stop it. I think that Nikhil may be re-starting his 365 Project that he did a year ago, I look forward to that.
As we end this year and look forward to 2012, I present a photo that I think represents many Coastland Guyanese, a typical afternoon on the coast, enjoying the winds of the Atlantic and just “Shooting the Breeze” (chatting, talking, gaffing!)
People who know me, know that I like music, I can carry a tune, I can even play one (given enough time), and I have a wide appreciation for music, meaning that I try to appreciate different styles and genres.
Everyone has their opinions, and they’re entitled to them, so not everyone will agree on the categorization of music into “good” and “bad“. I have my own definition of music, or more specifically the “tune” or “melody” that forms the body of a song; for me it’s “If you can play it on an instrument (other than the human voice) then it may be classified as a melody or tune”
Enough of the rambling, this is actually about a photograph. This was a photo that was a strong contender for the 2011 Deck – Week 51, but was passed over.
Jane has been the primary organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for as long as I can remember, she has her quirks, but the one thing I know is that for her, it’s about the Music. As I understood the story (as I was told as a boy) she had a development challenge and learning music (and the piano/organ) was a form of therapy, to say that Music saved her life would probably be a reasonable statement.
Click on the image for a better view in the Gallery 🙂
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