My Fish That Fights

White Shark! Closing In

Unbelievable Pics

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Underwater & Breathing Freely

Silhouttes Of Nature

horton plains tree, originally uploaded by poojitha.

nuwara eliya farming tractor, originally uploaded by poojitha.

yellow flower, originally uploaded by poojitha.

The Cloud Forest

Its been a long time sice I visited horton plains national park,one of the most beautiful places on earth. The forest always looks prehistoric, reminds me of the times when dinosaurs roamed the world.Maybe because of the prehistoric palm trees & dense fog. The whole plain is covered with less than 2 feet's of dark soils rich with minerals formed by continuous bush fires for thousands of years. Its truely amazing. It could have been more amazing if there were elephants . They were poached to extiction 100 years ago but you could still be lucky to see Leopard and Sambhur & wild boar.Endemic Bear Monkey, Rusty- Spotted and Fishing cats, Otter, Black napped hare and Giant Squirrel are among other mammals. Many species of endemic & threatened plants and animals are found in the park. The trees in the forests are continuously in war with each other just to get some light. Its a unique and fragile ecosystem ,some of the plants survive absorbing water only from the misty air. The plain ends suddenly forming a vista called Worlds End,its a place where you can stand above the clouds and let go of yourself. Remember one thing, its not a place that you can visit in a hurry, take your time and enjoy the true nature of a truly unique tropical forest.

Beautiful Kandy Its Sri Lankan Heritage

Its my 200th post...enjoy the pictures

The Kandyan Wedding

Sometimes I feel proud of being a Sri Lankan. Well, when you consider the current situation in Sri Lanka, it’s a rare feeling. This is one of those moments, the kadyan wedding. I felt very proud of becoming part of that culture. It’s a wedding full of flowers, glittering traditional dresses, and unique ceremonies. The Sri Lankan wedding is so beautiful!, oh ,by the way its my wifes sisters wedding.

Village, Grandma & Lost Happiness

* views from my village

Last Saturday I visited my grandma’s house, the journey revoked memories of my beautiful childhood. The village is situated far away inside the central mountain range of Sri Lanka. The landscape is filled with vast stretches of tea plantations. The road descends down to the village situated in a valley partly covered by rice fields. There is an old temple right in the middle of the rice field making the scenery picture perfect. We always used to point out the partly visible roof of grandma’s house to others when we were descending towards the valley below. I always loved to visit grandma’s house, specially during the New Year festival season, it was the central hub of entertainment for the whole village. There were people playing Raban ( traditional drumming done by four people),eating on the huge table full of food, placing a firecracker behind some one who is unaware, playing cards or carom, enjoying the giant swing specially build for those who seek rush of adrenaline.

I must explain little bit about this swing, it is built by tying two ropes on top of a coconut tree, the ends are tied to a piece of flat wood so people can sit on it, they choose a tree up on the hill to make sure that it fly over the house brushing the tops of trees below like a giant pendulum. It was so exiting and popular among the visitors, we had to stand on line to get on it sometimes. But fortunately accidents were rare, someone slipped and fell on some banana trees below and lived to tell the tale with few bruises, once a guy lost hold of his sarong while in mid air which made women run in to the house in shame, made us laugh for weeks, it was the story of the year, the guy had to stay on the swing for considerable amount of time until others managed to stop it. The house was open to anybody in the village anytime of the year, full of happiness and sharing, most of the time there were at least 15 people to eat, that wasn’t a problem for any of my grand parents.

Food was not a problem at that time, it was always growing nearby. They were happy sharing their happiness with some of the poor villagers, I still admire their generousness. It’s hard to find people like them nowadays. Then my grandfather died (he’s another story), my uncles got married, open economy and war stated to change the way people think. Beautiful village life got shattered in to pieces by the globalization. The village has hardly changed its looks during the last 29 years; it’s still beautiful and serene (look at the pictures). But it doesn’t create that beautiful New Year scenario anymore, most of the villagers are busy earning money in the hope of finding happiness at some point in time in the future, but few of them know that it was already with them when they were poor.

