Impending storm in New Zealand

It was our fourth day and we were glued to this place. Monsoon was almost here. We could smell it in the air. The humidity was next to unbearable. We were staying in a small hamlet. We rented a room in a house owned by a local family. The room did not have much ventilation, It had one window. However, we kept it shut, with the fear of the mosquitoes attacking us. The power outage seemed so spontaneous! The ceiling fan used to rotate constantly. When the power was gone, it would stop the fan and we would wake up in a moment. We would then go out to the veranda and sit on the chair, rest our feet on another and make a feeble attempt to sleep.

All this …. Just for one shot.

I had realized that this place had a potential and had been having this composition in my head after the scouting which itself took a complete day. However, to my disappointment, the clouds had covered the entire region and were at a standstill. Sarang and I were a bit restless on day three when our hopes of taking a picture here were getting very bleak. Day four, was beautiful and sunny in the morning but quickly became cloudy, the same as earlier days. I could sense Sarang was almost breaking down. It was difficult for me to see this young man hurting due to the inability of producing something he had dreamed of. About two hours before sunset, when nothing seemed to change, I took my SUV out and asked Sarang to hop in. After four days we came out of this village and moved higher up the coastal range, saw a different place, trees, forest. We saw some hornbill, seeing them hop from a tree to another was a refreshing change for us.  Sarang who is also a very capable bird and wildlife photographer had completely gotten excited and his spirits had now been lifted. On our way back we could see a little movement in the clouds towards the west. I parked the vehicle and rushed to the pre-)planned sunset spot. In a dull warm light, we began warming up by taking some compositions. It was nothing much promising yet, not until we saw a sudden beautiful glow appearing in the sky. 

It was time.

We swapped places, for two to three compositions that we had discussed earlier. The sunset colors do not usually last very long in India. We could barely get a couple of chances for every composition, especially as the long exposure was getting longer with the light getting dimmer. 

Behind the mountain, the sun was setting. Thick cap of high clouds had lifted now. The wind had broken arriving monsoon clouds in the western sky. The high scattered clouds were already beginning to appear peachy orange. Brighter light had brought out the aqua blue of the sea, while the rest of it wore the palette of colors in the sky. A lone fisherman sat standstill on the edge. Sea wind was bringing the now-familiar fragrance of the salty seawater and seaweeds. Our minds were dancing on the sun setting evening light. The sun was probably already under the sea. Somewhere far in the sea, rotating beam from the lighthouse suddenly felt so much comforting as we headed back to the village.