Before the hurricane Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is an old DIA/Slide scanned, that i took 9 years ago during our first travel in Malaysia.
We travelled in the continental Malaysia, during 4 weeks between August and September. At the beginnings we visited Kuala Lumpur, Malakka, Penang and the Taman Negara NP, then we did the last 18 days for an islands hopping on the Eastern coast. We visited several island, all wonderful, but...Tioman (too crowded of tourists = there is an airport!), Kapas (to close to the coast and very crowded), we tried to go at the Redang Island (but it was closed to tourist cause the presence of the Boat People from Vietnam)...and finally we found the northest islands of Malaysia, cose to the borderline with Thailand: the Perhentians.
In the summer 96 there wasn't ferries that linked the Wakaf Bahru harbour on the coast with the islands, there were only fishermen boats that for a not small bid trasnported the tourists.
The trip have not a time-table, of course; we did it 2 times, the first one we arrived at the islands in 3 hours, the second one we arrived after 5.30 hours and we were very close to the death, 'cause was the 2 weeks of September and the Monsoon was at the beginnings!
The Perhentian in the 1996 had not more than 15 guesthouses in the 2 islands and only one hotel of high level with bungalows. On the smallest island (Kecil) there wasn't the electic power.
There wasn't a pier, there weren't streets and the only way to travel from the 2 islands or between 2 point of the same island was the boat, or...swimming!
The nature was perfect, fantastic, colorful, completely preserved! We choose to rent a small bungalow at the Flora Bay on the biggest island (Besar). The Bay with the low tide became a lagoon with not more than 1 meters of water. The baby sharks rested inside the lagoon, and it was fantastic to swimm rounded by dozens of that mini-sharks. Diving was fantastic, coralls as in the Red Sea and thousands of fishes, sharks, marine snakes as at the Maldives! On the small island there was a fantastic beach calle d with a great fantasty Long Beach, with white sand, the classical palms and hundreds of small turtles that ran evreywhere. In the water of that beach there were the moms of that baby turtles: dozens of big ones without any fear of the men.
Totally we rested more than 15 days!
In the 1997 we came back for a week and in the 1998 we came back another time for 10 days, and finally in the 2000 we came back the last time for a 4 days.
but...there was a big concrete pier, with a big ferry, there was a big streets that cutted the hills of the big island, there was the electic power on the small island and there were more than 20 new hotels and guesthouse, there were telephone lines and portable telephone antennas!
there were also ...shops!
the baby-turtle in the small islands were very few and closed in a protected area. The Napoleone fishes that lived close to Flora Bay were all killed by Japanese fishermen.

"sic transit gloria mundi"

sam224, stefi, gaby, huynt, aloyho, supereira, capthaddock, nerve, chinchini, christina, xevi, Uncle_Wez, rabani, jiekuan, MLINES, choucas, lybil, Ramy, smash2707 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jinju (14265) 2005-07-21 3:58

Hey Paolo. The good thing forst; composition is very nice, coplors are great vas well. That sky is awesome. The bad thing is that it lacks some sharpness. Its most likely due to the scanning.

bantonbuju (48334) 2005-07-21 3:58

buon giorno paolo, nice memories from the trip you have had in your files; very lovely place, surely not an easy job to recover old scans of old slides;
anyhow - nice composition and overall effect of the image;
have a nice day, jerzy

fixed (3831) 2005-07-21 4:01

Photo impressionnante Paolo !
Merci
Arnaud

Zepi (22848) 2005-07-21 4:11

Hello Paolo,
L’ambiance couleurs est effrayante !
L’atmosphère semble d’une lourdeur incroyable !
J’adore ce ciel !
Dommage que le scan ne soit pas de meilleure qualité !
Superbe vue
Merci pour le partage
Beau travail
Sébastien

sam224 (5851) 2005-07-21 4:32

Ciao Paolo,

bella composizione: il paesagggio è molto "invitante" con la sabbia bianchissima in primo piano a creare un bel contrasto col cielo nero e minaccioso del background. I colori sono molto belli. Peccato per la mancaza di fuoco, ma le scannerizzazioni fanno spesso questo scherzo.
Thanks for sharing

stefi (1147) 2005-07-21 4:35

Bella Paolo, ottima immagine e come leggo dalla bellissima nota, piena di ricordi.
Peccato solo per la scansione (ma sulle dia o te la fai tu con un bello scanner (tipo i CoolScan di Nikon) o non te la fa quasi nessuno (troppo tempo).

gaby (19793) 2005-07-21 4:48

Hi Paolo, quelles couleurs !! c'est fabuleux et tu as parfaitement maitrisé la lumière (avec le sable blanc, c'est extrêmement difficile avec son coefficient de réflexion) -
Très jolie composition ,je dirais même un petit peu émouvante
Merci et bonne journée
Gaby

naxius (16679) 2005-07-21 5:14

Hi Paolo,
Great mood here with those dark clouds that are coming..
I like the feeling to be lost in nowhere!
Very good.
Alex

huynt (5077) 2005-07-21 6:29

Hi Paolo
What you have a great shot. Very impressive, Well POV. Excellent composition. Large lesson for me. Thanks

mimmareu (582) 2005-07-21 6:54

come sempre una bella immagine. Molto bella la conposizione che hai fatto con i contrasti di colore che danno drammaticità all'evento imminente.
Bravo
ciao
domenico

p.s. mi puoi dare informazioni sull'isola graca dove hanno girato mediterraneo. grazie

AmiBe (6042) 2005-07-21 7:32

Ciao Paolo,
this place seems to be very nice, not crowded and still savage.
The cloudy sky is fantastic and I like the pretty girl looking the sea, she's dreaming.
I made a WS for the composition...

