loops of road, a photo from Jammu and Kashmir, Nord

Photographer's Note

Descending the Fatu La between Kargil and Lamayuru in Ladakh is quite a breathtaking experience, if not a little scary. You can see all the trucks and buses far below making their way down the many swichbacks.
Last summer when I was going down here again on the bus, I had a mini freakout thinking the bus had lost its brakes. The driver was only having a laugh though, racing with another bus seeing who could reach the next town first (and so get all the fares of the waiting people). What a laugh!
I had already met someone who had literally jumped out of the bus at this point (following the conductor who had jumped when a crash was certain), so I was not amused.

I cropped some of the foreground on this shot, as it was taken from a moving vehicle and the foreground was uninteresting and blurred.

erdna, arnabchat, pamastro, amol, hispic trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

guillaumejm (0) 2006-02-18 13:13

Hello, very nice landscape. Nice colours and good sharpness. Only one remark : the black framing is, from my point of view, too large on upper & lower part of the picture (but it's a monir remark).
Regards
JMarc

fayeulle (27827) 2006-02-18 13:17

Hi David
Very spectacular shot of this road like a snake. Happy your are alive ! ;-).
Cheers
JP

timotey (119) 2006-02-18 14:41

The shapes of the various hills in the valley you show us are so strange and beautiful. The light caught here permits to render these curves very well. The gratness of this scene is given by the trucks running down the valley. Very well done !

erdna (5713) 2006-02-18 15:49

A very good photo and a good story David! Those roads are pretty narrow! What about oncoming traffic if you you were going pretty fast? No wonder people freak out!

Andre'

gilou530 (34) 2006-02-18 16:48

salut david
un sacré paysage d'une montagne avec cette couleur rouge, les lacets de la route donnent une autre dimension a l'image
gilbert

rahul__rahul__ (2250) 2006-02-19 20:31

Hi David
wonderful picture, I like the colors alot and the border is in taste. The lighting on the roads is good too.
TFS
Rahul

arnabchat (7233) 2006-02-20 0:11

that is great to look at. the border makes it better too. nice note as always you care about so much. thanks.

rich (1199) 2006-02-20 4:10

Nice job with the crop and I think the heavy black frame brings out the colours of the rock rally well. Nice one.

pamastro (7296) 2006-02-20 11:57

Breaks working I would still freak out a bit if the driver was speeding along this kind of a road in what I imagine was probably a rickety old bus (I could be wrong obviously). But, hey, it seems you had a fun loving jolly driver. :)

The landscape is really out of this world. The mountains are so hard but yet so smooth and velvety looking. Almost like there's a fabric draped over them. The near ground is a nice contrast in its roughness and jagged pieces of loose rock all over. And the road makes a nice loop through this image, letting us take everything in by passing everything and starting over again. The trucks on it give a nice bumpy feel of hauling along back and forth. Well done, especially from a speeding bus!

amol (952) 2006-02-21 4:51

hi David
what a shot!!! I love the colour of the rocks and the 3-D effect in the photo... almost looks like a Hot Wheels playstation track... you have done a great job with all those trucks in the frame... what would this have been but nothing without those trucks???

Tracker (1942) 2006-03-14 19:01

Hi David,
Interesting panoramic shot with crooked road. Well composed and framed. Good deserted brown tones. Regards.

anew (582) 2006-05-13 18:41

I love the incredible colors on this picture.
Anu

vandana2923 (479) 2006-08-25 22:38