Between A Rock And A Hard Place Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Aran Islands (Irish Oileáin Arann) are a group of islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, 18 km from the west coast of Ireland. We are here on the largest and most visited of the three, Inishmore.
Battered by the winds, the islands are a bit austere. The first humans to settle dug earth and covered it with a mixture of sand, Goemon and manure to make it fertile.
With the millions of stones extracted from the ground, people have built small walls to define the properties and also to protect crops from the wind. It's incredible to see the number of stone walls that are on these islands. Some say that, placed end to end, they cover more than 10 000 km!

On the picture, we see the rocky ground and the massive amount of work that was required to build these fields and walls in order to survive on these islands.

Nobody has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

CLODO (4318) 2009-07-02 10:40

Baby!
c'est la recherche pétrolière....On se demande comment ça a pu arriver là. Rude pays
Bonne soiré Philippe
CLODO

chawax (6053) 2009-07-02 11:47

Bonsoir Philippe,
Cette photo montre effectivement l'incroyable désert de caillasse que sont les îles d'Aran ! Ce bidon au premier plan vient apporter un peu de couleurs dans une image bien grise sinon !
Amicalement,
Olivier

aadilj (17950) 2009-07-02 22:48

Thats unusual and also has an informative note Philippe. I like the sharpness and the clarity of the shot

eversmile (6213) 2009-07-03 0:25

Salut Philippe!

J'aime beaucoup le POV bien percutant, avec un contraste de couleurs fort et un horizon déroutant. Etonnant!
Dès que j'ai vu la photo; j'ai pensé que ce serait une photo à ajouter à mon thème: " Which world for tomorrow" et puis ta note m'entraîne dans une autre direction. Crois-tu cependant qu'elle y aurait sa place?
Amicalement
Marine

clio (22849) 2009-07-05 0:21

Salut Philippe,
Belle opposition chromatique (et de formes également) entre ce bidon et le désert de cailloux qui l'entoure. Jolie et originale manière de nous faire découvrir les paysages de ces îles où il faut du courage pour y vivre!
Très bon dimanche
Diane

Waylim (10899) 2009-07-15 15:48

Hi Philippe,
Not a picture of stunning beauty or spetacular landscape, but very distintively different and education not to explain the geology and history of the place. Such a hard place to survive. the inclusion of this rusty drum bring awareness to the environmental concern as well as serving as an anchor point to draw our attention to it's colors. It also makes the composition more interesting. A very well thought out image with a strong message attached. Great job. My complements.
Way

papera (5376) 2009-08-13 13:23

bonsoir Philippe,
very interesting note! indeed, field and properties enclosed by low stone walls is something I remember very well from my trips to Ireland, it marks the landscape in a very peculiar way.
here you set the accent on the man-made pollution, against the rough and hard nature. it's a very personal interpretation of a certain landscape, more interesting than a descriptive approach.
cris