Another first for Mike Charles
–    releases exciting postcards featuring Guyana’s unique eco-tourism products
Mike Charles’ love affair with the landscape, flora and fauna of Guyana has diverse dimensions, which has resulted in many innovative and enchanting productions that feature Guyana in its kaleidoscopic beauty – natural and man-made. While others shoot Guyana’s wildlife with bullets, Mike prefers to capture them through the lens of his camera, which provides a more enduring and enchanting product, as well as innumerable by-products – such as videos, photographs; and now postcards.
But his productions cannot be described as mere postcards, because they feature glorious Guyana in all facets of its resplendent beauty, including its wildlife up close and personal – close enough (seemingly) to kiss.
Mike’s romance with the camera began when, at the age of nineteen he had attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and was appointed officer-in-charge of a location on the Guyana-Venezuelan border twice between 1982 and in the first quarter of 1984.  He had joined the Guyana Defence Force in 1981 as a cadet officer when he was only 18 years old.
Walking the trails in equal measure with his men, he began exploring Guyana’s hinterland – and thus discovered the magnitude of the country’s unexplored regions, which fascinated him and began an adventure that lasts until this day.
In 1984, Charles was one of eleven (11) officers the army sent to be trained as pilots at Flight Safety International, which is located at Vero Beach in Florida, USA. Charles was trained as a helicopter and an aeroplane pilot.
Patriotic to the core, Charles is the only pilot who remained with the GDF to serve his country.
Upon completion of his aviation training he was eventually assigned to fly a series of helicopters operated by the GDF. The Bell-412 was one of those helicopters, which he asserts is the best helicopter he has ever flown; and Mike, his camera, and the Bell-412 became an inseparable trio for years, which resulted in a pictorial archive that no-one else can boast of, because Mike took risks for close-ups and flew like a daredevil to get the best angles and shots.
His patriotism and dedication to duty can be measured by one episode in his life. He said that he had been flying the President back to Georgetown after he had seen Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, off at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, when he observed that the funeral cortege of his father was winding its way from Georgetown to their family home in Soesdyke on the East Bank of Demerara.
He nevertheless completed his duty before returning home for his father’s funeral, with no-one being any the wiser of his personal ordeal.
Charles is extremely regretful that the Bell 412 helicopter, with which he has shared many exciting adventures, to which he is still very attached, has not been properly utilized since his retirement in 2010, after a stint of approximately thirty years with the army, having attained the position of the most senior Helicopter pilot in the GDF.
His retirement left Mike with time on his hands to utilize his creative energies to continue to serve his country; which has resulted in the production of several DVD’s to promote Guyana’s eco-tourism.
Mike says that Guyana is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world and has tremendous potential to become one of the greatest eco-tourism destinations.  He says being Anglophone is an added attraction, as is the diversity of its rich and supremely-beautiful cultural mosaic, which he says is unique only to Guyana.
However, according to Mike, the packaging and the marketing of this great and unique Guyanese product needs massive investment to become competitive in the tourist marketplace.
Because of negative press that the country has been receiving from internal bodies, which is giving even Guyanese in the Diaspora, as well as potential tourists to this country a bad and negative perception of Guyana, Mike has been distributing his videos worldwide to try to reverse this misperception by showing all the many beautiful facets to this country and stymie the bad press that is wreaking havoc with Guyana’s fledging tourist industry and Guyana’s investment potential.
From research he has done during his extensive travels to North America and Europe, as well as Caribbean countries, Mike says that Guyana has a great amount of work to do  so as to bring the country in line with competitors, in terms of infrastructure, security and accommodation, although the main tourist product is all natural.
Applauding the tour operators who prevail against many constraining factors, Mike said that it is only a matter of time before Guyana is placed on the map as a major eco-tourist destination, and his contribution to the packaging of this product is to make inimitable postcards of world-class quality available – featuring original pictures taken the length and breadth of Guyana, at half the price of those currently on the market, immediately available at the airport as the visitor lands, as well as at all convenient locations.
DVD highlighting Guyana’s LCDS launched
According to Mike, the passionate commitment of His Excellency Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, President of the Republic of Guyana, to create awareness in the world of the need for immediate and impactful attention to the dynamics of the climate change phenomenon, and his drive to find solutions to this phenomenon was the motivator behind the production of this video.
The production highlights aspects of our magnificent country, which has a low carbon footprint and is embarking on a path towards developing the raw potential of Guyana’s value as a carbon sink.

The DVD captures the quintessence of the 40 million hectares of intact rainforest, as the issue of climate change becomes focal to our continued existence on planet earth, and the way our daily lives relate to and impact on conservation and sustainable development of our rainforest, embracing the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) Guyana is implementing.

Honoured  for his extraordinary work in photography
The photographic romanticization of Guyana by Mike Charles has been winning national and international accolades for years.  His love affair with the picturesque landscape of Guyana, as well as its multitudinous species of flora and fauna has produced a body of amazing work that has been acclaimed by various bodies, and the awards have been many. During the Guyana Folk Festival awards ceremony at the Brooklyn Borough Hall in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday 2nd September 2010, Mike was presented the 2010 Guyana Cultural Association Award for his extraordinary work in Photography.
In a congratulatory statement, the Guyana Cultural Association,  New York Inc. said:

“We at Guyana Cultural Association are elated with the patriotic contributions of Major (Ret) Mike Charles to Guyana. His series of videos are a manifestation of his love of country. To combine his flying skills and photography, which displays the richness of Guyana’s astonishing beauty, culture and abundant natural resources is a credit to this Guyanese veteran Helicopter Pilot. We were particularly happy that he joined us in New York to celebrate his work. We do hope that Guyana recognizes his decades of dedicated military service as an aviator and bestow upon him an appropriate accolade. We must honour service to our Nation.”

Chronicle’s Michel Outridge,  in the Sunday Chronicle of  1st August 2010 in a feature headlined “GTA endorses ‘Guyana Yours to Discover’ for tourists”, wrote:

“Director of Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh has endorsed the third Mike Charles DVD on this country, entitled ‘Guyana Yours to Discover’.

The occasion was the premiere showing, locally, at Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

Haralsingh said GTA supports Charles’ latest documentary, which captures 800 still photographs of this country, depicting what it has to offer in terms of tourism, its peoples, beauty and lifestyle.
The GTA Director said the breathtaking pictures show nostalgic Guyana and showcases the beauty of nature.

Haralsingh also commended Mr. Charles for the splendid job done, once again, stating that the film is the perfect gift for visitors, when promoting Guyana to the rest of the world.”
The latest in the Mike Charles Productions’ unique product lines, the postcards, were first released at GuyExpo 2010 and is due for an official launch during Tourism Month November 2011.