Iranian Local: Are you Alemany? Me: (think for a bit, and realize he is asking if I am German) No, American. IL: Really? Not Alemany? How did you get here? Me: I flew from New York. IL: Welcome to Iran! (discussion continued about the beauty of Iran and where we have visited so far, and […]
Iran 2 – Kerman
Iranian Local: Where are you from? Me: America. IL: But where are you from NOW? Me: America. IL: No, that is not possible. Americans are not allowed to come to Iran. Where did you come from? (discussion continued, and he was amazed to discover that it is legal for Americans to visit Iran) Kerman plays […]
Iran 1 – Tehran – Welcome to Iran!
Iranian Local: Why are you photographing this building. It is “just there” and nothing special. Me: It is a beautiful building. (I show him the LCD from my camera of one of the images above, and he gasps in surprise). IL: But still, why photograph it? Me: To show my friends how beautiful Iran is. […]
Sri Lanka 9 – Galle
Galle is best known among photographic circles for the “stilt fishermen.” These are subsistence fishermen who sit for hours on stilts in the shallow surf, casting their lines for palm-sized fish. There used to be hundreds of men making a living this way, but the tsunami of 2004 killed off most of the fish, and […]
Sri Lanka 8 – Yala National Park
We did a total of two game drives at Yala National Park, famed primarily for the 25 – 30 leopards that live there, which is the highest density in the world. The driver and naturalist guide were quite excited that we saw more than one leopard, as this was unusual. This was another park where […]
Sri Lanka 7 – Kataragama
The first unique stop today was at the side of the road, where we found a dozen trees completely filled with the biggest fruit bats we have ever seen, with a wingspan of 120 cm (48 inches!). In fact, we were told these were some of the biggest bats in the world. These bats are […]
Sri Lanka 6 – Uda Walave
Our first stop today was at a Hindu temple, Seetha Amman Hindu Temple, a colorful temple right on the side of the road. Mehmet asked our local guide to track down the resident priest we had seen earlier, who agreed to come up and let us photograph him. The priest was very handsome and charismatic, […]
Sri Lanka 5 – Nuwara Eliya
We passed briefly through Nuwara Elija, stopping first at a Buddhist temple, where we watched a priest bless offerings of the worshippers (center). A stop at two tea plantations gave us a chance to see premium Sri Lankan tea being harvested. Our most interesting stop of the day was at a tiny village, for a […]
Sri Lanka 4 – Kandy
We returned to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic before dawn to capture the blue hour, and the colors of the temple just as the sun was rising (upper-left and lower-right). We then entered the temple to photograph the morning prayer ceremony. As we were leaving, we noticed some women dressed to welcome a […]
Sri Lanka 3 – enroute to Kandy
We started today with a stop at the golden temple of Dambulla. Throughout Sri Lanka are huge statues of Buddha, but this is easily one of the largest, as seen above. To the right, there appears to be a long line of monks walking in a line to give offerings to Buddha. Upon closer inspection […]