Portraits of two Kandians

A self appointed tour guide at the Embekke temple in Kandy

This post contains two portraits of people I met while I was in Kandy.

The photograph above is of a man who was at the Embekke temple when we visited in January. He was at the gate having a conversation with some other people when we walked in. A little while later he came  up to our group and started giving us a "tour" of the temple. It was a bit of a surprise to all of us as no one had indicated that we needed a guide.  

I took this photograph of him on our way out. I thought he had an interesting face and an impressive moustache (which was completely white). The sun, falling on one side of his face, accentuated the wrinkles around his eyes and on his forehead. In hindsight, I should have used a reflector of some sort to lighten up the area around his eyes. I decided to convert this image to black and white as colour didn't really add anything to it. I also felt that a black and white image would highlight the different textures on his skin. 

The second portrait is after the jump.

A woman who was drying coves at the Lankathilaka temple in Kandy

This woman was drying cloves at the Lankathilaka temple when we visited. The temple itself is built on a massive rock which the people of the area use to dry their spices on before sale. We visited the temple at around mid day and found that it was almost impossible to walk around without some form of foot wear as the rock had got heated up by the sun. The woman was quite friendly and was more than happy to strike a pose when I showed her the camera. She was thrilled to see the image on the LCD! 

I spoke to her for a few minutes while waiting for the others and found out that she lived in the village near the temple. She also told me that she would have to sit around for three whole days, in the burning hot sun, and watch over the cloves until they dry and are ready for sale. I'm glad I was able to capture an image of her kind face and her smile.

These images were captured using a Canon 7D and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.