Burma Days. On the Postal Boat #1 Photo

Photographer’s Note

When we were in Burma, at Mandalay, we decided to travel south to Pagan not by bus but with the Postal Boat on the Irrawaddy River.
It was one of the most beautiful experience of our life. The whole Burma is a fantastic country, with polite, and poor people, but the Postal Boat is the top.
The Irrawaddy is a typical South-East Asian river: gigantic; it's the only one real highway of the country!
The Postal Boat started from Mandalay quay, in front of Mingun Paya at 5:00 AM and arrived for the sunset in Pagan. During the travel it stopped in a dozen of piers, some have around a village, some have around...nothing.
But all are crowded of people.
Some went down, some went up, and all things can go up on the boat...all!
There were also dozens of girls that sold food.
After 13 hours the old and dirty boat arrived at Pagan, the sun was very cose to the land and the last sunrays gave a gold colors to the first Temples of the old city that were built on the banks.

*scanned image*

Other images of the Burma Days serie:
Stone Forest
Monks in Pagan
Real Burmese cowboy

khmelins, AmiBe, gaby, supereira, PixelTerror, aloyho has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

khmelins (960) 2005-04-22 3:51

I can hear the crowd here.
Love it, how your placed the boat in bottom right and the sign in the middle of the messy crowd.
Maybe just your scanning is not the best but anyway I'm enjoyng this picture a lot.
anton

clodreno (0) 2005-04-22 4:03

a very ncie scene Paolo.. i really enjoy this one.. a lot of action, a lot to look at .... I also like the guy in the midle of the screen with the big "gramophone"!!!
nice image of the boarding and disboardind!!!

AmiBe (6042) 2005-04-22 4:14

Hi Paolo,
very nice picture, it look's a litlle bit chaotic !
I've traveled on the Irrawaddy river with a touristic boat... Not a good choice...
The postal boat will be many more funny ! Slower but most interesting...

gaby (19793) 2005-04-22 4:23

Hi Paolo,
very very nice and interesting -
Thanks
Gaby

rbcy1974 (20746) 2005-04-22 4:31

HI Paolo,
I love this dynamic image with a lot of mini-scenes going on. Nice details and colours.
I remember the boat well, it was a beautiful experience.
Cheers
Daniel

toni_al (15476) 2005-04-22 4:41

Bongiorno Paolo
Bellissima fotografia.
L'ambiance est très belle, et il y a une multitude de détails, j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a la contempler
Ciao Toni

supereira (9576) 2005-04-22 5:54

Great daily life shot.Very chaotic.Good textures,light and sharpness.I like the prespective and composition.Good colors and contrasts.Great details.Well done!

Luan (15935) 2005-04-22 6:29

Wow what a mess ;o), they are all waiting to across this little river ;o) ? So very nice picture Paolo, but what is the man in the middle holding ? a tumpet ;o)
Well seen
Luan

manny (21378) 2005-04-22 7:30

A good documentary shot, Paolo. The chaos is well-captured. I like how they sort of become orderly at the bottom.

aloyho (6109) 2005-04-22 9:20

Hi Paolo,
What a crowd and a hive of activities. You have captured the moment perfectly. The colours and details are very beautifully recorded and the boat is a well planned entry point. Impressive shot!!! Thanks and regards.

PixelTerror (87159) 2005-04-23 4:51

Ciao Paolo,
This view transmits the real feeling that this river is the only communication axis in the country, how busy it is ! It's interesting to try to separate all the different businesses going on here... I like too the timetable (?) that anyway tells me the scene takes place far away from my desk !
Excellent note too.
Have a nice week end,
jean-Yves

naxius (16679) 2005-04-26 6:45

Superb Paolo! I like this daily-life scene where we can see eath of the people here attracted by their personnal things.
Very good mood.
Bravo!!
Alexandre

nerve (10216) 2005-04-26 7:07

This is my second favourite of yours after the "Shadows"! ;-)
Its a great image, very well caught,, i love these kinds of images with many stories in it.
i just love that microphone in the middle too! (or trompet? ;-)
ciao.

Kenny10pin (19301) 2005-04-26 9:56

wow, what a shot, its all go here. very good capture of movement, really well shot, well done

KevRyan (22422) 2005-04-29 4:11

I'm glad you put up the link to this one - I had always meant to wrtie and say how much liked this but somehow I didn't!!!!

Again, fantastic image - as Claude has said - so much going on, so much interrest , so much to see and learn - sometimes difficult with so much to get a good composition - you have done that - really intertesting foreground for THAT object and all the movement with a really styrong supporting cast in the background. Excellent!

everlasting (10942) 2005-05-03 12:27

There is so much going on in this photo. Each time you look you see soemthing new. A well captured scene.
Did you see any Irrawaddy dolphins?

moxon (457) 2005-05-09 9:32

Paolo, Nice photo! So much going on but you managed to get a very clear composition out of the chaos. Why is the man holding what looks like a loudspeaker?? Wish I had gone to Pagan by boat instead of plane.

keribar (42760) 2005-05-09 10:21

Hello Paolo,

Nice experience you're telling us: We did the trip by plane, and apparently we were wrong: I think that there are other boats for tourists, but you were right to chose this one. This picture is a difficult as one can see but you succeeded quite well I am talking about where to crop at the top. Good job. Paolo - Izzet

avis2avis (4260) 2005-05-31 7:37

Hi Paolo,

You have some great photos in your gallery and picking any one of them to put one's first comment on is really a difficult task. Still, I chose this one because of the business of the shot and the many varied alements thatmake it. I like such busy shots where the eye can explore the photo for a long time, soaking the whole environment in. The light is really good here an dthe colors are are just right for the mood of this shot. The PoV adds to the composition. Compliments on a great TE post! i look forward to more from you.

Regards,
Avishek