[workshop] [compare] +

sergecross (3438) 2005-07-21 7:55

Paolo, excellent shot, i like the poetic scene, you have capturated and the background, i think that the sharpness is too high, but the picture has an interesting point of view.
Sergio

aloyho (6105) 2005-07-21 8:42

Hi Paolo,
Nice recovery of this old shot and must say it is still in reasonable shape. Taking a picture with one figure is not easy as we need the other elements to hold it nicely together. In this case the driftwood helped to hold it nicely in place. The sky is great and I like the white sand. Thanks for the interesting note. Well done!! Regards.

supereira (9576) 2005-07-21 9:28

I like the composition and point of view.Very good colors,light and sharpness.I like the contrast between the sand and the sky.I like the detail of the woman.Well done!

ndb1958 (9228) 2005-07-21 11:40

what a sky! Hell! I'm impressed.
Nino

Graal (57278) 2005-07-21 12:44

Hi Paolo,
very nice remembrance from Malaysia and interesting note. I like the colours and composition. Good job.
Rgs, Aleksander

chinchini (27333) 2005-07-21 15:07

Bonjour Paolo,
C'est une très belle composition avec des couleurs magiques sur un ciel tempêtueux.
J'aime beaucoup le cadrage, je regrette juste le manque de netteté du sujet à l'avant-plan.
Bien vu et bon travail de scan.
Pierre

Quentin (5278) 2005-07-21 17:13

Hi Paolo. Very beautiful photograph. It had to be impressive and terrifying has that time to wait for this hurricane. Thx Bye Quentin

capthaddock (28640) 2005-07-22 9:21

Hi Paolo - such impressive storm clouds, and still nice bright colours are visible in the foreground, great timing and also composition

rbcy1974 (20742) 2005-07-22 11:03

Hi Paolo, great composition. It does look like she is trapped in a nightmarish scenario and pondering over her way out. I would have cropped a bit so that she is not so centered.
Regards
Dnaiel

nerve (10210) 2005-07-22 11:14

Hi Paolo,
even if it doesnt look sharp, its a beautiful picture, the colours are just gorgeous..
i love your composition too with that driftwood in the middle..
Looks like it was a great place to visit in those times..
ciao..

christina (2040) 2005-07-22 20:17

Hello Paolo!

The strong horizontal lines in this image work well. You captured the menacing sky well. Very nice!

chaity (1539) 2005-07-23 9:54

Hai Paolo, like the storm brewing behind. Looks like a thunderstorm is coming soon. The girl and the trunk makes the an interesting foreground.

dolin (15647) 2005-07-26 5:33

Hi paolo.
Very interesting composition.
I like this subject in the full center.
Good framing and incredible sky.
The light is really good.
Nice PP, good effect
Fred

xevi (511) 2005-07-28 9:01

I like a lot the mood of this shot, it's so strong and good balanced. It's a pity than scanner didn't make a good job.

rabani (9421) 2005-09-22 3:37

Dear Paolo, I've this penchant or tendency to look for out of the ordinary cloud/sky over a scene. SOmething like you shown here.As the sky/cloud affects the land below, getting them exposing the land in a much interesting way is a great idea for a composition.

lestans (15406) 2006-01-21 8:55

Finora mi era sfuggita questa foto!! Che meraviglia! I colori, e poi la composizione, con la ragazza e il tronco che formano una unica "scultura" che richiama l'attenzione, però la ragazza è voltata, così non richiama eccessivamente. E vedo che è un posto da visitare assolutamente.
Sai...ieri mi sono rotta un piede ed ora con il gesso ho un mese per fantasticare :-))
Livia

MLINES (10842) 2006-03-27 4:01

Paulo, Good composition of a good looking beach. The storm clouds add a lot. Your note is most interesting. Well shown. You have shared a lot of great photos for us all on TE.

Jeppo (11612) 2008-01-30 8:41

ciao Paolo,

la tua nota dimostra come il turismo sia veramente un'industria pesante. infatti il suo crescere comporta stravolgimenti e danni irreversibili.
e leggendo le tue parole non posso non pensare a Koh Tao e ad alcuni miei compagni di viaggio che si lamentavano delle condizioni spartane!
ed io pensavo: meglio spartano ma genuino che uno stravolgimento di cemento

ciao
Silvio