After the Sarod Trio I had opportunity to photograph Odissi performance called Varnali by Rudraksh Foundation of Bubaneshwar. Varnali, a word taken from Sanskrit, signifies a tumultuous range of colors. True to its name, the Odissi dance performance showed fluid, colorful and graceful movements accompanied by a great choreography.

Challenges in taking photographs of a live performance are many. First you have to understand the form of art your are trying to photograph. Odissi provides ample opportunity as the dance is fluid with several slow movements and postures. Light is varying on the stage so you need to be on your toes to adjust exposure. I usually fix the ISO in 400 or 800 depending on the light. I also used fast lenses like 70-200 f/2.8 & 85mm f/1.2. These lenses gave me a better speed. Most of the time speed needs to be 1/200th of second or more to freeze the action as well as to minimize the shake/blur.

White Balance is very difficult correct as the lights are colored and constantly changing. So better to put them on Auto white Balance and shoot in Raw mode which allows you to correct the white balance in post processing. If I had shot in Jpeg format it would be very difficult to correct the white balance in post processing.

Obstacles in the foreground like lamps and background like the letters are unavoidable. I have tried my best to avoid many of these obstacles by using clever positioning. Some of them I had to remove by cloning out in post processing. But still majority of the obstacles exist. This is unavoidable in such a stage performance where you don’t have control.

Originally, Odissi was not considered one of the main classical dances of India. But its antiquity has been traced to an early sculpture found in the Ranigumpha caves at Udaygiri, Orissa dating to the 2nd century BCE. Thus, Odissi appears to be the oldest classical dance rooted in rituals and tradition of ancient times. In fact, the Natya Shastra refers to Odra Magadhi as one of the vrittis and the word Odra refers to Orissa.

Like most of the South Indian classical dances of India, Odissi has its origin in the Devadasi tradition, where it was initially performed in the temples as a religious offering by the ‘Maharis’ who dedicated their lives in the service to the Divine.

Odissi is considered a dance of love, joy and intense passion, pure, divine, and human. Over a period of time, three schools of Odissi dance developed: Mahari, Nartaki, and Gotipau. The Mahari system traces its roots to the Devadasi tradition. The dance form of Odissi that developed in royal courts is called the Nartaki tradition. In the Gotipau tradition of Odissi dance, young boys dress up in female attires and enact female roles.

One of the most distinguishing features of Odissi dance is the Tribhangi. The notion of Tribhangi divides the body into three parts: head, bust and torso. The postures dealing with these three elements are called Tribhangi. This concept has created the very characteristic poses which are more curvaceous than in other classical Indian dances. Mudra is also an important component of Odissi dance. The term Mudra means “stamp”, and is a hand position which suggests a wide array of symbolism and emotion. Odissi themes are most often religious in nature, and many revolve around expressing the stories of Lord Krishna.

Odissi was revived in post-independent India, as a neo-classical form, by a group of scholars and dance teachers, who formed the group known as Jayantika. Each one of the four dance teachers, revivalists of an old dance tradition, Pankaj Charan Das, Kelu Charan Mahapatra, Deba Prasad Das, and Mayadhar Raut, was characterized by a love of the dance, a struggle through poverty and adverse conditions in pursuit of their love for the art form, and an exposure to the art of stagecraft. Although Odissi moved from temple to theater and lost some of its spiritual quality, except as a dramatic device, without this coming together of four great dancers and the move into a theater venture, the dance would have been totally lost to posterity as an art form.

Rudraksh Foundation of Bubaneshwar with the vision to embody the best of the ancient tradition of Odissi Dance, while at the same time breathing new life into the art form through innovative choreography and providing training to develop exceptionally skilled dancers.

Guru Bichitrananda Swain is considered to be one of the leading choreographers in a new generation of Odissi Dance masters. His Choreography reflects an in-depth knowledge of Odissi, both in the nritta, or pure dance and the nritya, or expressional dance. It has a distinct vision both in the theoretical and practical components of dance particularly for the Purush Ang or male dance form.

I thank all the dancers, Mamata Das, Sarita Mishra, Sanjukta Dutta, Debashree Patnaik, Lingaraj Pradhan (who was exceptional in his portrayal of Karna), Amulya Kumar Balabantaray, Bikash Kumar Nayak, Abhaya Kumar Parida, Rashmi Ranjan Barik and Pabitra Kumar Pradhan who entertained us on that night.

