silhouette – Son of the Morning Light

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 •}

Twilight of the Kings

December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/img_9702e1.jpg — Last light over the almost completely dry bed of the Habarana Lake, in northern Sri Lanka. One of the country’s oldest historical reservoirs, the lake is believed to be the ancient Aggivaddhamanaka Tank, built by King Vasabha of Anuradhapura at the end of the 1st century AD. Shot on assignment in January 2016, for Explore Sri Lanka magazine.

^{• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/40 • ISO400 • 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 •}

Happy Days

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 David BlackerLeave a comment

https://sonofthemorninglight.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/744a0203bw.jpg — *Main Point, Arugam Bay. May 2022.*

^{• 50mm • f/1.4 • 1/50 • ISO200 • Shot on a Canon 5DMkIII & EF 50/1.4, courtesy Canon/Metropolitan}

The Writer

August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 David BlackerLeave a comment

When I remember my father, this is the image of him that is most clear in my mind’s eye; of him, hunched over his desk, his typewriter, a notepad, or random scraps of paper that he carefully cut out of previously used sheets, saving the unused spaces that he would later fill with his small neat writing. He would write at all hours; late into the night, preparing Sunday sermons; and at dawn, making notes from his endless examination of Bible commentaries. And he would write everywhere, constantly jotting down reminders to himself about things only he knew. Even after his typewriter was replaced by a computer, his only concession to the digital world was that he condescended to dictate his handwritten notes to my mother, who would type them into the ether. I took this picture almost ten years ago, on Christmas Day, after lunch. I don’t know what he was writing, but the pose is unmistakeable. Though my father never wrote a book in his life, he seemed to never stop writing; even after retirement. It was as if he knew that it was soon to be taken away. When illness deprived him of the ability to read and write, I took it upon myself to organise his desk and store away many of his books and papers, and I found his study packed with his penmanship. There were notes for Bible study groups, random mini-reviews and recommendations of books he had read, an eulogy to some unknown friend. And scores of letters to my mother, sent from all over the world during his many travels; tight lines crammed onto flimsy aerogrammes, postmarked from Switzerland and Ecuador, America and India, England and Cyprus. Many of these too had been written whenever he had a moment to spare, in airports and on trains. Writing seemed to fill the crevices of my father’s world. He now leaves a crack in mine no writing can seem to fill.

^{• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/640 • ISO200 •}