Serenity at close range

blossoming, originally uploaded by poojitha.

its violate, originally uploaded by poojitha.

orchids, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Sri Lankan Giant squirrel (Ratufa )

This beautiful Sri Lankan Giant Squirrel often comes near to my home to eat these fruits. She was totally unafraid of my presence, which means it was rarely disturbed by humans. Anyway,how can anyone hurt a beautiful animal like this?

Sri Lanka Through My New Camera

trapped, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Nest, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Flower, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Squirrel, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Living Raptor

If I was in the team which design the movie Jurassic park, I would have definitely used this creature as a model to design the Velociraptors (Raptors).I took this picture in Kandy, near a farm in Digana area,many thanks to my friend Ruchira for showing me this guy.Look at its vivid skin, golden scales placed just like a knights amour on top, velvet like skin underneath,if you zoom in to its brown eyes it will make you shiver (thanks to my new 18X Panasonic camera) .Look at its ear and the pattern of the perfectly placed scales, truly Jurassic isn't it, fascinating too.This creature has a bad reputation in Srilanka, not for its viciousness but as a result of a myth. It says that if bitten by one the only cure is to find sand from the seas and stars from the skies. Unfortunately,It never bites, so the myth continued to exist for centuries. I have never seen the beauty of this creature until now, maybe because of the same reason of believing the myth when I was a kid. By the way this is one of my best photographs.Recently I have started 3D modeling again, Something to do with my new job, I might even design my own velociraptor using this picture, stay tuned.

Living Raptor, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Back To Childhood

Finally I could capture this beautiful place in my camera, this is one of the place I grew up, one of my adventure spots, a place made my child hood so beautiful.only known by the locals near Gampola area.When I was a small kid I used to swim in this river, longest river in Sri Lanka called mahaveli. My parents used to punish us for going to swim in this treacherous waters. It didn't stop us , because we loved adventure and the beauty of the place. Some times we walked along the small canal parallel to the river until we reach the starting point of the canal. As you see in the picture its a breath taking place, the river flaws across wast swath of stones creating many waterfalls and natural swimming pools. Once we took a large vehicle tube filled with air and did some improvised rafting session, it was brilliant.Some places are really dangerous, specially the deep holes created in the stones by millions of years of continuous grinding by sand, some are even inter connected.The place was same as 18 years ago. King fishers, Fishing eagles, Humming Birds all were there, singing to make the scene more serene. The place is difficult to reach, not because of any geographical challenge,because of thousands of blood sucking leeches around. Take lots of salt water, and apply them on your feet to evade them. This was the place I found the beautiful deadly flower called Niyagala, and a Sri lankas rarest fish called Bulathhapaya.

deadly flower-Niyagala, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Mahaweli River, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Walking Across Mahe

The day that I leave Seychelles is coming closer and desire to discover more of Seychelles is getting higher. I decided to take the path starting from Danzil and to the beach of Port Launay. The path was set across the Morne Seychelles national park, actually its a series of interconnected paths. I obtained some maps to decided which paths that we should take to get the best experience, obviously it was the longest path. There were 13 of us (some one said it was a bad number,but he was wrong) . We got on board a truck and set out for the starting point of our walk. The driver took the wrong turn and we asked instructions from some local boys. They show us the path and told us that the vehicle wont be able to climb up to the starting point. So we started climbing along the steep road towards the starting point of the trail, but we started noticing strange things,things like vehicles? Those boys were messing with us by saying that vehicles won't be able to climb the hill, local jokes I suppose. So we climbed, and climbed , and climbed, it was not even the starting point of the trail, some even guessed that we would be finished by then. Finally we reached the starting point, out of breath, full of sweat, cursing the fuckers.

Life is a lone journey, originally uploaded by poojitha.

