SRI LANKA DAY 5 – PHOTO JOURNAL: EXPLORING ELLA

Day five marks the halfway point in our Sri Lanka trip and so far it has been amazing. I’ve been to Sri Lanka before, so I had certain expectations but this adventure has blown them out of the water. We have been nonstop hitting awesome spots and staying at great hotels in between to refresh.

After the train from Kandy to Ella the day before, we headed to explore Ella. Our first stop was the famous Demadora Nine Arch Bridge. The bridge was built without any steel bars and is a true engineering feat as well as being a spectacular structure. We waited over an hour for the delayed train to arrive and shoot some cool photos in the area. I’ve seen a ton of photos of people sitting on the bridge shot side on so tried to challenge myself to find some unique angles. I found myself walking up and down the mountains, across the bridge, and scratching my head for quite a while before I finally found a few angles that inspired a couple of shots. The arches of the bridge and dense jungle made this spot quite a challenge for me.

After a quick lunch, we were off on a short hike to Little Adam’s Peak, which looks out over the dramatic mountain range and Adam’s Peak. The trail leads through tea plantations and finally to a small ridge that gave us some awesome drop-offs. I felt like I was back on Oahu for a second. I have been shooting with my 70-200mm f4 much more lately and am beginning to spot areas for shots at 200mm more often. I had my friends run ahead so I could get a shot with the mountains compressed behind them. However, my go-to lens is still my 16-35mm f4, which allows me to sit right behind someone on a cliff edge and get the full view.

Hope you enjoy these shots as I enjoyed the challenge of capturing them and of course the adventurous time I’m having in Sri Lanka. I will blog in more depth about cool locations like the Nine Arch Bridge at the conclusion of the trip. But for now, these photoblogs hopefully give you an insight into my life, my photography, and Sri Lanka.

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