PhoTophe

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Photography has changed the way I see the world around me.

Through it I discover new things and rediscover old ones. Like my island, New Caledonia.

This blog is just me sharing my world through my photography.

Hope you enjoy.

Posts tagged turquoise waters
ATCHU KAYAKS

Kuto, Isle of Pines

A beautiful morning on Isle of Pines, also known as the Island Closest To Paradise. My night photography wasn’t a big success but this sunrise shot from the beach at Atchu Camping is probably the best image I came home with. Once again, not a soul on the fresh, breezy beach.

I don’t think my night photography wasn’t a failure but judge for yourself, checkout my blog posts Atchu Way and Starry Atchu. It was a beautiful morning with a fresh breeze and cool sand between my toes. Apart from the tiny waves crashing on shore, it was very calm and tranquil. A very relaxing moment alone, watching the sun rise. It didn’t look like there was going to be a colourful or dramatic sky and there wasn’t. I captured this brief moment, just before the sun rose above the horizon, thinking there may not be another opportunity. And I was right. Once the sun showed itself, all colours disappeared apart from the blue sky which stayed all day.

I went with quite a long exposure of a minute and a half to get those clouds streaks and silky smooth water. The Lee Little Stopper (6-stop Neutral Density filter) helped me achieve that exposure and the Lee Polariser filter helped reduce glare on the water and pop the colours a touch too. Love the colour of that water. In fact, the filters inverted the movement in the scene. The water was a little choppy and the clouds were moving very slowly. The filters changed the motion and mood of the scene, making this image calm and tranquil yet giving the notion of time passing by. Editing was minimal, using mainly the Basic panel and the real magic happen within the Calibration panel, where I accentuated the colours. Ninety-five percent of my editing is done within Lightroom. I love it when I don’t have to spend a lot of time editing.

 

SONY a7 III

full frame mirrorless camera (body only)

TAMTON E 28-75mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD

standard zoom, E-mount lens

VANGUARD TRIPOD

VEO 235AB Tripod with TBH-50 Ball Head

LEE FILTER HOLDER

100mm square filter holder system

LEE LITTLE STOPPER

ND1.8 (6-stop) neutral density filter

LEE POLARISER

100mm polariser filter for Lee Filter Holder system

 
New CaledoniaCHRIStophe Robert HERVOUËTatchu camping, atchu kayas, beach, campimg atchu, christophe hervouet, dawn, early, ile des pins, isle of pines, kayaks, lee filter, long exposure, morning, new caledonia, nouvelle caledonie, paradise, province sud, south province, sunrise, turquoise waters
THE ISLES OF ATCHU

Kuto, Isle of Pines

Nearing sunset, I decided to head down to the beach to find a potential photo. Hoping for some colour in the sky even though the beach faces east. No colours or dramatic skies but I came away with this photo as I was trying out my filters before the sun set.

The beach at Atchu Camping is small, about 50 metres long, and has a lot of seaweed and algae on it’s powdery white sand. Though secluded and isolated, it’s only seconds away for users of the campsite. We were there for five days and rarely saw someone on the beach let alone in the water. I have to admit, we didn’t swim there either but did stroll along a few times. The beach faces east, great for sunrise or front lit scenes like this one. And the two isles in the distance just add to this paradise scene. Isle Adventure is largest of the two and spans from the right to behind Isle Duroc, which is small, round and in front of it’s big brother. I’m on the far north end of the beach here and like the southern end, it’s dead coral. You can only get here by sea or through Atchu Camping.

I got here half hour before sunset and stayed almost half hour afterward. This was the best shot I came away with. It’s actually a blend of two images to get sharpness throughout the image. One focused on the foreground and the other on the islands in the background. To get the long exposure of 15 seconds, I had to use my Little Stopper (6-stop filter) because it’s always windy here so the water is a little choppy. I also added a 3-stop ND soft grad. filter to control the bright sky and a polariser filter to cut the glare on the water’s surface. It also adds a bit of saturation to the water and sky. Editing was done in Lightroom except for the blending of the two images which was done in Photoshop. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Calibration panel in Lightroom can do wonders to images when used right. There’s a small learning curve but once you get it, you’ll use it often. Especially on landscapes images. Try it out.

