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.
I’m not sure what it is, but I sometimes sit and wish I were back on the trail, out in the open with a dust cloud behind me, potentially unseen or unphotographed vistas before me, a cold beer in my hand and the wonder of creation to explore. I’m a town-man, I doubt I’d survive too long out there… but the calling is there.
Here’s a scene from Kato 🙂
Whither We Wander 16-1652 | Kato, Potaro-Siparuni, Guyana | 2016
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
Often, I can just sit on the edge of the rising or ebbing tide, and marvel at the forces at work, to keep in constant motion this massive amount of water that must weigh an unimaginable but calculable amount, the Pacific Ocean alone takes up almost half the Earth’s surface…
Pull and Push – 16-1777 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 2016
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Just a photo 🙂
Liliendaal, Georgetown, Guyana, South America.
Click on the image to see it in the Seawall Gallery.
Sometimes, it’s just a photo…
Canon EOS 60D | Sigma 10-20mm
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Some photos have a way of leaving you feeling unsettled, or just not quite right…
Awry 15-9930 | Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, Guyana | 2015
Click on the image to see it along with others in the Black and White Gallery.
Robb Street begins in Robbstown, down on the “waterfront” by the John Fernandes’ wharf area, both the ward and the street got their names from the man who designed the area in terms of the building lots and landscape, it ends at the famous Bourda Cricket Ground (Georgetown Cricket Club), on what is now Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, renamed to honour the achievements of one of Guyana’s great cricketers of the 1990s into the first decade and a half of the new millennia. The original name of Shiv Chanderpaul Drive was New Garden Street, because Robb Street was to originally end at the new Botanical Gardens, but that was pushed back a further block (an area that is home to the Georgetown Cricket Club, Georgetown Football Club, Ministry of Agriculture, and Office of the President.)
At the end of Robb Street, on the northern corner, is the Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church (if you’re a Portuguese language speaker, you may want to check out their Portuguese language mass that caters to our growing latin/spanish/Brazillian population), in the southern corner is (or, in a few days/weeks, was) Unity House, a three story wooden house.
I don’t know enough of it’s history, but it once housed the chapel in which Holy Mass was celebrated while the church across the road was being built (on the middle floor), and for many years it was the headquarters of the United Force, a political party which has held parliamentary seats in Guyana up until two elections ago. Prior to the last elections, also, there was some in-fighting among the executives, primarily as to who would lead the party, but that’s just politics. As I write this the building is being torn down, let’s hope the party can last a bit longer 🙂
I was processing a photo that I had taken near the gate, but that would not enlighten anyone as to the structure of the building, so I went on to process a wider photo for elucidation 🙂
Closed – 15-9996 | 2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Unity House – 15-9986 | 2015 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm
Click on the images to see them in their respective Galleries.
– 1499 –
Imagine that somewhere on the horizon is a line of three Galleons…
okay, fine, Galleons are more impressive looking, but we’ll revert to the truth;
there’s a line of Caravels, three of them, heading from the north-west, somewhere where the clouds disappear into the distance.
If you grew up as I did, you were taught that many of “our” countries were discovered by that fellow Chris, but the leader of that flotilla on the horizon was not Chris, but Alonso.
If you can see the flotilla, imagine now that one of those caravels has separated and is heading our way, in a more south-easterly direction along the coast, the remaining two are heading further west and stopping at the mouth of the Essequibo; Alonso is now the first European to be recorded as seeing and touching our shores… and in that south-easterly heading caravel is Amerigo, who is on his first voyage (second, if you believe a disputed letter), and it is after this explorer that the joint continents of “America” are named.
As for that fellow Chris, this voyage by Alonso, his pilot Juan and navigator Amerigo quite displeased his followers, which resulted in quite a fracas in Hispaniola 🙂
If you stand on our shores and stare toward the horizon, you will not now see those caravels, but in the wake of those voyagers, using the trade-winds and ocean currents, are many ships; and I wonder, what are those sailors thinking as they look towards land? Are they thinking of those days of discovery? Are they thinking of the journey home? Do they see the stars as did those long-ago conquistadors did?
I was processing this image when thoughts of the actual “discoverers” came to mind, hence the long messy thought process above 🙂
“And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.”
Robert Frost – The Road not taken
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
There once was a time when we created not just for function but for appeal, when we designed things to make our lives easy, as well as for those things to be easy on the eyes. There is a sense of loss, its physical, but also emotional, when the older buildings are removed and replaced with structures that closely resemble steel slabs or concrete cuboids.
I don’t do it often enough now, but I once had a fascination with capturing old buildings around Georgetown… but they seem to be vanishing faster than ever now; I hear it’s the sign of progress.
Like everything else in life, if we don’t fight to keep it, then we will lose it, but most of us seem to have grown up in a time when that “fight” is not in us, where we accept the decisions of others, because we believe that our voice, our opinion does not make a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Regent Street, Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana.
Click on the image to see it in the gallery, along with other images from around Georgetown, Guyana.
I had just finished up some work, and simultaneously finished up my processing on a photo I took in the Pakaraima’s earlier this year, and I was heading into my vehicle to head home when I was approached by a man of Amerindian descent (our indigenous people).
He called me by my last name, and inquired if I was indeed Mr. Lam, the one who took photographs, once I replied in the affirmative, he proceeded to ask if I had a brother named Patrick, again, I said yes, he apparently went to school with my brother at some point. He then told me how much he enjoyed my photos, I was somewhat stunned to be thus approached on the road, but I was also thrilled. It seems he is now embarking on his own photographic journey.
I would probably never have had the courage to do what he did, but I realise now that I have left many things unsaid to many people simply because I was unsure of how they would take my approaching them gushing about how much I like their work. Judging from my own reaction, I regret not saying to those people whose work I admire, that I love their work, and that they inspire me.
On to the photography – I don’t think I’ve ever treated one of my “safari”or photos taken in the Rupununi or the Pakaraimas in a similar manner to that which I do my seascapes and coastal photos, but something about this one steered me in that direction (yes, the clouds, I know) 🙂
Karasabai, Pakaraima Mountains, Upper Takutu – Upper Essequibo Region, Guyana
Click on the photo to see it in the Gallery.
Since I started using WordPress for this blog, other than using the online interface to write, I’ve been using Windows Live Writer as my main off-line way of drafting and preparing my blog-posts, I had heard sometime back that MS was not developing it further (although its pretty great as it is), this one I tried using Open Live Writer, which is so identical to MS Live-Writer that I forgot I was using a different software. So far, I like it!
I’ve taken a few photos of the Chateau Margot chimney over the years, but I’ve always been looking for better ones, something less “touristy”or “documentary” and a little more towards the artistic side.
I think I finally got one, of course, as things happen I took it after the Guyana Visual Arts Competition was already closed to entries, so I just put it aside and left it there… now, a year and three-quarters later, I am sharing it.
This one is special, it is one of those images that I loved as soon as I pressed the shutter button, I even knew how I’d be processing it in the end, which I didn’t for almost a year… It has been one that has always been in the back of my mind to use, but just never found the right time. I hope you like it.
Chateau Margot – 14-6542 | Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | Chateau Margot, E.C.D, Guyana
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with many other Monochrome images
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