Ruwanweliseya - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Ruwanweliseya & Mirisawetiya - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Ruwanweliseya Stupa, which is considered an architectural marvel, was built by King Dutugemunu. It is also known as Mahathupa, Swarnamali Chaitya and Rathnamali Dagaba. The Stupa is one of the worlds tallest monuments, standing at 300 feet with a circumference of 950 feet. More info and images after the jump.

Ruwanwelieseya - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

According to ancient texts, the raw materials used during construction included, Gold, Silver, Pearls, Coral,  clay bricks, Copper and precious gems. Construction work on the Stupa began on the full moon day during the Vesak period (April - May). According to Buddhism, the Vesak full moon day is considered sacred as numerous important events took place on this day. These included the birth and passing of the Buddha, his arrival in Sri Lanka and the arrival of Prince Vijaya to Sri Lanka.

The foundation stone was laid during the full moon in June - July. The King had 8 large water pots of gold and 8 of silver placed in the midst of the great Stupa. Around these pots he had a hundred and eight vases placed. He also had eight bricks of gold placed in the eight corners of the Stupa and a hundred and eight silver bricks placed around each of the gold bricks.

After the Buddha's Parinibbana (passing) his relics were enshrined and worshipped in Stupas by Princes of eight countries (two quarts in each country). The two quarts of the relics which were enshrined in the village of Ramagama were, according to the Buddha's determination, destined to be enshrined in the great Stupa Ruwanveli.  King Dutugemunu took the relics on his head and circumambulated the relic chamber, which he entered from the east, three times and placed the relics on a silver couch which was arranged on the north side. When the enshrining of the relics was completed, two novices closed the relic chamber with two stone blocks.

King Dutugemunu passed away while gazing at the Ruwanweliseya when the great Stupa was completed up to the tenth square turret. He had ruled Sri Lanka for a period of 24 years. The construction was completed by his brother King Saddhatissa.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruwanwelisaya

Ruwanwelieseya - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

I captured these images in January 2010 when I last visited Anuradhapura. They were taken using a Canon 7D with a 100-400mm lens mounted on it. The first two images were captured across Tissa Wewa, while the third was captured from across a smaller tank. Ruwanweliseya is the larger of the two Stupas visible in the first image. The second is Mirisavetiya.

Havelock Place Bungalow - Food Photography

Bread & Butter

This post is a bit different from the usual. I took a few shots of the Food at the Havelock Place Bungalow in December and in this post I will describe how each of the five shots were taken and lit. All the shots were taken with a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens mounted on a 7D More info after the jump.

The shot above was taken with an aperture of 3.5 at 1/50th of a second. I wanted to give the shot some depth and therefore didn't use the flash on camera. Instead, I used a canon 430EX fired at around 1/32 from camera left. This gave the image the desired depth as it created shadows. It also created a few highlights on the glasses which also added to the image.

Coconut and Crab Risotto

An aperture of 3.2 and a shutter speed of 1/125th were used to capture this image. This one was a bit trickier to light due to the shape of the coconut and the fact that I had only one flash. The flash was fired from camera right at about 1/32. I feel there are too many dark areas in this image. In hindsight I should have either left the shutter opened for a bit longer for the ambient light to brighten up the image or used a white serviette from the left of the camera to reflect the flash and lighten up the left hand side of the image.

Seafood Laksa

I positioned the flash behind the subject for this image as I wanted to go for a slightly different look. Firing the flash from behind the bowl helped define the rim of the bowl. It also defined the surface of the Laksa by creating shadows. The flash almost caused the highlights of this image to be blown but in my opinion this makes the viewer focus on the Laksa itself rather than get distracted by the other plates which are visible.

Jaggery Ice Cream

The glass which the Ice Cream was served in was chilled and drops of water had formed on the outside. I wanted to try and use the flash to accentuate these drops. In order to do this I shot the flash at around 1/16th through a white cloth serviette to even out the light. The flash was shot from Camera right and slightly behind the subject.  The aperture used was around f 9.0 and the shutter speed was 1/15. I used this combination to reduce the effect of the flash and bring up the background with the ambient.

Lemon Tart and Vanilla Ice Cream

An aperture of f 6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second were used to capture this image. The flash was shot at 1/64 from camera left. I had to bring the aperture down to 6.3 in order to control the highlights on the Ice Cream. I wanted to use the flash to define the edges of the Lemon Tart and the Ice Cream. To do this I needed hard light.