landscapes – Son of the Morning Light

Special Feature — THE FORGOTTEN TEMPLE: Dakkinagiriya & the Other Kaludiya Pokuna

March 27, 2023March 26, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

A thousand-year-old ‘mountain monastery’, lost in the Kaludiya Pokuna Forest, east of Dambulla; forgotten by the tour guides, and seemingly by time itself. For the visitor seeking something literally off the beaten track, the Dakkinagiri Viharaya is an intriguing but serene detour away from the well-trodden sites of Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle.”

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/img_2819.jpg — *The stupa of the 9th century Dakkinagiri Viharaya, with Erawalgala behind it.*

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Whisky Point

March 22, 2023March 21, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/img_7244b.jpg — *Pottuvil, Sri Lanka. May 2022.*

^{• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/1000 • ISO100 • 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 • polariser •}

Temple of the Water God

March 13, 2023March 12, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

I believe that water is the closest thing to a god we have here on Earth.”

^{_{— Alex Z Moores Living in Water}}

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/3h3a9978.jpg — The Randenigala Reservoir, surrounded by the jungles of the Rantembe Reserve. December 2018. If water is the one true god of our planet, then the reservoirs we’ve built over millennia must be its greatest temples.

^{• 24mm • f/8 • 1/1600 • ISO800 • 5DMkIII & EF24-105/4L •}

Afternoon Over Thalangama Lake

February 27, 2023February 26, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/img_0825-2.jpg — *Kotte, Sri Lanka. February 2023.*

^{• 14mm • f/4 • 1/800 • ISO100 • R6 & RF14-35/4L •}

The Doomed Giants of Anuradhapura

January 9, 2023January 8, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/img_5270e2.jpg — Sunrise over the Basawakkulama Tank, believed to be Sri Lanka’s oldest reservoir, built in 400BC, against the backdrop of the Ruwanwelisaya and, faintly in the distance, the massive broken Jetawanaramaya, both over 2,000 years old. The tree silhouetted against the morning is one of many that line the tank’s retaining bund. For perhaps a century or more, these broadly spread giants have sheltered farmers, workers, schoolchildren, and the occasional photographer, using the bund as a footpath into Anuradhapura. When I took this picture in January 2017, while on assignment for Serendib magazine, the trees were also home to rock squirrels, numerous nesting birds, and families of grey langurs. But sadly, it has now been reported that the government has begun felling these ancient trees because they are believed to be damaging the bund with their great roots. The perspective they have given to one of the most iconic views of Anuradhapura will be the least of the losses their deaths will bring.

^{• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/250 • ISO100 • 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 •}

Family Time at the Bay

January 5, 2023January 4, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/img_7072t.jpg — *Evening at Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka. May 2022.*

^{• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/250 • ISO400 • 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 •}

The Horizon of Our Hope*

January 2, 2023January 1, 2023 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/744a0049.jpg — *Dawn at Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka.*

^{• 50mm • f/1.4 • 1/160 • ISO100 • Canon 5DMkIII & EF 50/1.4 courtesy Canon/Metropolitan.}

*“Time is no longer endless or the horizon destitute of hope.”

^{— Charles Lindbergh}

The Waiting Sea

December 26, 2022December 26, 2022 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/img_0137.jpg — *Talalla Bay, Sri Lanka.*

^{• 24mm • f/2.8 • 1/640 • ISO100 • 600D & EF-S24/2.8• circular polariser •}

December 26th 2022 marks eighteen years since the devastating Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, when the Indian Ocean rose up and killed over 35,000 Sri Lankans in two massive waves (the second measured as high as 11m, in places). The country suffered the second highest number of deaths in the Indian Ocean (after Indonesia which, being proximate to the epicentre of the underwater quake that caused the tsunami, lost almost 200,000 dead and missing). Over half a million people were displaced in Sri Lanka, as almost 90,000 coastal homes and buildings were destroyed by the waves. Over 250,000 people are estimated to have died in minutes, in fifteen countries, from Southeast Asia to East Africa. In island nations like Sri Lanka, the sea would never be looked at quite the same again.