Penan Boatmen Photo

Photographer’s Note

To get around in the Gunung Mulu National Park, you will be riding in a motorized longboat as seen in the photo. In fact, just about any house or village sitting by the Sungai Melinau river, has a jetty.

From Gunung Mulu National Park headquarters, you have two options to get to the Clearwater Cave and Wind Cave. You either take the 3.5km elevated boardwalk walking through the rainforest and alongside this river, or take the 15 minutes boatride.

I would suggest you take the boat ride. It is faster and you get to see the riverside scenes, with ample time for you to explore the two caves. On your way back, you might like to go for the boardwalk.

The river you see here is a tributary which feeds the Melinau River.Its source is from an underground river passage which comes from the Clearwater underground river.

The Clearwater Cave is really an underground river passage. The underground passage is about 108km long, the longest underground river passage at least in South East Asia.

In case you haven't seen an inviting crystal clear and green slow moving river,just dying for you to skindip in it, Clearwater name given to this river is not just a namesake.

PixelTerror, alainh, Zanni, spence, ChrisJ, nwoehnl, arnabchat, jiekuan, banyanman, fooeleen, thaprem has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

PixelTerror (86038) 2005-07-11 1:09

Hi Rabani,
Nice and clear photo, I like how the three boats are rushing towards me, they are in good contrast with the dark surroundings and provide a number of color touches, this photo is very luminous and well exposed, nice job !
Have a nice day,
jean-Yves

alainh (35357) 2005-07-11 1:12

Hello Rabani
A not easy light, but a good result you optain. it make a mysterious forest. a very nice one.
have a good day
alain

Zanni (5885) 2005-07-11 1:29

Really you managed very well a difficult light. The dominant green is balanced by the coloured life jackets. The men seem three water riders with their horses-boats. The left part is bit dark. Preciuos notes as usual.

chaity (1539) 2005-07-11 1:58

Hai Rabani, I like the placement of the 3 boats in this green forest and river.

davido (1982) 2005-07-11 2:01

Difficult light ut good result.
The darkness make the jungle mysterious.
The perspective with the boats in your compo is excellent.
David

spence (1679) 2005-07-11 2:42

I love the way we look from the darkness of the forest towards the light, Rabani, and your composition is perfect, with the boats well placed and providing depth and lovely colour contrasts too.

kabe (1998) 2005-07-11 3:53

Hi,
I like this original and interesting view. Colors are nice, reflections on the water too. Good sharpness too. Well done !

Burberry1 (6041) 2005-07-11 14:34

Hello rabani:)))
A beautiful photo, very well composed and with a nice summer mood:)))But also a very mysterious one.
I love the clear reflection in the water and great contrast:)))

Great job,
greetings and have a nice evening,
Agnieszka

nwoehnl (118) 2005-07-11 14:41

Hi Bani. Beautiful and moody light in this photo of the boatmen seen on the river passage surrounded by the lush greenery. Good use of the low shooting perspective to enhance the depth of the view, well supported by the long shapes of the boats. Excellent job balancing the exposure for this one, I like it very much.

arnabchat (7036) 2005-07-12 0:55

ah ha! so lovely. very rainforest ambience, moist, dark-ish. i wish i was there!
thanks, Arnab

jiekuan (330) 2005-07-12 1:58

Superior lighting with great angle. Picture is not colorful, but the color presenting is attractive.

Good piece of work!!!!

ChrisJ (70019) 2005-07-12 3:32

Hi Rabani

I like the wide angled distortion of the front of the boats, & the blue haze, or smoke, in the middle. Bagus sekali!

kclai (2267) 2005-07-13 0:55

Hi Rabani
This is a very beautiful pic with three boats resting to each other in the deep forest.
Yeah, the lighting is good and the water reflection is truelu clear.
Nice place to visit, man.
Well done.
Eric Lai

banyanman (7716) 2005-07-20 11:33

This is a nice composition, Rabani, and the exposure is very good - knowing how easy it is to overexpose in these difficult lighting conditions. If this was mine, I think I would have cropped 2 cm off the bottom and 3 cm off the left hand side to position the boats a little more off centre. What is the blue patch in the middle - is it smoke from one of the outboard motors or lens flare from a reflection off the water? Cheers . . . David
PS: I didn't think skinny dipping was allowed in Malaysia ;)

fooeleen (713) 2005-07-28 22:38

such a familiar scene...i spent ten days there...it was paradise! thanks for all the interesting notes and info.