I’ve been talking about Baie des Tortues (Turtle Bay) on my last couple of posts and once or twice before that, but they’ve been detail photos, except for one that was taken from this exact spot but at night, so I thought I’d share a day image of the beach of Baie des Tortues (Turtle Bay).

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The luck I had was that it was almost low tide when I took this shot, revealing the tunnel of the cliff, the Pierced Rock (la Roche Percée). Situated smack bang in the middle of the image with it’s own tiny beach in front of the entrance. At low tide you have access to the tunnel from the beach. The hole goes straight through the cliff to the other side where you join the other beach and peninsula, la Roche Percée, which you can see behind the cliff and to the right of the image. The tunnel is quite narrow and is part of the Sentier des Trois Baies (the Three Bay Trail) which includes Baie de la Roche Percée (Pierced Rock Bay), Baie des Tortues (Turtle Bay) and Baie des Amoureux (Lovers Bay). A beautiful walk if ever you have the time.

The beach behind the cliff is where I took the photo from my last post, Le Bourailais. This rock formation at the end of the cliff, known as le Bonhomme (the Man), is a landmark in New Caledonia with spiritual importance in Kanake culture. Hop over to my last post for more information on the Bonhomme de Bourail.

On the left side of the Roche Percée (Pierced Rock) cliff is an amazing 280° lookout point with a shrine dedicated to Notre Dame des Flots (Our Lady of the Waves), who watches over the ships. Magnificent views up there.

And of course, just below that is the beach of Baie des Tortues (Turtle Bay). Well known for it’s turtle nesting season in late January, early February. A beautiful little beach, very popular with the locals and tourists for picnicking. Not a bad spot for a romantic sunset either.

This shot was taken from the Route de la Baies des Amoureux (Lovers Bay Road). This small section of the road is part of the Sentier des Trois Baies (the Three Bay Trail), mentioned above. Two photos were taken to make this image. A long exposure of 10 seconds to smooth out the clouds and water, and a shorter 1/8th second exposure to capture the cliff side when the sun shone on it. It was cloudy and rain was on it’s way, as you can see from the top left of the image, but the sky opened long enough on the horizon to provided me with this beautiful light. I blended the 1/8th exposure on to the 10 second exposure in Photoshop and finished editing in Lightroom. Mainly just accentuating the cliff side, beach and water.

So there you go, the gorgeous Turtle Bay in Bourail, New Caledonia. This whole area is worth a visit if ever you’re round the corner.

Though I don’t take enough of them, I do love long exposures. The effect it has on the elements, the mood it gives a scene, how it can transform the ordinary into the surreal and the way it shows time differently. Here is an example of what I’m talking about.

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This is the north end of Baie des Tortues (Turtle Bay) located in Bourail next to La Roche Percée (Pierced Rock). Only a two hour drive from Noumea, the Capital of New Caledonia. This area is very popular with tourists and locals and renowned for two landmarks, the Roche Percée (Pierced Rock) and the Bonhomme (the Man). The Roche Percée is a peninsula and a detached suburb of Bourail, known as one of the only surf spots in New Caledonia. And, it is also a cliff with a hole that runs through it from the Roche Percée beach to Baie des Tortues beach, accessible only at low tides. The Bonhomme is a huge monolith of hard quartz sculpted by the waves to resemble a man’s head wearing a hat. Those same waves render it vulnerable as they erode the base threatening it’s collapse. The waves have already eroded a good part of the cliff mentioned above. A yearly phenomenon also occurs on these same two beaches in late January, early February… turtle nesting season.

The nesting season was one of the reasons we were up here and photography was another of those reasons. We’d decided to go for a stroll along the beach of Turtle Bay and maybe capture a sunset. No such luck with that but I did come home with this blue hour photograph. The two minute long exposure turned this frantic scene of choppy waters and threatening clouds into a calm, tranquil, minimalist image. Even the colours are minimal with their tones of blue and the faint touch of orange/red in the sky. The two minute exposure wouldn’t have been possible without the Little Stopper, a 6 stop neutral density filter, from LEE Filters. Without it, only a two second exposure was possible and wouldn’t have given me that misty water and silky smooth clouds. Except for a lot of cleaning up, there was very little editing done. I did edit a black and white version but I felt the contrast was too harsh and thus stuck with the subtler blue tone version.

I’ll edit a photo of the Bonhomme I took about a week before this one and share it on the next blog post. Hope you’ll check it out. Ciao for now.

Bourail, New Caledonia

When I got my new camera, the Sony a7 III with the Tamron 28-75, at the end of last year, I was eager to try my hand at astrophotography. I wanted to capturing our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in all it’s glory. The opportunity came in early February when my best friend, Géraldine, was minding a house in Bourail. A two hour drive from Noumea. A beautiful little beach-house situated only metres from the Roche Percée Beach. So I stayed there over two weekends, wandering off in the middle of the night, shooting the stars. I was quite lucky to have clear skies and the Milky Way close to where I wanted it. Especially for an unplanned shoot.

The very first thing I realised was that 28 mm wasn’t wide enough. I needed a wider lens, 21 maybe even 18 mm, but it’s all I have so I had to make do. I didn’t count on the moon rising from that direction either. And almost a full moon too. Not to mention the very bright star/planet but, that, I actually like. It took me a few trials and errors to get the exposure I needed to avoid star-trails. For this scene it was around 5 to 8 seconds of exposure with an ISO of 6400 and a wide open aperture of ƒ/2.8. It’s the best image I came home with, out of the half dozen I took over the two weekends. It’s not a large portion of the Galaxy but I’m happy with it yet definitely not satisfied with the results. I had a very hard time editing it and had to do some research on post-processing these kinds of images. I need more practice and experiment more with astrophotography. Never stop learning, right?

The beach at the bottom of the image is Turtle Bay and behind the cliff is Roche Percée Beach (very popular with surfers). Both are well known for turtle hatching which we were right in the middle of. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any but Géraldine and her two girls did. Every year, hundreds of turtles lay their eggs here, which produce thousands of baby turtles. It takes 45 days for the eggs to hatch so both beaches are patrolled every night for about six to eight weeks. Making sure the turtles, the nests and babies aren’t interfered with in any way. Keeping this area a sanctuary for these incredible creatures.

Carved from the natural erosion of the waves, the weird looking rock formation at the end of the cliff is Le Bonhomme. A landmark in Bourail and New Caledonia. There’s a lookout at the top of the cliff but unfortunately part of it is closed off now due to erosion at the base causing the edge to collapse. Still worth the walk or drive up there as the views are just magnificent.

I haven’t had the chance to photograph the stars since but I hope to in the next month or so. Fingers crossed.

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28 mm, 5 seconds @ ƒ/2.8, ISO 6400