Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar » Portrait

Goan Cowboy Meets Icelandic Cowboy

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:41:26 +0000

Last week we drove to the small remote town of Skagaströnd in north Iceland to meet Hallbjörn Hjartarson, famous all over Iceland as the “Icelandic Cowboy.” Now 76 years old, he showed me around his Kántrýbær and radio studio. He spoke in Icelandic and I in Konkani, and communication was flawless.

From Frommer’s:
The youngest of 16 children, Hallbjörn Hjartarson developed his mania for country music in the late 1950s, while working at the American military base in Keflavík. In 1963 he returned home to tiny Skagaströnd, and in 1983, after singing in various bands, founded Kántrýbær (Country Town), his restaurant, bar, radio studio, and all-around country-and-western shrine. (He lives across the street, and is rarely seen without a ten-gallon hat.) He has only visited the U.S. once — in 1988, to record an album in Nashville — but never ventured outside Tennessee. For several years he organized a C&W festival in Skagaströnd, complete with barn dancing, rodeo stunts, and can-shootin’ competitions, but unfortunately it’s been on hiatus since 2002. Hallbjörn’s 24-hour radio show, usually hosted live from 2 to 6pm and 8pm to midnight, airs on FM 96.7, 102.2, and 107.0; it can be heard from as far as Akureyri and the Strandir coast. On air he insists on thanking Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, and other favorites each time their music is played. The request line is tel. 452-4774. To listen online, visit www.kantry.is and find the “Hérna getur ?ú smellt á á Kántrýútvarpið á Netinu” link.

Click here for a sample of Hallbjörn’s music.

Hallbjörn Hjartarson of Skagaströnd, Iceland
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS L II

Presenting a CD of Indian Music to Hallbjörn
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Hallbjörn in his radio studio
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Varanasi – India’s Holy City: a photo essay

Rajan P. Parrikar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:59:00 +0000

My photo essay Varanasi – India’s Holy City is now up and running at The Huffington Post. It should be featured in its Religion section today.

Ganulo

Rajan P. Parrikar — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:12:45 +0000

I was loitering in Korgaon one evening, taking in the languid rhythms of this rural corner of Goa, when I first spotted Ganulo ambling along on the village street. I trailed him firing off several frames without his knowledge before striking up an acquaintance. Ganulo is the nickname of Ghanashyam Dhond, a lifelong denizen of Korgaon. This nonagenarian belongs to both a time and a type that are now on the way out.

Ganulo of Korgaon, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

A few weeks later I was again in Korgaon and there he was, hunched over in the temple verandah.

Ganulo
5D Mark II, 85L II

Shubha Mudgal – A Portrait

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:54:52 +0000

Shubha Mudgal has established herself as one of the leading Hindustani Classical vocalists of the current generation. She is also fluent in other musical genres.

Shubha and I share a common guru, the late Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang.” A not-so-well-known fact about Shubha – her father was Skand Gupt, the outstanding cricket commentator of yesteryear, whose distinguished voice and Hindi diction are remembered by AIR listeners of the 1970s and 1980s.

These portraits were taken in Mumbai in December 2009.

Shubha Mudgal
5D Mark II, 85L II

Harmonium Maestro Tulsidas Borkar

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:27:47 +0000

Earlier this week I called on Tulsidas Borkar, the virtuoso of the harmonium, at his home in Mumbai. He received me warmly. We reminisced about the great Goan musicians of the 20th C and their disproportionate contributions to Indian Classical Music. He then pulled out his harmonium and launched into an impromptu recital.

Tulsidas-bab was born in 1934 in the village of Borim located in Goa’s Ponda taluka (the same village gave us the poetic genius Bakibab Borkar). He had the privilege of receiving training for 10 years from Madhukar Pednekar – also from Goa, from the village of Malpem in Pednem taluka – perhaps the greatest harmonium wizard of the 20th C.

In the course of a long and distinguished career, Tulsidas-bab has provided harmonium support to most of the leading Hindustani vocalists of our time – Amir Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kishori Amonkar, Jitendra Abhisheki, Basavraj Rajguru, to name a few. Even more important, he has produced the next line of musicians, with several of his students now counted among the top tier harmonium players in the country.

