Anti Atlas near Tioulit I, a photo from Tiznit, South

Photographer's Note

The impressive mountains of South West Morocco...

Probably not as popular as the High Atlas and the Sahara, this mountain range of the Anti Atlas, the South West tip of the Moroccan Atlas is an impressive place, both for its desolation and aridness and for the human occupation (architecture and agriculture). It's quite a surprise finding how so (relatively) many people still live in these places and manage to make this land produce enough for their living.

This was shot on the road that connects Agadir to Tafraoute through A飔 Baha, a few Km North of Tioulit, a rather picturesque kasbah (castle ancient fortified settlement) that is be subject of other later posts of mine. It's amazing how in a so desolated landscape you have always houses in sight, many of them looking as still being used. While many are below in the valleys, many ones, like these, are 'hung' on the edge of the hills or perched on top of them.

The photo was subject to some PP work, mainly to arrange the colours (the original suffers from an excess of blue and red). To eliminate the purple red on the sky I selected it and applied a different colour correction. I posted the original as a WS so you can see the result of PP.

I hesitated in posting a tighter crop, but I ended up deciding that it was nicer to see this tiny settlement in context.

You can browse all of my posts of this region by following this link.

Link to Wikipedia article on Anti Atlas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_Atlas.

Donald, adores, parbo, jwmunro, Wanda1, paura has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Donald (136) 2006-12-04 19:18

Hi Jose a very picturesque landscape, with a good depth of field leading you eye right out to infinity, , great point of view and perfect composition, a good job done in the workshop.
Well captured and thanks for sharing it with us.
Donald

adores (46979) 2006-12-04 19:20

Ol� Jos�!
Pessoalmente tamb閙 gosto mais desta.Acho que d� uma ideia excelente do local (outro dos que tenho que visitar da pr髕ima vez). Conseguiste umas boas cores e a combina玢o das casinhas com a paisagem est� fant醩tica!
Cumprimentos, Anabela

parbo (11092) 2006-12-04 19:28

Ol� Jose,

Your shot is excellently transfers wild environment to your frame. Adobe houses are very interesting and I know many countries are still using adobe for new house construction. Red colored fa鏰des are must be renovated. Architectural styles and colors are telling how they adopted their life to the environment. S shaped thin road as a messenger for their connection to world. I like your principal version more then workshop versions. Well done my friend. Congratulations.

Friendly Regards,

Ertugrul

jwmunro (286) 2006-12-04 19:52

Hello Jose -

You did a very nice job in color correction and post processing. This is a nice image with warm colors interspersed with the green from the vegetation. What caught my attention is the road and paths leading to the village. These transportation arteries look like they have a story to tell could lead to some interesting images. The green shrubbery looks to be slightly over sharpened but it does not distract from the image. Well done!

Thank you for sharing

John

euryan (8442) 2006-12-04 23:27

You did very well on the PP, and I'm glad you decided not to post the cropped version because I like this one. The road down at the bottom of the frame is an interesting touch. Nice shot.
Regards,
Ryan

UnTrained (0) 2006-12-05 1:15

Ol� Jos�,
good work in PP. I would prefer a version with a bit less sky, but not cropped below the houses. The street is a wonderful start for this one.
I like the color points of those red and grey houses in the brown rocks and other houses a lot. The rock formation in the left at the top of the hill is wonderful sharp and adding some ancient mood. TFS and cheers, Ulf

cuneyt-sb (6576) 2006-12-05 17:15

Hi jose
Colors and reflections superb congratulations.
C黱eyt-Şb

Wanda1 (15142) 2006-12-05 22:38

Hi Jose,
Its amazing how well the buildings blend in with the surrounding landscape. Nice shot of this interesting place, well composed.
Regards
Wanda

paura (25802) 2008-03-30 17:48

Jos� Pires,
Interessante esse tipo de mimetismo impresso � essas constru珲es. Muito interessante sua composi玢o, mostrando o efeito.

Abra鏾

Paulo

Greg1949 (9011) 2008-03-31 1:48

Jose, great detail and wonderful subtlety of the colors, great capture.

Greg