On 4th February 1948, Ceylon achieved independence from the British Empire and became the Dominion of Ceylon.  Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained for the next 24 years, until 22nd May 1972 when it became the Republic of Sri Lanka.

Tuesday this week was therefore a national celebration of the seventy-second anniversary of independence, during which evening I took the above photograph of an office tower, construction cranes, and the illuminated Lotus Tower, each skywards-reaching as symbols of great successes achieved and yet to come from this infectiously ambitious island nation.

For the photographers:  The published image is a High Dynamic Range composite comprised of five individual images ranging from 2 stops under exposed to 2 stops over exposed that have been digitally merged together.  This was necessary so that I could bring out the shadows without blowing the highlights other than from powerful lighting sources on the cranes, and to give the image texture such as across the corrugated roof in the foreground. 

Taken at 16mm with an ultra wide angle 16-35mm f/4 L-series lens on a Canon 5D mk IV body, I have also digitally corrected the image for perspective, returning the verticals to vertical. 

All processing was done in Adobe Lightroom CC. 

Steve