Lake Karakul - camel Photo

Photographer’s Note

My first post - so apologies if I've got the resolution/format wrong.

This is by the shores of Lake Karakul, up in the high Pamir mountains of Xinjiang Province, China. It is pretty much the end of the Chinese portion of the Silk Road (at least, one of it's several variants) and is not far from the Karakorum Highway.

The mountain is Mustagh Ata, 7,546m, which means 'Father of Ice Mountains'. There is a small area of semi-fertile land around the lake where Kyrgyz nomads have their summer grazing for yaks, goats and camels as well as the ubiquitous stocky asian horses. The accomodation here is almost entirely in yurts and you only need to wander around the lake for a while to be invited to stay the night (in return for a small fee!) with a family.

The camel is a baby belonging to the family I stayed with.

The area is extremely beautiful and is not particularly hard to get to - the bus from Kashgar to Pakistan over the Karakorum Highway goes past the lake and you can ask to be dropped off. I theory you can then flag down a bus coming the other way to get back to Kashgar - but that's only theory!

carper, capthaddock, jbweasle, alainh, rozy975, SophieL, elihesamian, shirgold, KevRyan, vincent24, Coyotyto, pady, fireflyz, Reine, digi-mom, Wandering_Dan has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

carper (64026) 2005-05-26 13:08

very welcome Robin,
I like your first photo, it is realy a good begin, and a good start is the half way. Good composition, good light, fantastic lines,and well framed too, very good job,
gr. Jaap

softflower (0) 2005-05-26 13:08

Superbe photo Robin, un paysage magnifique avec de belles couleurs. Peut-être un léger manque de netteté.
Nico.

capthaddock (28640) 2005-05-26 13:11

absolutely no need to apologise, this is beautiful,welcome to TE, excellent first post

jbweasle (9294) 2005-05-26 13:12

Wonderful mountain scenery and fabulous colours. Stunning contrasts. I love the banded effect you have here: blue sky, white mountains, brown hills, turquiose lake and green grass. The camel is a good addition to the picture and is perfectly positioned. Informative note too.

Welcome to TE, Robin. I hope to see lots more of your stuff here!

umbrellaphotos (1901) 2005-05-26 13:17

Beautiful composition. Nice colors and everything! Welcome to TE!

alainh (35347) 2005-05-26 13:32

hello Robin.

WELCOME to TE !!
and congratulations for this first post. A splendid composition, a excelent note, all the spirit of TE !!!
thanks and regards
alain

Damberio (241) 2005-05-26 13:34

Wonderful first post !
Perfect pic and very nice framing...welcome Robin !

danyy (67958) 2005-05-26 13:40

magnifique Robin,

Un paysage enchanteur relevé par des couleurs magiques. Des lumières fantastiques.
Compliments.
Bienvenu sur TE
Daniel.

rozy975 (3047) 2005-05-26 13:52

Welcome to TE! What a lovely beginning. Beautiful composition and wonderful colors. Well done!

SophieL (6026) 2005-05-26 13:58

What a stunning picture! A very promising first post.
The landscape is beautiful, colors and light are wonderful and you have caugh it perfectly. The presence of the camel makes it very special. Well done and welcome on TE!

elihesamian (26091) 2005-05-26 14:05

WOWW!great start Robin!
Welcome to TE with this fantastic result,skilfully captured with a strong composition that you drew for the scene.
Beautiful plavce,appealing colors,wonderful; real contrast and the camel is a great extra elements ,too,nicely worked and thanks for sharing,Robin!

Best Regards
M

shirgold (2439) 2005-05-26 14:20

Welcome to TE Robin,
Excelent first post and first note.
I love your picture for it's composition and the colors.
The whites, blues, greens are in perfect balance.
Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.
Shir.

srabbe (1424) 2005-05-26 14:20

This is wonderful !
I love the colors here, the blue, white, braun and green layers!
Wonderful landscape.
May I ask what is your secret for the so dark blue sky?
Sophie

vil (684) 2005-05-26 14:53

bonjour.superbe photo l'éclairage est sublime et l'arrière plan extraordinaire.Site grandiose. Henri

KevRyan (22297) 2005-05-26 14:53

Welcome from me too Robin - a great landscape - the deep mid-ground shadows are fantastic - nice colours too!

best wishes

Kev

vincent24 (9038) 2005-05-26 15:15

Hello robin,
Very impresive picture,everything is perfect compo,colors, sharpness and the camel just at the right point,congratulation and welcome on TE,
regards,
Vincent

tontonjc (6617) 2005-05-26 16:07

Superbe paysage de toutes les couleurs . Cadrage splendide.

