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.
An outside view of the Hotel,
I had dropped by hoping for a nice “blue hour”, and took some exterior photos of the hotel. Tripod in hand, bag on my back, I kept moving from position to position for more than an hour… I think the guard was getting suspicious even though he was aware of what I was doing 🙂
Got there maybe 5:30pm, took my first shot by 5:45pm… this one was just about 6:30pm
2013 | Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown, Guyana
Landscapes and Seascapes… maybe even Cityscapes… that’s the kind of thing that I like shooting, Yes, I photograph lots of subjects, but this is what drives me really… at least that’s what I feel.
So…. when I see a sky with lots of detail (that apparently most other people don’t see) I almost have a compulsion to grab the camera and seek out a suitable scene.
While this spot might be considered overdone… the changing elements will always make it photogenic for me 🙂
2015 | Kingston Roundhouse
Click on the image to see it in the Black & White Gallery along with many other BW images in the collection.
Georgetown, the Garden City; our fair city, once replete with Victorian and Colonial architecture, dutch built and inspired drainage canals reminiscent of European cities, and tree-lined streets and avenues, now laughingly referred to by it’s denizens as the Garbage City, floods with the slightest rain, governed (I use that word as loosely as is possible) by a city council that was elected two decades ago (although faces have changed, but not through any democratic process that I know of), and, sadly, losing it’s trees through neglect, sabotage, and lack of foresight (or hindsight it seems).
Most of the trees lining our streets predate us, they were planted, nurtured and cared for by colonial masters (and slaves) before our independence, before the Republic came into being, before self-governance and the long road that led to where we are today.
As we have travelled that road through time, our leaders, our people, we ourselves have forgotten or ignored what it was, what it is that makes Georgetown a place we want to live in, to visit, to be proud of… We as people, are not as welcoming as we should be, we as humans are not as caring of our environment as we should be.
Saving or replanting trees is not THE answer, but it’s a small part, one that is likely to go unnoticed or ignored.
Yesterday, Kamal Ramkarran wrote (on his own family’s place in our past and present):
As clichéd as it is, the lives of the six generations who followed them is the history of Guyana (from 1875 anyhow). All of us from here are, in a very real way, part of the history of this country. The history of Guyana is our own story, whether we know that story or not.
Since we are part of the story then, the story happening around us and through us, it ought to follow that we should make ourselves responsible for its present and future, just as we try to make ourselves responsible for the present and future of our own lives.
What part are we playing? Will what we do stand the test of time as those trees still standing attest to the work and acre of our predecessors/ancestors?
2013 | Tree in St Joseph Ursuline Convent compound, Camp and Church Streets.
Technically, the tree is in the portion of the compound now housing the St Angela’s primary school, the Ursuline compound also houses the St Rose’s Secondary School. Schools once run by the Ursuline Sisters, but were “nationalised” under the PNC government.
I began using Instagram when I got my hands on a phone using the Android OS, and I like how it challenges the way I look at a scene; after composing images in wider (or taller) formats thinking “square” had it’s challenges, but it’s fun.
And it is almost too easy to use… makes you want to put down your larger cameras and just use the phone… which is exactly what I did on New Year’s Day.
Many of you may not use Instagram, so I’m posting images and the Instagram links here for these select images.
There is a thread running through these images, but I don’t expect anyone to get it, and that’s fine, they are simply photos that I wanted to share.
Chef Vishal
Bush Construction
Welcome
Respect
Here’s wishing you a Happy 2015, one filled with surprises, great expectations, few regrets, fewer disappointments and lots of Love!!
Another year, another 52 images for the project. Almost thought I wouldn’t make it this year… My fascination with Jhandi flags on the shore as well as my focus on seascapes has spurred some thoughts to the cohesion of images into proper collections… My Oniabo collection is still taking shape and I hope that the new year will bear fruit in similar manner.
The last photo of the year exhibits the theme nicely, in colour, so it would not be a part of my Oniabo Collection, but it is a seascape with Jhandi flags at Lusignan.
After taking a series of images here, with both the Canon 60D and the Canon 6D, I then used my phone to snap one for Instagram, and I rather like that one!
Canon 60D, Sigma 10-20mm | 1/250s, f/11, ISO 100 | Lusignan ECD.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with all the images from this year’s Deck Project.
In week 50 of 2014 I took a lot of photos, however most of them were on a photo shoot for a family, who specifically asked that we (Fidal and I) don’t share publicly, I don’t do those types of shoots normally so I was looking forward to it, and I think I got a few nice ones 🙂
So since practically all my photos for that week were scratched I fell back on one I took that was during the shoot but not of the family 🙂
If it messes with your eyes, it’s doing the same thing to mine… cool!!
47mm, f/4.0, ISO 800
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
So, it’s not Abbey Road, but i like the little twist on the idea… Something about these young ladies crossing the road made me want to snap the shot…
1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery
That photo I used for Week 44 was different, yes, I think it’s good, is that what I want to be doing at this time?
So, back to our regular programming… a high contrast monochrome from the seashore. I was hoping that the fisherman/sailor would just sit and stare at the sea for a while, at the time I shot this I think he was securing the bow line.
This is a scene that was a no-brainer for me, it had everything I usually want… Jhandi flags, a boat, a fisherman, a good sky and little garbage in sight within the frame 🙂
24mm, 1/1250s, f/5.0, ISO 200
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery along with other images from this year’s Deck Project
Looking for more meaning.
Although I did not intend for this photo to be associated with these thoughts, this is where Fate stepped in.
I have finally gotten to have a series of photographs that I think embodies an idea that I can convey through a collection, and then I had a very short but enlightening (maybe even a little dampening) conversation with Mr Carl Hazelwood, the chief judge at the 2014 Guyana Visual Arts Competition. He basically told me that while I have “nice” photographs, the ones he sees lack that little something extra that would make it more than a pretty picture… and here in the last two years I thought I had gotten past the pretty picture stage 🙂
This man knows what he’s talking about, and if he says that I don’t make the cut, then I don’t, and I am grateful for that honesty, I may never make that transition, but I will surely try.
I processed this photograph last week (I only had this conversation last night with Mr Hazelwood), and I almost chose a different photo, one more in keeping with my seascape series of recent, but this one had a few elements that appealed to me a little bit more, and I wanted the diversity for the Deck Project 🙂
This one probably would not hang in a gallery among great works of art, but I ask myself if I would hang this on a wall, yes I would, but would you?
Seashore – Canon EOS 6D, Canon 24-105, 105mm, f/9.0, ISO200
Click on the image to see it in the gallery.
People write all sorts of things in the sands at the seawalls… and beaches worldwide, from Love Letters (Pat Boone sang about this), to drawings, to directions to the nearest Qik Serv, to Hearts with cupid’s arrows through it and the Lovers’ names inscribed, all to be washed away with the next high tide.
Those messages are as transient to us as we are to the timeless sea; and yet, we keep making those markings and the sea wipes them out again.
I snapped a photo in passing this fellow as he used quite a long stick to mark out something in the sand, I have no idea what it was he was drawing, maybe it was a message to an extra-terrestrial ship 🙂
Midday Markings – Kingston Foreshore, Georgetown.
Click on the image to see it in the Gallery.
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