The Strandir coast of the Westfjords in Iceland exudes a melancholy air. Desolate, remote beaches lined with piles of driftwood washed up from Siberia only add to this sense of foreboding. Veiðileysa is a small inlet just before crossing the pass that leads into the next fjord Reykjarfjörður.

Veiðileysa á Ströndum
5D Mark II, TS-E 24L II

Fog moves in less than an hour later. Weather conditions can turn on a dime in Iceland.

Fog over Veiðileysa
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 MP

An array of flat-topped mountains, their snouts dipped in the fjord, punctuated by valleys is the signature sight of Iceland‘s Westfjords. This image of one such mountain, Hvestunúpur (531 m), was taken on Arnarfjörður.

Light on Hvestunúpur and Vaðall beach
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 MP

A better appreciation of the scape can be had from the air, and such a view is seen below in an image taken from Iceland Road Atlas. The settlement of Bíldudalur (population 166) is in the foreground and Hvestunúpur is the second peak out. These valleys are collectively known by the name Ketildalir (Kettle valleys).

Ketildalir valleys
© Iceland Road Atlas

We got to the beach at Jökulsárlón a little after sunrise on the morning of Oct 17, 2010. Inscribed on the seascape before us was a ribbon of divergent lines. Recognizing the ephemeral quality of Nature’s geometric moods, I quickly composed a few frames.

Barely able to contain myself, I then advanced towards an iceberg with another composition in mind. I was so engrossed as to be oblivious to my surroundings. Crucially, I did not hear my guide Börkur Hrólfsson hollering over the roar of the sea, and his frantic pleas ordering me to retreat. As an Icelander in tune with the land’s rhythms, he obviously knew what was coming.

Next thing I know, a large wave washed over me. I took a pratfall, and my equipment and I were submerged in a soup of salt water and black sand. To cut a long story short – the 5D Mark II body met with instant death, and the 24-105L lens had to be sent to Canon Service for repairs. The tripod wasn’t a pretty picture either. Fortunately, my second DSLR body was not on my person at the time.

Although my life was not at any point in serious danger, it was a stern reminder that in the raw environment of Iceland, you cannot let your guard down. Earlier in the summer, a photographer fell to his death from the cliff at Látrabjarg. Incidentally, we were in Látrabjarg only a few hours before that tragic accident.

Mirabile dictu, back in the hotel room I discovered that my CompactFlash card had survived! The first image below was made moments before the disaster – and if you look just below the horizon, the wave that got me is seen in its incipient stage.

Geometry at Jökulsárlón beach
5D Mark II, 24-105L + Singh-Ray 3-Step Reverse GND Filter

Jökulsárlón and the Fjallsjökull glacier
5D Mark II, TS-E 24L II + Singh-Ray 3-Step Reverse GND Filter

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Shri Isaac Newton

Some pebbles picked up by my camera on my morning constitutionals at the Agonda beach in Canacona, the southernmost taluka of Goa.

Yoga
5D, 300L f/4 IS

Pranayama
5D, 35L

Romance
5D, 300L f/4

Nirvana
5D, 35L

Siridona is a small fishing village in Goa, by the bay where the Zuari river drains into the Arabian Sea. It is spelled variously as Siridão and Shirdona. This photo essay recalls a quiet evening that my father and I spent there in early 2008. The village folk were out and about, some digging for clams, others returning from an afternoon out at sea.

Late evening in Siridona, Goa
5D, 24-105L

Mining clams
5D, 24-105L

Sorting through the haul
5D, 24-105L

Catch of the day
5D, 24-105L

My father, Motilal Parrikar, enjoying the calm
5D, 24-105L

Sundown: time to douse the glim
5D, 24-105L

Romance flowers undeterred by an approaching southwest monsoon storm in Kozhikode (aka Calicut) on the Malabar coast of northern Kerala.

In Calicut, Kerala
5D, 70-200L f/2.8 IS

Monsoon storm brewing in Calicut, Kerala
5D, 70-200L f/2.8 IS