Trés belle image . Bravo et bienvenu sur TE

dkeus31 (25970) 2005-05-26 16:18

Hi Roben,
Very nice composition.
Nice colors, forground and light.

naxius (16679) 2005-05-26 16:23

Hello Robin,
First of all, welcome to TE! you will see that this website is really a great community where you will be able to exchange with lot of people here.
About this photograph, I do not know what to say, that really beautiful. I like the colors, the light and this view.
Bravo!!
Alex

rbcy1974 (20742) 2005-05-26 19:19

Welcome to TE Robin,
Beautiful omage of a beautiful region. Great composition.
Hope to see more from you.
Daniel

Coyotyto (1299) 2005-05-27 5:23

Hi Robin,
I'm joining everybody to welcome you on TE !! Very nice shot with great colours and beautiful composition !! Well, all have already been said, but still, congrats for this beautiful shot and the interesting note !

Cheers,
Youssef.

PixelTerror (86026) 2005-05-27 5:27

Hi Robin,
Welcome to TE !
Excellent start with a beautiful view that fully complies with the true TE spirit, the mountain is impressive and I like hot its massive structure rises over the lake, the lonely camel adds a presence in this so remote area, colors are great.
In addition to this nice view, you join a very interesting note and for this you win my special award as I find this part of the post too often neglected here, bravo !!!
Have a nice day,
Jean-Yves

fixed (3831) 2005-05-27 8:37

Hi Robin,
Beautifull shoot !!!
Nice compostion, COLORS and CONTRASTS !
Good, good ! :)
@+
Arnaud

gulliver (1636) 2005-05-27 9:01

Incredible shot again. Very well inspired and composed. nothing to say more, everything's in there ;-)

pady (4800) 2005-05-27 13:53

Very good first shot in TE.
I think that this area is so beautiful that you can do only nice shots, isn't it ?
Nice colors and this camel in the right place to catch the attention. Very good.

USErin (445) 2005-05-30 19:35 [Comment]

Show Comment

fiedziu (1762) 2005-05-31 13:58

great picture Robin
thanks for sharing
regards

Quentin (5278) 2005-06-01 12:30

Great ! I like the colors and the camel ! Bye Quentin

lewiz (1293) 2005-07-01 12:37

I wish my first photo was a tenth as good as this. I don't know what to say other than "perfect".

idalio (75) 2005-07-30 7:32

Hello Robin,
What a wonderful photo. Excelent composition. Great job.

Regards,
Idálio

es841 (1854) 2005-07-30 7:41

Couleurs et paysage incroyablement magnifiques. Bonne idée d'y avoir intégré ce chameau afin que l'on se rende compte de la taille du paysage. Toute mes félicitation pour cette splendide prise de vue.
Luc.

fireflyz (2079) 2005-09-14 20:34

Welcome to TE Robin! You kicked in the door and came in with a BANG!
What a beautiful scene you captured here! I like everything about this photo. My complements!
Skye

clodreno (0) 2005-09-17 15:37

such a great landscape.. I posted an image of this placce i took in 1984...
one of the most beautfiul landscape I have ever seen.
thanks...

desman (2130) 2006-02-04 4:33

paysage et couleurs enchanteur ! le cadrage ne gâche rien, bravo !

jrleborgne (1030) 2006-02-13 18:32

Superb panorama , I like the composition ( toundra , sandy and deserted hills, high and snowy mountains ) and the colour balance.

Pour un premier coup, c'est un coup de maître !

abulafia (4802) 2006-02-19 10:22

Wow, what an amazing scenery. really beautiful colours
Thank you for sharing
Harry

ydarias (657) 2006-02-19 11:07

Hello Robin, your photo is superb. I haven't words for this job. The constrast between the shadows and light is perfect, and the composition is very pleasant. Very good job.

Yeray.

highman (1183) 2006-02-19 11:25

Amazing landsacpe. Great composition and colours.! Regards

bend1k (910) 2006-07-21 1:14

robin, this is a beautiful place. i like the way you included the camel at the photo. this deserves 1000 points

t_patrik (96) 2006-11-28 11:22

Great colors and composition! The camel makes it more than a landscape photo

Wandering_Dan (3181) 2007-08-26 19:24

Robin -

I'd been thinking about going to Kashgar and was looking at photos, when I found this one. Extraordinary! The colors and the play of light and shadow are really remarkable and remarkably well captured. The lake is not a color I've seen in other photos of Karakul (all of which were taken from the other end). I wouldn't have recognized the camel for what it is, though, except for the title and the note.

Now tell me, how DID you get back to Kashgar?

kvananthnaag (376) 2008-05-18 21:08

Marvelous photo of a beautiful region.. the snow covered peek in the background with all the wonderful blues..make it an amazing picture...

designe (25) 2009-10-03 19:03

super!!!!!!!!!!!