Brown Headed Barbet

A Brown Headed Barbet, also called the Large Green Barbet, photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Brown Headed Barbet, also known as the Large Green Barbet, is a common resident throughout the island and frequently visits our garden in Colombo. It is a resident breeder in India and Sri Lanka. It is often found in heavily built up areas where there is heavy tree cover.  Read on for more images and info.

Travel Guides

Two travel guides for Europe

We are in the middle of planning a trip to Europe for September and have spent a fair bit of time, over the last month or so, looking for accommodation, travel options and deciding what we want to see and do. With everything finally booked up, I can't wait to leave. We still have two months of work to get through before we finally get four weeks off. Time has been passing fairly quickly so hopefully it won't seem like ages before we leave.

I've been thinking of taking this shot of a couple of travel guides for a while and actually got around to taking it last night. Read on for lighting information.

Gray Langur

A Gray Langur photographed in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

The Gray Langur, or the Hanuman Langur, is the most widespread Langur in South Asia.  The name "Hanuman" is derived from the Hindu monkey god from the epic Ramayana. This species is widely distributed in Sri Lanka and can even be found in Colombo. A troupe of these monkeys frequents our garden throughout the year. Although the name "Hanuman Langur" is widely used in India to refer to the group as a singe species, seven species of the Gray Langur have been identified. Of these, the Tufted Langur Semnopithecus priam can be found in Sri Lanka. More images and info inside.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

The wheel of a Mazda

I thought I'd take a break from the usual bird and butterfly shots and add a bit of variety to the blog, so here's a shot of the wheel of a Mazda. I had a few minutes to kill and the camera was with me. This resulted in the shot above. I liked how the Mazda logo was positioned and I felt all the leading lines made a strong composition.  I wanted the image to be a black and white one and exposed the image accordingly. Read on for more lighting information.

Crimson Fronted Barbet

A Crimson Fronted Barbet (also known as the Ceylon Small Barbet) photographed in Kandy, Sri Lanka

This small, endemic barbet, also known as the Ceylon Small Barbet, is common throughout the lowlands and mid hills of Sri Lanka. It is probably the only endemic seen in major cities. Some of the photographs in this post were actually taken in the middle of Colombo. Read on for more info and images of this species.

Chocolate Soldier

A Chocolate Soldier photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Chocolate Soldier is a common butterfly found in Asia. It is also known as the Chocolate Pansy. These butterflies are territorial and they spend a lot of time close to the ground. I found a number of them in Anuradhapura and they were all, rather surprisingly, within three feet of the ground. More info and images after the jump.

Clock - Specular Highlight

Clock - Specular highlight control

I was experimenting with the camera last night and decided to work on controlling specular highlights on images. The specular highlight is simply the reflection of the light source on the subject being lit. Creating  a specular highlight itself is a pretty straight forward process. The complexity lies in controlling the specular highlight in way which adds to an image. The "Specular Highlight" area in the image above is the glass area of the clock above 9, 8 and 7.  Read on to find out how I lit the image and created the specular highlight.

White bellied Drongo

A White bellied Drongo photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

A number of White-bellied Drongos started calling our garden home a couple of years ago. I first noticed them along the drive way one evening as they were feeding on insects which were attracted to one  of the lamps. They were perched on a tree and were diving after the insects which flew close to the light. After this sighting I kept an eye out for them and found them in the back garden during the early evening. In the next few days I was able to identify their routine and their perches. Photographing the birds was also made easier by the fact that they allowed me to come within 6-10 feet of them.  I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot from the same height as their perches because they frequented the trees near our balconies.

More images and info after the jump.