Kali Gandaki Valley near Jomsom, a photo from Dhawalagiri, West

Photographer's Note

Another from my oldies chest. This is on the way from Jomsom [te, wikipedia] to Kagbeni [te]. In Kagbeni the trek bifurcates towards the interior of the fabled Kingdom of Mustang [te, wikipedia] and its capital, Lo Manthang, following the Kali Gandaki valley, and to the sacred place of Muktinath [te, wikipedia], a sacred place and pilgrimage destination for Buddhists and Hindus.

If one measures the depth of a canyon by the difference of altitude of the river bed and of the highest peaks on either side, this part of the Kali Gandaki valley is the deepest gorge of the world, because despite the high altitude of the river bed (not that high for the Himalayas), it is flanked by several mountains with heights surpassing 6000 meters (20000 feet) and 7000 meters (23000 feet), with Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri surpassing 8000 meters (26000 feet).

Link to all my posts of this area: *.

WS's: Another view of the valey (#1) and a porter carrying lumber further up (#2), on the path from Kagbeni to Jharkot. I attached the latter to a post of touristdidi showing another porter carrying lumber.

Location (latitude, longitude): 28.78819,83.74719

Note on the location in TE: according to Wikipedia, all this region, from Jomsom to Lo Manthang and Muktinath is part of Dhawalagiri district [te]. I put my posts in the Gandaki district following the others, as almost no one posts their photos of the region in the supposedly right place.

ribeiroantonio, denisn72, paura, parbo, shevchenko, robertosalguero, danos, jusninasirun, lucasgalodoido, Truja, xuaxo, COSTANTINO, ElAprendiz, Tue, Bluejeans, adores, zeca, AiresSantos, riclopes, maloutim, ruisc_pt, pboehringer, arturski has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

denisn72 (8314) 2008-03-24 16:05

Hello Jose
The river bed and the mountains around are huge when I compare with the walking man. Great point of view, colours and details. Useful note. Well done!
Best regards
Denis!

ribeiroantonio (22730) 2008-03-24 16:07

J� agora, o que � que te levou ao Nepal?
A ver pela imagem, deve ser um pa韘 de paisagens maravilhosas, j� sem falar do aspecto cultural. Eu estou a pensar ir � India e pensando bem, o Nepal � mesmo ao lado! Portanto, tenho de considerar as vantagens ($$$) de fazer tudo na mesma viagem.
Gosto muito da imagem e aquela pessoa ali sozinha d� uma grande ideia da imensid鉶 do lugar. Isto � um rio que s� tem 醙ua durante o degelo?
Ant髇io

paura (25802) 2008-03-24 16:49

J. Pires
A transposi玢o para o meio digital ficou muito boa, quase sem se ver pixel parasit醨ios. A foto est� linda!

Abra鏾

paulo

parbo (11092) 2008-03-24 19:00

Ol� Jos�,

I can't imagine how is this river bed when full with water. This bed is very interesting with completely from stones. They are probably moving from mountains when winter snow melted. Blue sky and depth is excellent with your model.

I wish you and your family a good and happy Easter.

Parab閚s e Abra鏾!

Ertugrul

shevchenko (20560) 2008-03-24 21:24

Hi Jose,
Good pov to show the road surface cover with small rocks, impressive blue sky, completed note to share different pov images, well done.
Ally

robertosalguero (292) 2008-03-25 0:28

Ol� Jos�,

This valley is beautiful. The high mountains on the sides create an interesting landscape. This image has good depth with the man on the right looking so tiny in such a vast place. The image is still very good for a scan. Details are excellent and the light is good. Thanks Jose.

Roberto

danos (110407) 2008-03-25 1:43

Ola Jose,
here is a country that i'd like to visit.Very nice the low shot and the great depth of canyon.I impressed that there not a drop of water this season of the year that captured the scene.The colours and the light are superb.Informative your note too.

Regards,Danos

vincz (19113) 2008-03-25 1:46

J'aime bien l'aspect tout mineral de cet endroit. pas un brin d'herbe, de la montagne et ducaillou. Beau rendu de cet endroit austere et majestueux.

feather (51130) 2008-03-25 7:55

I bet you are re-living some wonderful memories from your treks pre-family as you post images from your archives. It's amazing to see the size of the dried river bed. The tiny person is essential for scale. I also like the WS although there are some very strong shadows, which probably tipped the scales for this as the main post. Good work with lots of interesting links to follow.
Kath

guillaumejm (0) 2008-03-25 10:25

Bonsoir jos�,
Ce lit est-il encore parcouru par une rivi鑢e ou est-il d閒initivement � sec?.
Une belle profondeur. j'aime bien le ws 間alement
Amicalement
JMarc

crckt (7222) 2008-03-25 15:51

Hi Jose,
My God! What a huge piece of deserted landscape this is! The inclusion of the human presence was a wonderful idea to give us a feel of the magnitude. This is great stuff!
Well done.
Shaeri

jusninasirun (17529) 2008-03-25 17:06

Hello Jose. Nicely captured low angle perspective here with details on the fg. I like the leading road through the V-shaped valley with spotless blue sky. Regards. Jusni

lucasgalodoido (27698) 2008-03-25 17:31

Ol� Jos�,
excelente essa foto sua, a qualidade ficou impressionante. Me lembrou bastante o deserto de Sal e paisagens bolivianas essa foto.
Parab閚s e Abra鏾!

mikolaj_kawa (0) 2008-03-26 5:22

Ola Jose! Amazing minimalistic landscape. Wonderful colors. Fantastic lightness. Perfect capture. Saudacoes. Boa viagem!

ifanik (21679) 2008-03-26 6:44

Hi Jose
Beautiful photo with nice colours
This place is like the moon
Very well done
Best regards
Nick

sagar (2410) 2008-03-26 8:57

Hi Jose,
The rugged landscape looks surprisingly serene here!!The fascinating blue sky ang the boulders along the track have a human contrast in them- peace and hostility!!!!
Great shot!!
Regards,
Sagarneel.

