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Hamada in the Western Hajar Mountains


Hamada in the Western Hajar Mountains
Photo Information
Copyright: James Parker (Jamesp) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1369 W: 9 N: 6334] (18906)
Genre: Landscapes
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2012-01-07
Categories: Desert, Mountain
Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds MkII, Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM
Exposure: f/8, 1/640 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Anna's Favourites 2 [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2012-01-17 2:56
Viewed: 5409
Points: 38
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
I am posting after a long absence, partly due to being prompted by Anna (Miss Piggy). I have recently moved to Abu Dhabi and the Hajar Mountains are a couple of hours away. These mountains are rocky desert, but in some years catch the extreme western end of the South Asian Monsoon.

Hamadas are stony and rocky deserts. Hamadas are produced by the wind removing the fine products of weathering: a process known as deflation. The finer products are removed in suspension, whilst the sand is removed through saltation and surface creep, leaving behind a landscape of gravel, boulders and bare rock.

The Hajjar Mountains(Arabic for stone mountains) in northeastern Oman and also the eastern United Arab Emirates are the highest mountain range in the eastern Arabian peninsula. They separate the low coastal plain of Oman from the high desert plateau, and lie 50–100 km inland from the Gulf of Oman coast.

The mountains begin in the north, forming the Musandam peninsula. From there the Northern Hajjar (Hajjar al Gharbi) runs southeast, parallel to the coast but moving gradually further away as it goes. The central section of the Hajjar is the Jebel Akhdar (9,834 feet (2,980 m)), the highest and wildest terrain in the country. Jebel Akhdar (and the smaller Jebel Nakhl range) are bounded on the east by the low Samail Valley (which leads northeast to Muscat). East of Samail are the Eastern Hajjar (Hajjar ash Sharqi), which run east (much closer to the coast) to the fishing town of Sur, almost at the eastern point of Oman. The mountains extend for 500 km in total.

The low coastal land north and east of the Jebel Hajjar is named Al Batinah Region (the belly), and the land inland of the mountains is Ad Dhahirah (the back).

The mountains are an important ecoregion, the only habitat in eastern Arabia above 2,000 m elevation. The climate is cool and wet from December to March and warmer but still with occasional rain from April to September.



number of birds are found in the mountains including Egyptian Vulture and Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotus). Mammals include Mountain Gazelle (Gazella gazella) and the Arabian tahr (Arabitragus jayakari), which is endemic to the Al Hajar. Other endemic species include a number of geckos and lizards: Asaccus montanus, Asaccus platyrhynchus and a sub-species of Wadi Kharrar Rock Gecko (Pristurus gasperetti gallagheri) are found only in Oman while Musandam leaf-toed gecko (Asaccus caudivolvulus), Gallagher's Leaf-toed Gecko (Asaccus gallagheri), Oman Rock Gecko (Pristurus celirrimus), Jayakar lizard (Lacerta jayakari) and Omman's lizard (Lacerta cyanura) are found only in the Al Hajar mountains. The endangered Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) used to be found in the mountains but was hunted out by the 1970s.
Miss_Piggy, pegos, jcoowanitwong, paolo49, CeltickRanger, maaciejka, Argus, ramthakur, jusninasirun, PaulLees has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Hallo James
Thank you so much for sharing the scenery taken of Hamada in the Western Hajar Mountains here on Trek Nature. It is so good to see this wonderful mountainscape and seeing sand, gravel, bush, trees and sky all in different colours, shapes and sizes, and all together making the perfect picture. Wow and reading your note there is much, much more that the eye cannot see from here. Thank you so much for once again sharing a bit of your side of the world, here in the comfort of my home, 1000's of miles away. I really hope there is more photos to come. Best regards.
Anna

  • Great 
  • pegos Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 222 W: 0 N: 356] (1982)
  • [2012-01-17 5:06]

