Tour Ronde - SE Ridge - "The Slab"

This is one of a series of mountain pictures, from different tours,

available http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=404565>here,

href=http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=385523 >here

and >here. It is shot on a ridge at about 3500m/11500ft, at the border

between Italy and France. He has the feet in France and the fingertips

in Italy, and there is a fall of several hundredth meters on each side.

pursuits?

I am trying to improve/specialise in the subject, so comments are

extremely welcome...!!!

Hello Salvatore, i think a wider shot would have given more of the feeling of vastness infinity you get when walking along a ridge like that one. But as a portrait it looks quiet as if he were trying his shoes for adherence... :)

othewise it's technically quite good.

cheers

Unfortunately, this shot does not show the extreme position you were in. Climbing photography, I'm finding, is a comprimise between safety and practicallity and it's ALWAYS better to error to the side of safety. This means that at times you will not have the right lens, filter, film, or camera to capture the scene the way we would if our feet were on "terra firma" and our toes were not hanging over a 3,500 foot cliff in sub-zero temperature. So, all we can do is capture what we can and try to be creative and make do with what we have; this often leads to some spectacular photographs as well.

Having said all that I like this shot a lot. While it might not show the whole scene, it is a well composed and exposed shot. It is a high quality shot that (if I were the man in the scene) I would love to have.

Longly overdue, to put things in perspective, here a view of the ridge where this shot was taken, once we were down. This slab is roughly where the red circle is.