We spent the weekend down the coast in Galle and were fortunate to witness an amazing sunset. There aren't too many people visiting the area due to covid and the season for the south coat doesn't get underway for a month or so more. God knows when more people will head down south so may as well enjoy it while it's quiet.
While driving through Lahugala, we came across this stunning tree in the middle of a dried up lake bed. Fired off a few frames with a telephoto lens and decided to process it as a black and white image as I felt the contrast between the tree and the clouds and surroundings made the image "work".
I shot this photograph from one of the pylons on the southern end of the Harbour bridge. Manoeuvring the camera wasnt easy as I had to stick the lens through a small gap between the fence and the pylon wall. The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney is on the right of the image, the Overseas Passenger Terming is in the centre and Centre Point is visible.
Visited the Opera House one evening after a shower of rain, hoping to photograph it without too many tourists walking in and out of my frame. I got lucky as there were only a few around. I setup the tripod in the forecourt very close to the building and managed to shoot this. I thought it was slightly different to the usual shots you see of the Opera House so was quite happy with it.
We watched these elephants having a bath and rolling around at the waterhole for a few hours and they provided us with plenty of photographic opportunities. The herd was not bothered by our presence as they didn't seem to change their behaviour which included lying down in the waterhole. There were more elephants in the herd but they are out ...
On a recent trip to Kalthota we stayed at a place in the middle of the jungle with relatively little light pollution. An early evening shower ensured clear skies and resulted in this photograph. I wish I had a wider lens with me though. This was shot at 24mm.
A gruelling 4 day hike brought us from the banks of the Urubamba river to the citadel at Machu Picchu to witness the sunrise from the sun gate. Although the hike is only around 50km in distance, it is at altitude. We spent a few days acclimatising but the first two days on the hike were tough. particularly climbing ...
Barana was in musth when we decided to visit the Kala Wewa area a few weeks ago. We got there around midday and had to wait a few hours until he made his appearance. Fortunately there was a herd of elephants at a water and they provided us with a number of photographic opportunities while we waited. Barana's presence ...
I came across this weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) in the garden and photographed it with a macro lens. The hardest part of the whole process was to lock focus on the ant as it moved around a fair bit. Fortunately my macro lens supports auto-focus. If not, pre-focusing and waiting would have made this shot so much harder. For lighting I used a hand held Canon 430EX speed light.
Photographing the Opera House head on and capturing all 3sections isn't straight forward. You are either shooting upwards from the forecourt or you are shooting between the bars of a fence that runs up the stairs leading to the botanical gardens. I shot this by poking the camera through some of the bars along the walkway. It wasn't easy ...
An early morning walk along the beach brought me to a small harbour at Mawella. The colourful boats had already come in and were drawn up on the beach. Apart from myself and another man, the beach was deserted.
The White-throated Kingfisher is a frequent visitor to our garden in Colombo. It is probably the most common Kingfisher found on the island. This one was particularly cooperative as it sat on an exposed branch and let me photograph it from the balcony. The background was also a suitable distance away from the subject.
Adam's bridge is made up of 16 sand banks or "islands" between Sri Lanka and India. It is firs mentioned in the Hindu epic "Ramayana" where it is said to have been built by Rama's army to allow them to cross to Sri Lanka. Archeological evidence does suggest that the bridge is a man made structure. It was usable until the 1800s.
A section of the Abhayagiriya monastery which once housed over 5000 monks. The monastery complex has a number of interesting sites including the "buth oruwa", the Elephant's pond, a moonstone and the Samadhi Buddha statue. It is spread out over a large extent of land and quite often, you have the place to yourself.
The council chamber of King Nissanka Malla can be found on the banks of the Parakrama Samudra in Polonnaruwa. The kings throne is said to have stood in front of the lion but has now been moved to the museum in Colombo. Each of the 48 columns are inscribed with the names of the ministers who made up the council.
The Vatadage in the city of Polonnaruwa is supposed to be one of the best preserved Vatadage structures in the Country. This photograph was taken from the first platform of the structure and shows the north facing entrance to the second platform on which the stupa was built. As shown in the photograph, a Buddha statue is positioned facing each of the 4 entrances to the second platform.
The Greater Coucal is a regular visitor to our garden in the middle of Colombo. As the bird is somewhat used to being around people, given it lives in a city, it's not the hardest species to photograph.
The statues and paintings inside the image house at Resvehera were amazing. The temple is said to have been built by King Devanampiyatissa in around 300 BC. The temple is still in use and If i'm not mistaken, there are monks still meditating in the caves around the temple complex.
Black-rumped Flamebacks (Dinopium benghalense) are relatively common in Colombo and its suburbs. I've been able to photograph them at home on numerous occasions. Although I photographed this bird from below, I thought the head position made the composition a bit more interesting.