Great view, James!
Beautiful perspective with excellent lightness and splendid colours. Very well done!
NB compliments for very interesting notes!
Thanks for sharing
Enrico

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5137 W: 166 N: 13121] (49139)
  • [2012-01-17 6:45]

Hello James,
What an exotic place! Another country in your travelling list. And what a beauty!
The landscape looks wonderful. Amazing colours and a very good DOF and composition.
Regards,
Peter

Hello James,
Wonderful to see your post, after a long absence, again. This is my first time to see a rocky mountain in a desert. TFS this special place.
JC

Hi James,
Very nice shot and superb focus. The POV is perfect and also the composition. Excellently presented.
Paolo

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 6595 W: 89 N: 15659] (65489)
  • [2012-01-17 9:05]

HI James,magnificent scenary between desert and mountains,a beautiful composition whit the top of sharpness and colors,i like it!Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano

Ciao James, nice see you again on TN, my old friend, fascinating mountain landscape, wonderful natural colors and splendid light, very well done, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3097 W: 109 N: 12399] (52850)
  • [2012-01-17 12:08]

Hello James.
a very beautiful fotoscape of these mountains, very good sharpness and splendid colours well saturated, nice composition.Best regards Siggi

  • Great 
  • iti Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 577 W: 0 N: 650] (7939)
  • [2012-01-17 12:08]

Hi James,
Excellent colours, details and nice landscape.
Regards Jiri.

amazing landscape, TFS Ori

Hello James

Beautiful landscape with fine POV and wide angle framing,
beautiful soft color tones and light, TFS

Asbed

Hi James,
really nice photo of this place. Amazing colours. Very good light. Excellent composition.
Thanks for sharing,
Maciek

  • Great 
  • Argus Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5038 W: 260 N: 15594] (50626)
  • [2012-01-18 11:42]

Hello James,
Nice to see you posting again!
Fine view of this Hamada with the rocky peaks in the BG.
The colours are superb in the chosen lighting, there is a fine depth in the image and the composition right for the POV.
Thanks and kind regards,
Ivan

I must thank Anna to persuade you to start posting again on TN, James. I'm also glad to know you are based in Abu Dhabi now. I visited Abu Dhabi quite a few times during my sojourn in Kuwait & SA. A friend and coleague from Mayo College Ajmer was and still is the Headmaster of an Indian school there.
In this recent post, you have captured an aspect of Middle East that is unique and interesting. Though I did not travel much within Saudi Arabia, I still have some poor quality images of areas in that country that fascinated me.
Please keep on posting on TN. Your pictorial impressions of wherever you go or stay are always a great learning experience besides their immense aesthetic appeal.
I wish you a Happy New Year and hope you will have a wonderful time in the ME.
Best regards,
Ram

Hello James,
I like your composition of unique Oman's landscape here. I can imagine the baron hills and the foreground growth from your shot.
Thanks and kind regards,
Jusni

  • Great 
  • tuslaw Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2754 W: 282 N: 4931] (19883)
  • [2012-01-18 20:09]

Hello James, nice to see another post from you.
What a spectacular image filled with beautiful natural colors and interesting land features. The mountains in the BG look very steep and rugged. I don't see any type of grass, but I do see and abundance of trees. I would imagine there are many types of lizards living in this area.
Ron
PS. I'm sure you don't remember James, but yours was the very first critique I recieved when I joined TN. I remember telling my wife to come see the feedback I had just gotten from someone living half way around the world. How time flies...

wonderful subject this view, beautiful composition and fine against the difficult light performance!
regards James nice to see you again
Nasos

Hi James, Very well seen and captured desert scape, good composition with a strong and definitive foreground, splendid lighting control with lovely colour tones, a good and perfectly balanced picture here James and very well done,
Best Regards,

Pauly.

PS Good informative notes,

James, this is a wonderful shot of this place. You did a great job capturing it. Beautiful detail and sharpness. Have a great weekend, Bill

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