morning guys it's day two of our trip here in Sri Lanka it's 5:30 in the
morning there's already so much chanting over at the Buddhist temple there was
some construction happening down that way and we're up on our balcony being lazy
and this guy is looking like it's going to be amazing but I totally forgot how
quickly the light changes this close to the equator we've been out here for like
five minutes and it's gone from blue hour to just this free Sun Rise light
that's really beautiful and I think there's probably two photos up here with
the long lens there's these palm trees that are kind of being silhouetted by
the sky off in the background that keeps us shooting and then there's the Buddha
up on the hills way that way that's all lit up still and there's some
cloud behind it looks really good so two shots without even leaving your hotel
room
kandy Sri Lanka is just a three hour train ride away from Colombo but it
feels days away settled up in the hills it's cooler and there's always a cloud
lingering in the greenery of the city the skies are busy here but there's also
a very chilled out feeling weekend of been like hanging out all day getting
work done getting photos edited videos edited accounting blog posts and it's
been a really productive day although we haven't really left other than to get
this food that was way too spicy and was delicious it's been a good day it's now
an hour until sunset and we're gonna get hit by a car we're heading to the temple
of the tooth I believe it's called which is the most famous temple maybe in all
of Sri Lanka hey yeah and they say that one of Buddha's teeth is there so we're
gonna go check it out you're not allowed tripods big tripods at least we don't
think you're allowed to take backpacks in so yeah we don't know how we're gonna
be able to photograph this but we're gonna try so heading down to see
buddha's tooth
we wandered into the temple of the tooth not knowing what we could and couldn't
do from a photography perspective there's no guidelines laid out so we
shot fairly conservatively stuck to things like the hallways and the
paintings
okay so we're in the temple it's not really that busy to be honest there's a
couple tourists but it's mostly like locals walking around here really cool
space really beautiful I think I got a photo despite the fact that we're not
allowed a tripod in here I'm kind of just using the gig the the vlogging
camera to take photos and film I'm using the gimbal to kind of help stabilize the
shot so I think I've got a photo of Keats and kind of like this alleyway
leading into the temple that's cool we're gonna wander around a little bit
more and then maybe head outside the temple to see if there's photos outside
as well so yeah cool space and let's keep exploring this golden roofed
building dates back to the 17th century it's a pilgrimage site for both devout
Buddhists and tourists alike but of course you don't actually get to see the
tooth it's packed safely away in a golden casket still even without being
able to find out what Buddha's tooth looks like there's a lot to see in the
temple painted walls shrines and beautifully carved architecture from a
photographer perspective though it was a challenge for me the most photogenic
subjects were the people but I didn't want to disturb them in their prayers in
photography there's always a fine line between documentation and respect and
today I definitely lean towards the latter
so there's a apparently a ceremony at 6:30 so the tourists are really starting
to stream in and we're streaming out but not because it's not beautiful in there
but because it's kind of hard to make a beautiful photo I think there's a lot of
places in the world that are beautiful but not just not that photogenic and I
think that's one of those places really beautiful really cool to see but not a
whole lot going on from a photogenic standpoint so sunsets literally
happening now I'm not sure we're gonna get another photo today but maybe we're
gonna continue walking around just a little bit oh it's still a pitch black
or basically pitch black and since Keats and I kind of struck out yesterday
afternoon trying to get a photo we've come to another one of Candy's tourist
attractions which is apparently way up a hill and when you're way out of shape
like I am it's a slog but there's a huge boot on the hill right there and once I
catch my breath I think we're gonna try to photograph
so it looks like this morning is a classic example of shoot to light or
shoot the subject the light on Buddha aka the subject it's pretty bland it's
like there's no definition in the sky the light over town back that way and
the lake is poppin is beautiful so you kind of gotta decide is the light so
good that you're gonna totally ignore the subject and I'm not sure so I'm
gonna wait it out a couple more minutes but I'm leaning towards photographing
the Buddha
this close to the equator you really kind of have to make decisions and you
have to be firm with them because the light changes so so quickly back in
Norway obviously we were shooting photos over like a six hour period here you
kind of get like 6 minutes a lot of times the blue hour is like the blue 15
minutes and the golden light can sometimes only last like 15 minutes as
well so you kind of gotta make decisions you can't jump from spot to spot you
can't race around so knows you're really only able to photograph one composition
at sunset whereas in other places more towards the poles yeah you can shoot
like seven or eight different compositions in one golden hour so I've
come to the steps and honestly I don't love the photo it's a little bit
squeezed you can't get farther back the composition is a little bit too obvious
and yeah overall it's kind of just lacking a little bit so I think I'm
gonna do exactly what I just said you probably shouldn't do in the tropics
which is change my location I think I'm gonna go photograph the lake
we had a pretty fantastic sky for a minute there of course I was
photographing the Buddha well it was all going down III find vistas like big
viewpoints like this really really hard to photograph I tend to just reach out
as long as I can while still getting everything in the frame and to be honest
we've kind of struck out a little bit in in kandy with our photography but it's
been fun anyway so I think I'm gonna call this an episode probably ended up
with three or four images from candy which I can't complain about but I am
hoping for many more images to come in our next destination which is the big
rock I can't remember what it's called that's a big rock and then we're off to
Ella and then off on Safari as well so there should be more fun here in Sri
Lanka and we'll see you later peace
you