When I arrived in New Zealand, of course, I did not know about many local attractions. For example, about these Moeraki Boulders or Dragon Eggs, as they are sometimes called. If I had known, I would have worn out in advance from the desire to stop near them for at least a couple of days — to watch the weather, take pictures during a couple of sunsets and sunrises, maybe at night dusk ... And of course, I would like get a better look at them during the day. After all, this is really something interesting and photogenic, and having arrived there for just one sunrise, I would be very disappointed if it turned out to be bad weather with gray skies and all that.
Fortunately, I did not know about the Moeraki Boulders, so I did not worry in advance — and the weather presented us with an excellent gift, showing the most magnificent sunrise, during which we saw almost all the morning colors that could be imagined: from the brightest and most dramatic to the gentle and calm.
Due to the fact that there are quite a few boulders and they are located in several picturesque groups or separately, you can make a variety of compositions with them in the foreground. You just need to walk a little along the coast (more precisely, to run in a hurry, trying to be in time everywhere, because how beautiful it is around!) and compete for successful places with a bunch of other photographers who came here for the same — take pictures of Dragon Eggs at dawn :) And I'm not kidding: I don't know if it's always like this, but there were really quite a lot of people that morning. But what can I do, I perfectly understand this, everyone wants to see beauty and capture it as a keepsake — on a phone or a camera, it doesn't matter.
But despite the rest people, there is still an opportunity not only to take a convenient place for shooting, but also simply to admire the spectacle of the waves lapping around them in the first rays of the rising sun. Maybe these boulders are not just concretions of a very solid age, grown, mineralized and then extracted by water from the sea bottom, but dragon eggs as ancient that they managed to become fossils? Well, at least dinosaurs eggs? Oh, it's hard to argue with science! :)
Anyway, if you want to see these wonderful boulders with your own eyes, you should go to the South Island and go down there along the east coast until you come across Moeraki Boulder Beach. The road goes along the coast, there is a fairly large parking lot by the beach and there is a cafe nearby. Of course, it does not work at dawn, but later in the morning, I think, it opens regularly. Of the settlements nearby, Moeraki and Hampden are located at a distance of about 3-4 kilometers from the beach, so you can stay here quite conveniently.
I would love to come there again for a couple of days: although, fortunately, in one single sunrise I got quite a lot of pretty photos from there (and that's not all, later, I think, I will post a few more), but I would not refuse to experiment more. In addition, my photography skills have improved over the past few years, and I would like to try twilight and night photography there ... Well, maybe someday :)
It's better to watch the photo in high resolution.
OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
Exposure time: 25 sec
Aperture: F 8
Sensitivity: ISO 64
Focal length: 19 mm
35 mm equivalent: 38 mm
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo. You can read a short interview with me here.
