Arriving on Easter Island

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WELL hello from beautiful Easter Island. About 3:00 this morning I left the hotel in Santiago and have flown five and a half hours across the Pacific Ocean, about a third of the way home to Brisbane. I've now landed on Easter Island. I've now checked into the hotel and settling in, but I've got the rest of the day off. I have quite a few tours coming up in the next couple of days. I thought I would spend the afternoon exploring the main town which is over in this direction. I'm going to get a feel for this most mysterious place I've always wanted to go to. Because Easter Island is part of Chile, I thought while I am in Santiago I may as well come over here. It is a long way over here from Santiago, about the same distance as from Brisbane to Perth. It is a very long way offhshore. This is a volcanic island and it is quite small. While I am here I'm going to explore and find out how the moai got here and I'll be exploring them. In the mean time I will just be exploring the town here and keep on going.

Well I've reached the far side of town and there's moais everywhere. I'm quite surprised there are moai right along the shore going past the town. They all face eastward and I'm thinking this is going to be a really good area for sunset shoots. Obviously the difference between light and shadow is pretty extreme at the moment but this area has definitely got a lot of potential. I mean check this out. We've got the town in behind here. It's the perfect sunset spot.

Well I'm back out here for the sunset. There is quite a crowd here and it's interesting to see where everyone is. I was just down there where that guy is. That is the correct spot for a really good shot. Those people over there are facing directly to those moai and these people over there are facing into that one. They are all in the wrong place. They are facing front on. They are not going to get a good effect like they would on an angle. I'll show you what I mean. I'm just coming down the hill here. This guy has got the right idea. You need to find a place like this. Obviously the gopro has a very wide angle but I'll just get that. You can see the moai in the front, and the more distant ones in the background. That creates a lot of depth. Sure the sun is over there, but the clouds are creating some really nice effects. I'll do a portrait view now to get the amazing cloud effects. Obviously the best time will be in about fifteen minutes when these cirrus clouds really brighten up. I'll just capture this one right here. Yeah, a lot of people don't think about the angle too much. Here's another interesting one. The big moai is out in front. This is a little unconventional but we've got the sense of depth happening with the town behind it. I'll just keep going up here, getting back far enough to get some good shots. Most people just find a spot and just sit there. When you have got a dynamic sunset like this you do definitely need to be moving around. Anyway the best is about to happen, so I'm going to close off and take lots more pictures which you will eventually see on the site.

There are very few people left now. It is almost dark. It was very interesting to see about two minutes before all the good colour happened, half the crowd disappeared and they kind of missed out. After that when the colour disappeared, those of us who knew what they were doing, those with big SLRs and tripods we all knew where to go and quickly congretated to the right places, and eventually those with mobile phones came and joined us as well. Obviously I was running around getting the best shots. Right now with it getting really dark, I'm hoping to get some good shots. I'm cranking up the exposure time. I'm taking a thirty second exposure. The clouds are moving, so they are going to blur. Obviously I should have a tripod, but I've found a good rock to put my camera on. The exposure's going to be on for so long that these people walking past won't even appear on it. Because the exposure is going to be so long the clouds are going to be blurred whilst the moai are going to be very still and sharp. That horn you hear is sombody doing some sort of ceremonial thing. Obviously he does this at sunset each night, some blessing for the moai which I assume is related to the ancestors which the polynesian culture. I'm fairly familiar with Maori culture and I do make a few assumptions on these, and I am hoping to learn a lot during these tours I've got over the next couple of days because this is really mysterious and I'm into culture.