Saturday Walk Through Georgetown

I always have to muster a bit of courage to take a Photo Walk through Georgetown. Georgetown is notorious for petty crime and robberies, and there have been situations where photographers were robbed of their gear on the streets. So, let me tell you what I did to help overcome a bit of the anxiety that comes with shooting in Georgetown while walking alone.

Firstly, for a while now I realised that my primary camera, the Fujifilm XT1, was a bit too big and conspicuous for me to comfortably walk around and take the shots I wanted. It’s also a fairly expensive camera and I really don’t want to lose it, so I invested in a small and amazing camera - the Ricoh GRII. The logic is this: the XT1 with lens costs at least double the GRII. If I had to lose one, I’d prefer it be the GRII - there, a bit of my anxiety gone.

I walked out with nothing but my camera and keys at a normal pace, down the streets with no real planned route in mind, but I knew for sure I wanted to walk past the Stabroek Market area to capture a few interesting moments. It’s something I wanted to do for a long time, and I managed to overcome the demons in my mind that were preventing me from doing so, and did it.

It was a big awkward at first, but I pushed through allowed myself to be absorbed into the environment, not taking shots of every little thing, but choosing the moments wisely. Most people never even noticed I had a camera in my hand, and most of the shots I took while on the move. After about twenty minutes of walking the streets became more comfortable and it was almost as if I was there all the time.

From Stabroek, I took to Regent St. and walked up to Bourda Market, then took to Robb Street, and got a few more interesting shots there. The market was busy and no one had time to notice a lone photographer. It’s an amazing feeling when you blend into the environment and are able to capture the moments you never thought you would, and before I knew it - I had already been on the streets for about 2-3 hours.

What a great afternoon of Street Photography in the capital city of my beloved Guyana.