In 2005 Tulsidas-bab was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the then President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

In the late 1970s and through the 1980s, the frequently-played filler interlude in between programmes on AIR-Panjim was a musical ‘button’ in Raga Tilak Kamod performed by Tulsidas Borkar.

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Tulsidas Borkar, harmonium maestro
5D Mark II, 85L II

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Tulsidas Borkar, at his home in Mumbai
5D Mark II, 24-105L

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Harmonium maestro Tulsidas Borkar
5D Mark II, 14L II

Azulejos

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:13:06 +0000

The walls in the vestibule of the Institute Menezes Braganza building in the heart of Panjim (capital city of Goa) are decorated with exquisite Azulejos. The scenes depicted are taken from the poem Os Lusíadas by the Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões. For more on Azulejos, see this.

Photographing the Azulejos in Panjim presents two challenges. One is the lighting – the only opening for natural light is through the main door in a direction parallel to the walls, and this results in highly uneven illumination across their length. The interior lighting is not helpful, since it consists of a tubelight which does nothing more than reflect blobs of specular highlights from the walls. Without an elaborate secondary lighting set-up, the only recourse is to correct for and balance the illumination in post-processing.

The second difficulty is the narrow width of the passageway itself, which leaves little room for backing out. A standard ultra-wide angle lens will take in the entire scene but render the vertical lines convergent. This issue was presently addressed through the use of the magnificent TS-E 17L lens.

A quick rendering of a couple of Azulejos is presented below. The tonal and colour balance shows variation across the two frames, which a more careful processing would mitigate.

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Azulejo at Institute Menezes Braganza building in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

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Azulejo at Institute Menezes Braganza building in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

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Old building housing the Institute Menezes Braganza
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

This lady – she said she was from the village of Uccasaim – hovered in the background and after I was done shooting, insisted that I take her portrait.

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Maria Fernandes, outside the Institute Menezes Braganza building
5D Mark II, 24-105L

In Praise of 85L and 135L Lenses

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:14:41 +0000

In the realm of Portraiture, two lenses in the Canon line-up – EF 85mm f/1.2 L II and EF 135mm f/2 L – have attained occult status for their superlative optical performance and for the creative possibilities they open.

The 85L II lens was primarily conceived as a portrait lens. Not the fastest autofocus arrow in Canon’s quiver, it is best deployed in controlled, deliberate situations. With its widest aperture of f/1.2, it is a delicate tool requiring of care & skill.

The 135L lens revels in tight head shots and its fast autofocus lends it an extra edge. Stopped down, it is a splendid candidate for landscape work in the medium telephoto region.

A couple of portraits of my little niece Saraswati, taken in Panjim, Goa, are offered below.

The first image taken with 85L II underscores its signal feature: ability to cull the essentials from a composition – in this instance, the eyes – with its wafer thin depth of field at f/1.2.

The second is a quick, spontaneous capture with the 135L at an outdoors event. Here I had no choice but to make do with the angle & character of the available light at that moment. Perhaps the soft shadows in this instance enhance the profile. You decide.

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Close-up of Saraswati
5D, 85L II @ f/1.2

5D, 135L" width="634" height="700" />

Portrait of Saraswati
5D, 135L @ f/2

Sweeping For Her God

Rajan P. Parrikar — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:27:33 +0000

Early morning drives through rural Goa are among life’s great pleasures. Goan villages have a unique physical and aesthetic appeal. The template is more or less the same: life is anchored around the local temple or the church, a key village institution for matters spiritual as well as social. Then there is the village ‘tinto’ – a hive of activity dotted with a tavern, cafe, barber shop, store, and local gossips. This languid, bucolic world is now fast fading in the face of ‘development’ and out-of-control influx invasion from the rest of India.

At the end of a crepuscular photo excursion earlier this year, I stopped by the old temple of Ravalnath in the village of Mulgaon. A lone figure in the courtyard greeted me, an elderly widow named Jayashree Gaonkar, as it turned out. When I inquired after her, she replied that hers’ had been a hard life but that she is now glad to have the opportunity to “sweep the courtyard for my God every morning.” We had a good conversation. When I asked if I could take some portraits, she was overcome by shyness. After some cajoling she acceded.

Jayashree Gaonkar in Mulgaon, Goa
5D, 85L II

Jayashree Gaonkar in the courtyard of the temple
5D, 24-105L

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Ancient idol of Ravalnath at Mulgaon
5D, 85L II