Rano Raraku, Easter Island
Fujifilm GFX100S II, GF20-35mmF4 R WR, f4.5 @ 60 seconds, ISO 125, 15-stop ND filter

The moai (heads) of Easter Island and the theories and stories of their origins have changed dramatically since Kathie and I first visited the most remote island on the globe some 40 years ago!

More recently, around 10 years ago, I visited Easter Island a second time (while shooting a story for the Qantas Inflight magazine) to find a completely different dynamic. Whereas Kathie and I were two of only a few tourists driving around the red-dirt roads in our 4WD rental, a ring road around the island was now tarred and a national park system effectively restricted access to 60 per cent of the island to business hours – which are not really suitable for photographers.

This system is still in place today and I write this after returning from the final leg of my Chile photo tour with Tony Hewitt. I can also understand why the restrictions are still in place as our plane was full of tourists and you don’t want them clambering all over the monuments!

At the one location available for sunrise visitation, I saw hundreds of people one morning awaiting the sun’s arrival, proof of the island’s successful tourism policy. And perhaps the most famous location where the heads are buried on a grassy mountainside, Rano Raraku, still has marked paths and vigilant rangers ensuring you don’t stray too close to the heads.

Despite the restrictions, I found Easter Island a pleasure to photograph. Sure, there are lots of things you can’t shoot at the time of day or night you’d like to, but the world has always imposed restrictions for photographers and our job is to find solutions or alternatives.

The photo above shows a very popular angle, easily seen from the marked path. The difference (I hope) with this image is the long exposure which softens the sky, the removal of the path in retouching (don’t look too closely as this is just a preliminary edit and I haven’t spent too much time perfecting things), and a little adjustment to the colour (the yellow highlights have been added to what was already a verdant grass carpet surrounding the moai).