During the two hour Odissi performance, I photographed over 500 photos out of which I got over 430 good photos. Culling the exceptional photos out of that took me over a week of work and it I feel is the most tedious work of the lot. This selection process has given me a opportunity to self criticize my work and improve on the composition skills.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

I found this Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia) dragonfly on a late evening. I tried shooting him with my 300mm f 2.8 lens thinking that he will fly off if I approach closer. The results of 300mm were not good as light had faded and I had to resort for a shallower depth of field or higher ISO both of which are detrimental to the quality of macro. So I ran quickly to my car and picked the macro rig and came back hoping he will still be there waiting for me. He did not disappoint me.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

The Dragonfly was still perched on grass blade. I had ample time to position myself and use my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM fitted with Ray Flash Adapter on a Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash. I was not able to reach front of him as there was a big trench with lot of weeds. So I was not able to get frontal image. Otherwise it was a very pleasant shooting. Breeze was calm on that evening, which helped me to critically focus on the dragonfly. F/14 aperture I used gave a great depth of field which nicely highlights the hairs on the dragonfly as well as the grass.

The Pied Paddy Skimmer (Neurothemis tullia) is a species of dragonfly Distributeed throughout the Oriental region and found in south and south-east Asia. It appears in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia), Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

Male has a black face. Eyes are blackish brown above, violaceous below. Thorax is black with mid-dorsal creamish white stripe. Legs are black. Basal half of wing is opaque blue black which is bordered by a milky white patch towards the tip. The wing tips are transparent with a dull brown wing spot. Abdomen is black with a broad mid-dorsal creamy white stripe on the upper side.

Female differs significantly from the male in body markings and coloration. The face is olivaceous yellow. Eyes are pale brown above, which fade to pale olivaceous towards the sides and below. Thorax is greenish yellow with a bright yellow mid dorsal stripe. This stripe is broadly bordered with blackish brown throughout. The outer surface of legs is yellow and the inner surface is black.

Base of the wings bright amber yellow. Front edge of the wing is blackish brown, broadening into a very large blackish brown spot. This spot extend to the rear edge of the wing. In hind-wings this spot is irregular or sickle shaped. Tips of all wings are broadly blackish brown. Wing spot is dull brown. Abdomen is bright yellow with a broad black band above. Underside is black.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

It is a conspicuous species of ponds, marshes and paddy fields. Flight is slow and weak. Usually perches on twigs, aquatic weeds and other plants. This species is very common along irrigation canals in paddy fields.

Breeds in marshes and ponds. Flight season: Found throughout the year. However, peak abundance is during July-September months.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

This male Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) dragonfly was sitting in the garden basking the afternoon sun. Light was quite harsh on the dragonfly. The position it was sitting was also awkward so I had not much of chance of getting a good frontal pose. What I decided is to get a nice wing vein details from where I could take picture. I used my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens and used existing sunlight to take this photograph. As the Sun was harsh you could notice the dark contrasty shot in the side photo. For the other two shots I used a semi transparent umbrella (shoot through umbrella) to cast shade on the dragonfly. This method was short lived as it startled the dragonfly and it flew off after few shots.

In Males eyes are dark reddish brown paler towards lateral and undersides. Thorax is dark chocolate brown above, which pales to golden olivaceous-brown on sides. Legs are black. Wings are transparent and tinted with deep golden amber at base. In the hind wings the amber tint encircles a black opaque area. Wing spot is blackish brown. Abdomen is bright red contrasting with blackish brown thorax.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Early morning and late evening sun are the best to take photos as the light is softer and directional. Mid noon sun gives strong light and dark shadows which look horrible on photos. Either choose a cloudy or overcast day or shoot photos under shade.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) is a medium sized dragonfly with brown black thorax and bright red abdomen. The face is covered with short and stiff black hairs. This is a common and relatively unattractive dragonfly species. It is not easy to get a nice shot as they are usually quite sensitive to human.

Male abdomen is bright blood-red; frons bright scaret-red, clypeus reddish brown; wings hyaline, with a pale uniform brown and a dark golden-amber spot at base of hind wing.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Female thorax is pale brown, creamy yellow on dorsum; abdomen brownish yellow marked with a mid-dorsal brown stripe and an obscure stripe at both sides.

Female generally comes to water just for laying eggs, but male usually take the chance to mate. They are very wary insects and hardly to get closer except when they are in copulation.