 

SONY a7 III

full-frame mirrorless camera (body only)

TAMRON E 28-75mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD

standard zoom, E-mount lens

VANGUARD TRIPOD

VEO 235AB Tripod with TBH-50 Ball Head

LEE FILTER HOLDER

100mm filter holder system

LEE POLARISER

100mm polariser filter for LEE 100mm filter holders system

LEE GRADUATED FILTER

ND.9 (3-stop) neutral density soft graduated filter

 
New CaledoniaCHRIStophe Robert HERVOUËTa7 3, a7 III, adventure island, atchu camping, beach, campimg atchu, camping, christophe hervouet, christophe robert hervouet, composite, day, ile d'aventure, ile des pins, ile duroc, isle duroc, isle of pines, kuto, long exposure, new caledonia, nouvelle caledonie, paradise, province sud, rocks, sony, south province, sunny, tamron e 28-75 mm f2.8 di iii rxd, the isles of atchu, turquoise waters
KANUMERA'S BANIAN

Kuto, Isle of Pines

It’s been a little hectic since I’ve come back from my trip to Isle of Pines. So I apologies for the lack of content but I was finally able to edit this photo. Though we had Uesi Cyclone approaching from the north, it didn’t really affect us apart from some light showers in the middle of the night and on our last day. As you can see, beautiful sunny days during our stay. Very hot too but we were lucky to have constant, cool wind at Atchu Camping, where we were staying.

Isle of Pines is right down the southern tip of New Caledonia and part of the Province Sud (Southern Province). You can get there by plane (through Air Caledonie) or by boat (through Betico 2), we chose the latter. It's cheaper and though you leave early in the morning, there's a snack bar for breakfast or other things. The trip takes two and half hours along the south-west coast of the mainland and is absolutely beautiful. The boat moors in Kuto Bay at the end of the beach with the same name, located south south-west of the Isle of Pines. Kuto Beach and this one, Kanumera Beach, are world renowned for their white and very fine, powder-like sand. Feels likes your walking on flour, no joke, that's how fine this sand is.

Our trip here was purely for relaxation. And relax we did. We spent most of our time on this beach and Kuto's as well. We did hire a car at Kou-Bugny Hotel for a day, just to visit the Grotte de la Reine Hortense (Queen Hortense’s Cave). That took most of the morning then we drove to Gadji for a look. We had lunch at the Meridien Hotel (expensive but nice) before heading to Vao for a swim at St. Joseph Bay. Then we slowly made our through Vao village before heading back to Kuto. A nice and easy day round the island.

As with most of the beaches in Isle of Pines, Kanumera beach is paradise. It’s split in two by a huge rock formation where snorkelling, all around it, is magnificent. If snorkelling isn’t your thing, you can enjoy the fine, white sand and turquoise water with a cocktail in your hand from the Banian bar & restaurant, of the Ouré Lodge, situated at the far end of the beach in this photo.

And talking about the photo, the one difficulty I had, was getting the exposure right in camera. The sand is so white and bright, as with snow, the camera under-exposes to balance the overall exposure. So I had to over-expose the shot by about a 1 stop to get the correct exposure for this scene. Not sure of myself, I did take two other exposures just in case. Better too many than regretting. Also had a little trouble with the White Balance. At first I based it on the boat but it gave me a too warm of an image so in the end I used the eyedropper on the sand and warmed it ever so slightly. Oh and if your colours don’t look right sometimes, play around with Calibration (in Lightroom), you’ll be surprised how effective it can be.

OK, well, I’ll get myself into gear and try to post more photos from the Isle of Pines for the next couple of weeks. Hope to see you back here soon. Cheers.

 

SONY a7 III

full-frame mirrorless camera (body only)

TAMRON E 28-75 MM ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD

E-mount standard zoom lens for Sony cameras

LEE FILTER HOLDER

LEE 100 mm filter holter

LEE ADAPTER RING

LEE 67 mm thread adapter ring for 100 mm filter holder

LEE POLARISER FILTER

LEE polariser filter for LEE 100 mm filter holder

SANDISK MEMORY CARD

SANDISK Extreme Pro 128GB SDXC memory card

 
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