Dutch Hospitality
Outer veranda of the Dutch Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Once a functioning hospital of the Dutch East India Company, it was built in the late 17th century an...
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Outer veranda of the Dutch Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Once a functioning hospital of the Dutch East India Company, it was built in the late 17th century and is thought to be the oldest building in the Colombo Fort. Since then, it has served various roles, functioning as an apothecary after the country's independence from Britain, and as a police station in the 1980s and '90s, until it was heavily damaged in the LTTE terrorist attack on the financial district in 1996. It was recently renovated and converted into a mall with shopping and restaurants.
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Sep, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photograph was taken while I was walking through the old part of Sri Lanka's commercial capital, Colombo, which is known as the Fort, since it once was encircled by the walls of a Portuguese fort. This is also the city's financial district. The building in the picture is the Dutch Hospital, which was indeed a hospital during the Dutch colonial rule in Sri Lanka. Believed to have been built in 1681, it has since served as an apothecary, and later as a police station, before being heavily damaged during a terrorist attack on the nearby Central Bank. It was recently restored and converted into a mall housing upmarket shops and restaurants. The columns in the shot are part of the outer verandah.Time
It was late in the afternoon, perhaps around 5pm.Lighting
The Dutch Hospital is surrounded by tall modern buildings in the financial district and only gets real direct light during the middle of the day and late in the afternoon when the sun manages to throw in a few slanted rays on its dive towards the nearby Indian Ocean. I was lucky enough to catch the last of this light.Equipment
This was shot using a Canon EOS 600D and EF-S 18-200mm lens at 18mm, 1/250, f/3.5, and ISO 100.Inspiration
Well, this part of Colombo is rapidly changing; it is being renovated and reorganised; and while that it is welcome, it is likely that it will lose some of its charm and personality. So I often walk around this area trying to take pictures before things change. The Dutch Hospital itself is a result of renovation, and in fact has regained its place in the sun (sorry about the pun) as a result of this process. As for the shot itself, I had just completed a walk through the Fort and was hot and sweaty and looking for a nice cold beer in the shade of the Dutch Hospital's interior. I was walking along this verandah and was struck by the web of lines and geometric shapes before me: the leading lines of the verandah itself, the rectangular flagstones, the triangles formed by the rafters in the roof, the columns on the left and, across it all, the strong dark slashes of the shadows from the columns. I didn't think about it in such detail at the time -- I rarely do -- and just raised my camera and shot several frames.Editing
Yes, of course, I did. I process all my pictures in Adobe Camera RAW, and sometimes with a bit of Photoshop too. In this case, I converted the image to black and white and adjusted the contrast and cropped it a bit on the left. I also boosted the shadows a bit to give some detail to the rafters in the roof.In my camera bag
I don't have a lot of kit, actually; just a Canon 600D and a couple of lenses. The 18-200mm I shot this with is my general-purpose lens which I have almost permanently on my camera. I also have a 50mm f/1.8 that I often have with me, but I rarely take both lenses when street shooting as there's not much time to switch lenses. I just pick one according to what I want to create that day, accept the limitations and go for it. On that particular day, I had planned to shoot mostly buildings (it was a Saturday afternoon and not so crowded), so I needed the wide angle that the 18-200mm is capable of. If I had planned to be shooting mostly people, I'd have taken the 50mm. I also have a Yashika FX-3 Super 2000 with a 35-70mm lens, and I sometimes use that with Kodak Tri-X film.Feedback
Colombo City's a great place to shoot. It's not as crowded as Indian cities, but the architecture is just as interesting, with buildings from various periods of European colonisation. If you're interested in the buildings, I'd suggest a weekend to avoid the crowds, and of course, early morning or late afternoon is always the best time. The best tactic is to pick your areas of interest and simply walk through them.You can always use a tuk-tuk to get between places of interest, but except for that, walking is always best, I find.
