Splashing in the puddles
rain drops dance
off the red umbrella
It’s time to float
my paper boat
Notes of innocence
waft in the air
the spirits
play a rain-song
as two little kids
marvel at the skies
I was perusing some old photos today and came across photographs from Bhoomi Jathre held at Fireflies Ashram near Bangalore, India. This was a fantastic event held from dusk to dawn and with only word-of-mouth publicity. I went with Dada on the Yamaha RX-135 that Sukesh had lent me. Thanks to Sukesh, I was able to enjoy this event. Dada and I, both had a nice time enjoying quite a wide spectrum of music and dance performances. Looking at these photos that I have been hoarding for so long, I think I should share some photos from the evening.
These photos are from a dance performance called “Tale of a Tree” performed by the talented dancers from Shiri Dance Company. I wish I could credit the individual dancers but I do not know their individual names. I love the theatrical lighting on the dancers. All these photos are shot handheld without flash.
I visited the Scindia School after what seems like ages. The drive up to the fort via the steep Urwai ghati brought back memories of the days spent at the school. The old houses (our hostels) still look the same with the trees that seem as young as ever. I remember hurling my hockey stick at the tamarind tree in front of Jeevaji house for some juicy imlis. Sometimes, the stick would get entangled in the old limbs of the trees only to be rescued by the forceful strike of another stick borrowed from a housemate. And then, we would rush to the games fields with pockets full of the loot, content. Ah, those beautiful moments remain as fresh in my memories…
We visited Astachal with the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the young eucalyptus tree and remembered looking at the old ramparts of the fort in the background as the sun went down over the hills beyond the fort walls. I remembered Mr Chatterjee with reverberations of his voice as he sang - “surya ast ho gaya..gagan mast ho gaya…pag pag hum gaate chalein…aha gaate…aha gaate” (The sun has gone down…the sky is rosy and ecstastic..we are singing with every step…”). It looked just the same but there were no boys, no roll-call and no school astachal this evening.
Also, I finally got to see the light and sound show in the vicinity of the beautiful Man-mandir built by Raja Man Singh. As the deep voice of Amitabh Bachchan started the narration of the chequered history of this famous fortress at Gwalior, multicolored lights spot-lighted the historical buildings around the area one by one as the sound-bytes changed.
A mild winter breeze blew as I sat on the edge of the wall, trying to keep my camera steady and wishing I had brought my tripod with me. I was under the impression that photography with-or-without flash was not allowed. The lights of the Gwalior city below, twinkling like stars, winked telling me that I will be back again.
I love dance photography.
In Dec 2004, I was in Bangalore on an assignment. It was the last evening of Bangalore Habba ‘04 at the Palace grounds. A grand stage was set in front of the majestic Bangalore Palace. Thanks to Inayat, I was able to photograph a spirited dance performance by Nirupama-Rajendra and Abhinava Ensemble. All the photos in this post are from that performance.
I have been thinking of putting up a portfolio of dance photography on my website. Over the past two years, I’ve photographed quite many dance performances but I have just not been able to share the pictures on the web. Slowly, I am gleaning pictures from those performances.
Have you seen the studio photography of RJ Muna? About two and a half years back, I saw his dance photography. Even though those were studio images, my heart yearned to shoot dance performances. His images inspired me to shoot dance.
Photographing dance performances is fun and challenging as well. One has to shoot without flash, have fast film speed, an arsenal of fast lenses and like everything, you learn to anticipate movements and shoot on instinct.
Long back, I read somewhere -
“Work like You don’t need the money.
Love like You’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.”
Maybe, I should add to this -
“Photograph something like you’ve never seen it before.”