Truja (4953) 2008-03-26 11:32

Hola Jose!

Los valles de glaciar tienen su encanto, siempre me ha fascinado ese plano que se forma entre las laderas, al contrario de lo que ocure en los valles de rio, en forma de "V"...

Saludos, Jordi

xuaxo (6854) 2008-03-26 12:29

Ol� Jos�
Isto, em primeiro-plano, parece um "mar de calhaus". Exemplar digitaliza玢o.
� curioso essas rochas laterais fazerem lembrar a zona do vulc鉶 dos Capelinhos.
Um abra鏾,
F

ElAprendiz (30) 2008-03-26 13:38

Hola Jose

Me gusta la composici髇, aunque los tonos se ven algo opacos... no se si es producto de mi ojos...!

La profundidad de campo es determinante, y hay un gran equilibrio en el encuadre. Saludo cordial

John

Tue (93340) 2008-03-26 14:02

Hi Jos�,
Excellent composition for this impressive mountain landscape. The light was great too, just as the blue sky being a wonderful background. The stones of the foreground create a beautiful pattern and the river bed is a good lead-in. The inclusion of the person was superb too, adding a good idea of scale. Very well done!
Regards,
Lars

Bluejeans (64251) 2008-03-26 16:34

Oi Jos� ,
Fascinante este vale sem uma alma verde um deserto autentico ,como disseste ao Ant髇io passa um rio ao lado , gostei muito da tua amiga na foto , quando olhei a foto pensei o que fazia ali uma alma perdida neste lugar ,o ce� ficou com um azul muito bonito , bom trabalho de scan , parab閚s!!!
Um abra鏾 Gon鏰lo

adores (46979) 2008-03-26 17:20

Ol� Jos�!
Bom trabalho com o scanner. As cores e a defini玢o ficaram 髉timas.
Isso deve ser mesmo um lugar deserto e imenso. Gosto das pedritas em primeiro plano e da presen鏰 dessa pessoa solit醨ia que parece bem pequenita.

zeca (19762) 2008-03-26 20:48

Oi Jos�!!
O azul � de doer nos olhos. As pedras e as pedrinhas fazem 髏imos detalhes e oferecem belo contraste. A presen鏰 do homem nos d� a correta id閕a das dimens鮡s de tudo, al閙 de adicionar importante vida � paisagem.
Abra鏾,
Zeca

AiresSantos (56155) 2008-03-27 0:50

Ola Jose
Para ser uma foto em 'papel' esta excelente. A tua nota tambem, muito explicativa.
A perspectiva e as cores estao excelentes. Com a pessoa na foto podemos ver a grandeza destes montes
Um abra鏾 Amigo
Aires

UnTrained (0) 2008-03-27 9:40

Ol� Jos�,
difficult to capture and I think difficult to scan. I think there is a bit missing sharpness in the front and it seems to be because of the F-stop. But this could also be a result of the compression. Very good for the scale by including a human being and wonderful sky and light here. The view into this "V" is well done. It is a bit a pity that the workshop has the dark shadow as I like it also.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

riclopes (35577) 2008-03-28 4:15

Bom dia Jos�, nem imaginas o quanto esta imagem me atrai e faz sonhar. Adoro este tipo de paisagens, especialmente se estiver a caminhar por elas durante um longo per韔do. Nada me limpa melhor a cabe鏰...Esta � mais simples e atraente que o WS, mas n鉶 sei dizer porqu�, uma vez que gosto muito do efeito de sombras no WS e as v醨ias camadas de montanhas - at� a pessoa est� mais bem colocada que aqui. Seja como for, sente-se o quanto isto � grandioso em ambas que � o eu gosto aqui.
Um abra鏾,
ricardo

COSTANTINO (117700) 2008-03-28 6:33

Hello my friend,
A dream of photo,nice presentation of this
image,nice lightingnand splendid shot
Costantino

banyanman (7797) 2008-03-28 9:11

A very impressive photograph of this barren landscape, Jose - and excellent technical quality for such an old scan too. The inclusion of the person on the right hand side enables us to appreciate the scale of this valley (it wouldn't have worked so well without the person in shot). Cheers . . . David

maloutim (13617) 2008-03-31 0:48

Bonjour Jose!
Superbe photo pour un scan! Et composition tr鑣 impressionante, avec ces montagnes qui se rejoignent en triangle, et cette vall閑 caillouteuse, 間alement en triangle!
Merci 間alement pour la note, qui est un v閞itable livre d'images et d'informations!
Amicalement.
Marie-Louise.

ruisc_pt (11594) 2008-04-01 3:30

Uma composi玢o minimalista com o homem quase impercept韛el na imagem.

Para uma imagem digitalizada ao que parece est� estupenda.

pboehringer (770) 2008-04-15 14:26

Jose,

outra imagem bem captivante de sua viagem ao Nepa. Dois elementos que poderiam ter ajudado na composicao. A primeira seria liberar a cabeca daquela pessoa das rochas ao fundo. Colocando a pessao somente circundada pelas pedras teria ajudado na visualizacao. Esta pessao e fundamental para dar ideia a amplitude deste local. O outro elemento compositional seria o uso de wide-angle para mostrar estas pedras mais nitidamente como "foreground" elemento.

Peter

arturski (4465) 2008-04-25 13:32

Wiotaj Jose!
Very nice reception, amaizing agreement has the image
regards

Artur