Tag: tower

0845

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• 90mm • f/5.6 • 1/800 • ISO400 • Canon 600D & EF-S18-200/3.5-5.6 •

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Evil Eye

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Sri Lanka’s Lotus Tower is probably the most easily noticeable symbol of the government corruption and ineptitude that brought on the worst economic catastrophe in the island nation’s history. Ordered by former President Mahinda Rajapakse in 2012, the tower, the tallest in South Asia, and visible from practically every part of the capital, Colombo, is viewed by many as a vanity project, costing as much as $104 million to build, but with little use beyond glorifying the leadership of the former president and his party (the Sri Lanka Podujana Pakshaya’s symbol is a lotus). This photograph was taken from 5th Cross Street, in the city’s market district of Pettah, in January 2023.

• 35mm • f/4 • 1/100 • ISO6400 • R6 & RF14-35/4L •

Beacon

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The lighthouse on Point Utrecht warms up as darkness falls, marking the dangerous rocks of Point de Galle, and the entrance to Galle Bay. Built by the British in 1939, the lighthouse was a replacement for the original wooden one — Sri Lanka’s first lighthouse, erected in 1848 — that had been destroyed in a fire in the mid-1930s. Point Utrecht, one of the major bastions of the Galle Fort, also houses a gunpowder magazine below the lighthouse. Shot in January 2022.

*shot on a Canon EOS 5DMkIV & EF 24-105/f4L, courtesy Canon/Metropolitan.

Revised Defence

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A large wooden crossbow-type ballista in a bergfried* of the 13th century Burg Thurant. The German castle is sited above the village of Alken, in the Moselle Valley. Most of its building were destroyed in the 16th century War of the Palatine Succession (though this bergfried survived), and reconstructed in the early 20th century. The ballista seems to be a crude replica, with with a modern automobile leaf spring in place of a bow. Shot in April 2017.

*A bergfried is a tall tower in German medieval period castles. Its defensive function is similar to that of a keep or donjon in English or French castles. However, unlike a keep, a bergfried wassn’t designed for permanent habitation, and only occupied when under attack.

The End of Sleep

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Hibernating #2 by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com
A leafless creeper clings to a crumbling castle wall, waiting for the spring sun to wake it from its winter hibernation. Burg Thurant, Alken, Germany. April 2017.
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Time of Death

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Time of Death, St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade #2 by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com
8.45am, 21st April 2019; Easter Sunday. The moment when life stopped for over a hundred people gathered for the morning mass at St Anthony’s Shrine, Kochchikade, close to the port of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. A suicide bomber from the previously unheard of ISIS-affiliated Islamic group, National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) entered the crowded church and detonated the explosives he was carrying in a backpack. Simultaneously, other suicide bombers attacked two other two other churches — St Sebastian’s, a Roman Catholic church in Negombo, and the Protestant Zion Church in Batticaloa — and three big Colombo hotels — the Cinnamon Grande, the recently opened Shangri La, and the Kingsbury — killing over 250 people and wounding twice that number (licensed to Polaris Images).

Burg Lichtenberg, Thallichtenberg, Germany

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Burg Lichtenberg, Thallichtenberg, Germany by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com
The restored “bergfried” of Lichtenberg stands prominently above Germany’s largest castle ruin. Photographed in summer 2018.
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Burg Lichtenberg, Germany #10

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Burg Lichtenberg, Thallichtenberg, Germany #10 by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com
At 425m in length, Lichtenberg, in Rheinland-Pfalz, is Germany’s largest castle ruin. Photographed in summer 2018.
Continue reading “Burg Lichtenberg, Germany #10” →

Rain in the Pfalz

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Thallichtenberg, from Burg Lichtenberg #4 by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com
The Thallichtenberg Valley in the Pfalz Forest, shot from the burgfried of Lichtenberg Castle. Germany, summer 2018.

The Red Mosque, Colombo, Sri Lanka #2

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The Red Mosque, Colombo, Sri Lanka #2 by Son of the Morning Light on 500px.com

A view of the original two-storey Jami Ul-Alfar Masjid, designed by Saibo Lebbe in 1908, in the Indo-Saracenic style, with the new wing, built in 2007, towering above it. For a greater part of the 20th century, before more modern high-rise buildings obscured it, the striking colours of the mosque on 2nd Cross Street, in the old Colombo area of Pettah, were an identifying beacon for ships approaching the Colombo Harbour. April 2016.

  • 600D+EFS24/2.8+polariser@1/500,f/2.8,ISO100