Another installment in our ongoing monsoon romance.

Classic monsoon squall in Batim
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 Makro Planar

Bovine conference in Batim
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 100 f/2 Makro Planar

Rubber plantation in Vichundrem
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 Makro Planar

Herder at Gaodongrim, Canacona
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 Makro Planar

I was fortunate to find myself in the middle of a storm in California’s Death Valley this March.

This shot was taken as the storm raged on at the northern end of the Badwater basin with the Panamint range in the backdrop.

Stormy afternoon in Death Valley, California
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

And about an hour later, we were witness to this marvellous sight.

Rainbow over Death Valley
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

The build-up to this storm figured in an earlier post.

This is a continuation of the Monsoon in Goa – 2010 Edition theme.

These photographs were shot over two consecutive rain-soaked days in the idyll that is the island of Chorão, also known as Chodna or Chodan. My forbears came from this part of Goa, and were impelled to move out after the sacking of the village and the Hindu temples by the Portuguese in the 16th C.

The final photograph in the series below was taken in the face of an intense rainstorm advancing in my direction. Seconds later I had to dive into my car. These are moments to live for.

St Bartholomew church, Chorão (1569)
5D Mark II, 24-105L

The lone sentinel on a dark monsoon morning
5D Mark II, 70-100L f/2.8 IS II

Nossa Senhora de Saude chapel
5D Mark II, TS-E 24L II

Mae de Deus church of Pomburpa seen from Chorão
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

Advancing rainstorm (Pomburpa church is seen to the left)
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Those of us who grew up in and around Panjim took the pleasures wrought by the monsoon for granted. All I had to do was look out of the window and luxuriate in the luscious sight of waterlogged fields and foliage. That Panjim no longer exists, swiftly wrecked by indiscriminate construction. With developers aggressively on the prowl throughout Goa, open spaces are shrinking. And with every passing year, the renewal of the Goan monsoonscape looks more and more tenuous.

Mounted below are the varied moods of the season experienced this past week. Earlier editions of the Goan monsoon may be seen here.

In the village of Talaulim
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Dhargal in north Goa
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Lush Pilerne
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

Dark morning at the Candolim church
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

Fishing in Nerul during a rainstorm
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Farmer in Talaulim
5D Mark II, 24-105L

I was fortunate to catch the frisson of an incoming storm this March in Death Valley, California. With conditions changing by the minute, I kept shuttling back and forth between the Westside Road that cuts through the Badwater basin and Zabriskie Point.

Ominous clouds form over the northern end of the Badwater salt pan, as seen from Westside Road.

Storm brewing over Badwater basin in Death Valley
5D Mark II, 24-105L

It was a marvellous sight at Zabriskie Point. Notice the giant alluvial fan spreading out from the mouth of the canyon on the far side of the Badwater basin.

Storm clouds loom over Manly Beacon at Zabriskie Point
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

The colourful mineral-laden mudstone hills near Zabriskie Point contrast with the grey weather all around.

Storm in Death Valley
5D Mark II, 24-105L

The spirit of rural Goa is instantiated on this ethereal monsoon morning in Canacona in south Goa.

Near Palolem in Canacona, Goa
5D, 24-105L

Forbidding dark clouds loom over the ‘duckbill spillway’ at the Selaulim dam in Sanguem taluka.

The 'duckbill spillway' at Selaulim dam, Goa
5D, 24-105L

This scene is characteristic of rural Goa during the monsoons. The entire season is a master class in the hues of green.

Women work the paddy fields in the village of Nerul, Goa
5D, 70-200L f/2.8 IS