After climbing virtually ninety degree path through the thick vegitation we reached a plane which was a good resting place. Cinnamon plants to be seen every where reminding us about the days of slavery.There was a small hut at the beginning of the plane, mist was starting to form around it, I was able to capture it in my camera. We walked past the hut to find some ruins of the Seychelles past , map said it to be a distillery, obviously run by slaves. It made me think of the hardship they went on during that days, it took us lot of effort for us just to climb up here. These paths must be soaked with their blood & sweat.I looked at the path and imagined people with legs and necks chained carrying heavy loads, not even having time to gasp fearing their masters whips.I could feel them still walking right behind us through the jungle, dreaming of freedom,dreaming if their loved ones, it made me really sad.

swiss Bridge, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Swiss Fathers were responsible for the beautiful stone bridge built in the middle of the valley. The arched bridge was so beautiful that it took us considerable amount of time to take pictures. Then we reached the beautiful panorama of Mare aux Cochons. We were standing on a valley surrounded by mountains, on one side there was the endless sea. The only thought occurred to me was that, "Why can't they build a 3D camera to capture something like this on film". Then we reached the fresh water marsh in the valley, the water was so pure that it reflected the whole mountain on its surface. The journey was only half way through. Finally we started descending downhill,through the jungle, over the rocks, under the fallen trees.It took us 6 hours to complete the trail,we were tired until some one suggested on having a swim in the sea. Don't feel like writing a lot today, enjoy the pictures.

port launay beach, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Heaven On Earth

Surf Island, originally uploaded by poojitha.

I was there
Looking at the mountains
Feeling the sand
Smelling the wind
Listening to the waves
Sky was so blue
Sea was green
Felt like heaven
Fallen to earth

Resting

Resting, originally uploaded by poojitha.

When you take a picture its always not good as you think, but thanks to digital photography you always have another option. I used Photoshop to enhanced this picture. It came out really well, Photoshop is actually amazing. I took this picture when I was in The bird island, birds were preparing to sleep, it was a nice view but the picture came out dull due to bad lighting. Thank you Photoshop!

In Search Of A Hidden Beach

Last Sunday I decided to visit another beach in Seychelles called Anse Majore. It was a lovely morning, I packed water and food in to my bag . This beach is not easy to reach, its about 2 hours walk through the rocky jungle and the village. We started our walk through the village and came to the starting point of path through the jungles.We saw a huge rock spanning out to sea like a black velvet carpet. I decided to take some pictures, the rock was about 100 feets above the sea level. The sea was amazingly blue and clear, scenery was breath taking, then I saw some splashes, brownish objects disappeared in to the sea below me. It was a group of dolphins , there were three of them,this was the first time I saw dolphins in Seychelles, they were hunting for fish. We could observe huge groups of fishes running here and there like moving ink spots to escape from them.

Then we set our journey towards the beach through the jungle, path was clear but dangerous. Some places were directly above the sea, one slip could make you tumble down 200 feet's on the rock surface in to the sea. There was a group of frigate birds soaring in the sky waiting to steal fishes from other birds, thats how they live, they are the worlds second largest birds if you measure the wing span,they reminded me of our politicians. The sun was already up and burning, we were tired, luckyly we saw a small stream crossing our path, water was cool and tasty. Finally we reached our destination the view was breathtaking and It was a great place to swim.

Let Them Fly For Thousands Of Years

I took this pictures in an island called Bird Island in Seychelles. Birds were so friendly that they were flying just over my head. Let these innocent creatures live,they are our responsibility, do something to protect nature, however small. This is my post to support blog action day.

Black & white, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Flight, originally uploaded by poojitha.

La Digue

One extraordinary fact about Seychelles is that , some times you can have a whole beach like this just for yourself. As you can see in the picture , there was nobody around except me, perfect place for photographers. If you have "Sex on the beach" in mind, this is the right place for you.

La Digue, originally uploaded by poojitha.

La Digue, originally uploaded by poojitha.