Ethnographic, Documentary & Travel Photography
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.”
To call the route connecting Kalupahana to Ohiya a road is quite generous. What it is, is an adventure. Whether you are tough enough to walk its length or mad enough to drive it, this is a journey every adventurer should take.”
Current belief is that Batatotalena is the Divaguhawa of legend, though the argument on its authenticity goes on.
It’s been a full decade now since Canon dipped its toe into the mirrorless camera business, but they’ve only really cracked on with it since launching the full frame EOS R in 2018; which seems a lifetime ago. Since then, Canon’s brought out seven more R camera bodies, and almost thirty new lenses for them, and announced the discontinuing of two entire camera systems in favour of this new one. But it wasn’t until they launched their first two pro-level R bodies (the R5 and R6) in 2020, that people really began to take notice. But a COVID-caused slowing down of manufacture and supply, followed immediately by economic collapse in Sri Lanka, meant camera imports were severely restricted. Testing out the new babies were just a dream, until a few weeks ago.
Continue reading “Why Can’t I Just be Happy with My DSLR?”
• 18mm • f/3.5 • 1/640 • ISO200 •
July usually passes me by without too much notice, beyond the vague worry that there might be a Tiger attack on Colombo, and a few flashbacks to that weekend in 1983. But this time it’s been a bit different. I’ve found myself reliving that day a lot more this year. It isn’t the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of the carnage which most people see as the starting point of our war, though that has been the focus of a lot of attention. What did it was a phone call a couple of weeks ago.
Continue reading “Special Feature — Retracing My Black July”Everything in Sri Lanka is either sweet or spicy. Often both. Our people; our tea.”
I approached the east coast of Sri Lanka like a foreign invader, scanning her green coast across a narrow expanse of azure water that separated my rubber dinghy from the pale beach. Bodies turned to shiny black obsidian by the scorching sun and the cool sea ignored me as we cut our outboard and cruised in; too intent on splashing their friends or diving off each other’s shoulders into the gentle waves. A few, interrupted their day at the beach to look past me to the sailing yacht I had just left, anchored offshore, rocking peacefully. I was no invader, but after thirty years of war, I felt like a foreigner.
Continue reading “Special Feature — Coast to Coast”
2016 was my first full year doing any sort of professional photography, and it was an amazing year, shooting mostly for Serendib, the inflight mag of SriLankan Airlines, but also occasionally for Explore Sri Lanka, the country’s premier travel mag. I had three cover features, a chance to spend the night at sea on a sailing yacht, search for crocodiles in the marshes of the Bentara River, climb Ritigala, and eat the rice that fed the kings of Lanka over 2,000 years ago. For those of you not following my blog that closely, this what it looked like:
Son of the Morning Light 