The first sunrise
A monk greets the first sunrise of the Buddhist New Year atop Adam's Peak while the crowds complete their overnight trek up over 5500 steps to the pilgrima...
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A monk greets the first sunrise of the Buddhist New Year atop Adam's Peak while the crowds complete their overnight trek up over 5500 steps to the pilgrimage site at the top of the peak.
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Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in Sri Lanka after an overnight trek up over 5500 steps to the top of Adam's Peak during the first full moon of the Buddhist New Year. The top of the Peak is a pilgrimage point for a number of religions as it has a rock with Buddha's (Shiva's/Adam's) footprint on it.Time
This is one of a number of images I took that morning starting from before sunset to around 9 in the morning and was taken at around 6am. After watching the sun rise in the crowd of pilgrims packed amidst the few religious structures atop the summit we tried to make our way towards the actual Buddha's footstep which was almost impossible. As we reached the highest platform before the sacred rock I turned around and saw this figure overlooking the expanse of jungle covered hills and lakes below him.Lighting
Although shooting into the light in this case presented its challenges the sun rise on this day holds special significant to the Buddhists all over Sri Lanka so I tried to make sure the sun was a prominent part of the picture. While illuminating the monk would potentially give the bright orange robes more pop I only shoot with natural light so I've had to simply hope the shot would work as is.Equipment
I shot this using Sony RX100II which I usually only use for underwater photography but chose in this case as I was expecting to trek for over 8 hours up and down the Peak.Inspiration
I've always been fascinated by faith and shooting religious holidays of such importance always gives an opportunity to grab some honest shots. The trip to shoot and take part in the pilgrimage took us about 50 hours with next to no sleep and using old colonial railroads and mountain road buses but genuinely being part of the whole thing was the key inspiration and being able to get a few pictures was a bonus.Editing
I only post-process in Lightroom and generally only using global settings. In the case of this picture the key job in post was bringing out the parts of the photo (especially the monk) which were left darker due to shooting into the light.In my camera bag
I've just finished a year long trip across Southeast Asia so my equipment choices were heavily influenced by saving size and weight without compromising quality. Over the last year I used Sony a7ii with 55mm 1.8 and 24-240 zoom as well as RX100II for UW Photography.Feedback
The biggest reason why this picture came to be is willingness to put an effort into being somewhere different and real - as soon as I've heard that a holiday of such importance and with such beautiful setting was taking place the difficulties related to getting there were swept aside and I was very glad to have taken part both from personal and photography point of view. All in all it comes down to getting involved with the locals, finding out genuine points of interest and being proactive and getting involved. One additional thing was planning and prep, as we specifically found out times when the crowds reach the summit and left just after midnight to make sure we are there earlier and can find good spots to see the sunrise and shoot from.
