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Colombo Trees

. Tagged with 21x30, Plant, Printed, Street, Subject, Tree, Urban
Colombo Tree 2. Tagged with 21x30, Printed, Street, Subject, Urban

Both trees I found in Duplication Road, Colombo 3.

Strange enough, in my previous visits, Colombo seemed in a photographic sense very unattractive to me. Not that I am searching those blue sky touristic images, but the dust and noise (and grime) had always left me quite desolate and more or less unable to see. This time it was different, and whilst the lack of project burdens and responsibilities may play a role in this – being there as an NGO expert is somewhat different from being managing lead partner of a international cooperation project – I think my mindset has changed in the 18 months since my last visit: Having read Robert Adams, having looked at many photographs of Minor White et. al. (which had seemed ‘difficult’ to me beforehand) and having developed a less ‘cramped’ attitude of seeing and replaced thinking with knowing maybe were the key factors here. Technically I have not changed much, same camera, same software, same lenses. Oh, regarding the latter there was a change: I need less. The 16-80 mm-e became sufficient for 90% of the images, to be replaced with a fast prime only when it became really dark. Super wide angle and long tele zoom have been left mostly unused in the bag.

4 comments

    1. Indeed there is – kudos to your eyes!
      In Sri Lanka you find all signs and shrines of all religions, shown in the streets with less formalism and inhibitions than I am used from Germany.

  1. When I think of the many shrines Carl has shown us on his blog … might be the same in the US (but mostly catholic shrines I must admit). I can’t imagine a Jesus sticker on a wall of a suburban semi or a Virgin shrine in the frontyard of a terraced house in Germany. Not in Rhineland-Palatine at last, in Bavaria? There _are_ of course the Virgin statues in buildings’ corners .

    Besides all the people who have hardware store buddhas in their garden 😉

    … now, that’s all the thoughts your photo inspired me to think …

    1. Two shrine photographs from Colombo queued for tomorrow’s post.
      The U.S. shows a quite relaxed relationship to all things religious (as long as it isn’t islamic, I suppose), Sri Lanka is similar here despite the sometimes racist behaviour of the political wing of the Buddhist religion.

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