The Waiting Sea

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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.

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Long Walks on the Beach

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Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka. May 2022.

• 200mm • f/5.6 • 1/100 • ISO400 •

Indomitable

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With a mouthful of kasippu, and the prospect of a couple of fish for lunch, an elderly fisherman, probably too old now to go to sea, helps a returning crew haul their big outrigger fishing canoe ashore at Weligama Bay, in Sri Lanka. May 2022

• 200mm • f/5.6 • 1/350 • ISO400 • polariser •

Rain or Shine #2

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A surfer braves the southwest monsoon, at Weligama Bay. May 2022.

• 200mm • f/5.6 • 1/400 • ISO400 •

Monsoon Beach

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Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka. May 2022.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/250 • ISO100 •

Rain or Shine

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A young surfer braves the southwest monsoon, at Weligama Bay. May 2022.

• 200mm • f/5.6 • 1/200 • ISO400 •

Grounded Bird

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An outrigger fishing canoe sits on the sands of Weligama Bay, after a night at sea. May 2022. An outboard-powered supersized version of the small wooden dugouts that have fished the coastal waters of Sri Lanka for a thousand years, these fibreglass-hulled craft can face all but the worst the Indian Ocean can throw at them.

• 24mm • f/4 • 1/1250 • ISO400 • polariser •

Muscle and Fibre

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Sturdy wooden poles are carried out to the big ocean-going outrigger canoes returning home after a night at sea (above). These are then slid through the gunwales so that the canoes can be hauled ashore (below). Built with modern fibre glass, and powered by hefty outboard motors, these craft nevertheless follow the traditional (if supersized) designs of outrigger canoes that have fished the coastal waters of Sri Lanka for a thousand years. Weligama Beach, May 2022.

• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/500 • ISO100 • polariser •

Continue reading “Muscle and Fibre”

Ucchedavada 

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The abandoned Maduwegala Aranya Senasanaya, a Buddhist forest monastery, close to Konwewa, in Maho. February 2022.

Dark Wood

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Pine forest below the Devil’s Staircase, Central Highlands, Sri Lanka. January 2017.