Just Take Photos

Last Saturday a small group of us had planned to take a photowalk starting at the National Library. Only two of us made it: myself and Bela Savita.
We wasted no time starting the walk. I wanted to get some shots of the avenues in Georgetown that weren’t under construction yet, and some shots of Bourda Market, which may be reconstructed some time soon.

My interest is to preserve in some way our history as Guyanese. I enjoy seeing photos of what Guyana and Georgetown was like ‘back in the day’, and, although we live in a relatively modern time, our society still has tangible traces of our colonial history mixed with a strong sense of Guyanese culture. The culmination of our history is partially written into the physical structure of the society itself - the buildings, the pavements, the old trees, the parapets, churches, parks, gardens, the way we dress, the wooden stands and carts on the roadways, the diversity of the crowd.

Sometimes, I believe I think too much about what would make a good photo and that just takes away from the experience of photography and might just take away a good photo altogether. So, I just went out to shoot - not looking for anything spectacular, or good - just average documenting of the city. And, two things: I enjoyed the walk, and I got some photos that I’m very pleased with.

We’re fortunate to have remarkable technology at our disposal to document what we see today. To document what we can’t to capture, and it’s easy to be prolific with good content simply because the technology is so much better than it was years ago. So, why not just go out and shoot more…

The technology has allowed us to practice in a way that is less costly than before. You can take thousands of photos and know what you have almost instantly. So, really, the task of getting a good photo is really just up to your effort - the time and practice you put into the skill.

I wanted to get that out of my mind before I forgot. I’m also leaning towards not even editing my photos and keeping them as standard colour or a basic colour film simulation in the Fuji I’m using. Interestingly, I’ve found that I’m not really appreciating black and white photos like I used to. I’m liking colour more recently and might stick to it for a while.

The gallery have some shots of Georgetown I took during the walk, and some while inline skating around the city. Skating and photography might prove to be one of my favorite things to do on weekends now.