The National Flag of Sri Lanka

As I mentioned in my introduction post, I am from Sri Lanka, therefore I thought it would be great to discuss about our national flag for my first picture post as a Sri Lankan.

The Sri Lankan flag has been changed so many times during different periods, but now we are using this flag as you can see in the picture above.

The national flag of Sri Lanka, also known as Lion Flag, consists of a gold lion, holding a sword in its right paw in front of a crimson background with four golden bo leaves, one in each corner. In the background, there is a yellow border. Towards the left side, there are to vertical stripes in saffron and green. The lion represents bravery. The four Bo leaves represent kindness, compassion, equanimity and happiness.

Tamil and Muslim nations are represented by orange and green respectively.

Sri Lankan flag is used in many occasions and mostly hoisted to mark the National Day of Sri Lanka. It is half-mast hosted to mark a National Mourning Day.

Introduction

Hi Everyone!
My name is Himarsha Chathura Ukwatta and I am currently studying Media Technologies at The University of Bradford in UK.

I am originally from Sri Lanka. I have been learning about media technologies since college days. Most of what I studied was related to video technologies. So I wanted to do a degree from the technology side of media which means learning about what happens behind the screen.

So my decision brought me all the way to UK from Sri Lanka, I did not expect such a huge change in my life ever! At the same time, I miss my calm and quite Sri Lankan life and my freedom.

However, during my stay in UK for studies, I noticed something strange and familiar; my friends were using their DSLR cameras most of the time. This made me think why they use DSLR’s, why don’t they have video cameras. This thought led me to learn about photography which is completely out of topic in my life. After that, I researched about DSLR cameras which pushed me to buy a camera. And to my shock, I cannot believe it, I bought Canon 7D!

Canon 7D made me become a huge fan of photography. I spent quite alot of time learning about still photography and I am still learning. I never had any idea that I would find this so interesting. University photo studio and the technical centre help me a lot to develop my photography skills.

So then, I wanted to show my pictures to everyone so I tried to share it via facebook but it did not allow me to share it. Later, I got to know we can create a blog and share pictures, videos and other media related projects as coursework. It taught me a new way to share my pictures with others.

I am going to use this blog not just for my work, but also other people’s work. This is the story and plan of my “Visual Diary” so far. Through this blog, I’m hoping to share some useful and valuable work.