A Parable for Our Times?

[Murray Foote]

Here are some Easter Island images from my blog, you can find out more about them there. I've been posting them for about the last six weeks and including detailed explanations with them. When I put up the last Easter Island post (Contents and Bibliography) today or tomorrow, I'll have put up 150 images and written 23,000 words just on Easter Island.


Ranu Raraku




Ana Kakenga




Ahu Te Peu




Ahu Hanga Kio'e



The Government released their Carbon Price policy yesterday which makes my last blog post quite topical. Five paragraphs down I have a special topic Is Easter Island a Parable for the Present?. I summarise what happened & why on Easter Island in the classical period. Then I discuss to what extent those events help us to understand the issues of today.

I am sure there are many people who don't well understand the ecological issues of our world. Unfortunately, doing nothing is no longer a tenable alternative. Apathy and ignorance are no longer an option. I think we all have an obligation to Life itself to understand these issues so that we can contribute to developing a consensus for positive change.

Comments welcome, either here or in the blog.

[Marvin]

That second picture is a cracker. I look forward to reading the blog.

[Murray Foote]

Thanks, Marvin

Ana Kakenga is a lava tube that comes out in two places in a cliff high above the sea. There are many such caves, though generally not with a view like this. They became places of refuge during tribal conflict and the entrances fortified. They were also hiding places from groups of marauding Europeans.

I was set up on a tripod taking this shot when half way through the HDR sequence the sun came out streaming along the water. I finished the sequence and took another. It only lasted about twenty seconds and I only got it because I was already set up. Sometimes you can be lucky.

[zafra52]

Good pictures, but I like the second best.

[biggerry]

Comments welcome, either here or in the blog.

Great to see some images from your trip Murray - i did intermittmently post a few comments on your blog whilst you were down there.

Onto the images..

The last two images are the ones that stand out in my eyes, the 3rd image has a really nice composition and good choice in the subject - good spotting there, my only gripe with that one is it feels like its upside down maybe try and flip it 180 degrees and see how it looks? my brain expects the face to be the right way up. Nonetheless a minor detail.

The last image is the strongest in terms of composition, the horses on teh horizon just polish the image off, nice work. The PP does nto ring my bell though. I think BW might be a better choice than teh sepia and the vignetting is a bit overpowering - bear in mind I don't like vignetting if it is immediately obvious, other peeps mileage may vary and it can be a preference thing. Good choice on teh pano crop on this one too.

The second is nice, but for me takes a backseat, the colour feels a bit cool. The slight HDRish feel i do like though.

[radar]

Murray,

I certainly really like the last two, the last one would be my favourite.

I have gone, quickly, through your blog, lots to read and look at there, will definitely be returning.

I am sure there are many people who don't well understand the ecological issues of our world. Unfortunately, doing nothing is no longer a tenable alternative. Apathy and ignorance are no longer an option. I think we all have an obligation to Life itself to understand these issues so that we can contribute to developing a consensus for positive change.

Well said and thank you. There will never be any solutions that make everybody happy and as you say, "doing nothing is no longer a tenable alternative".


André

[Murray Foote]

Thanks Gerry and Zafra

I just corrected the names of the locations of the last two images. I hope no-one had gone into the blog looking for more info on those locations.

Good point about the second one. I'll have to try playing with the colour balance outside the cave and see whether it makes a difference. Maybe the blue is a bit too saturated. It's not that far off the capture, though of course there's no such thing as accurate colour balance in such conditions and the challenge is to recapture the emotional power of the moment.

The third one is just below the ahu, you can see the ahu wall at the top right. I wouldn't have had an angle from there because you can't walk on the ahus. Rotating it doesn't work, it just makes it want to drop out of the frame. I quite like it like it is. It's poignantly disconnected from its former glory.

For #4, I don't think I've ever done a vignette like that before. It just seemed to work here for me, suggesting a nineteenth century image though in actual fact the moai wouldn't have been standing then and there may or may not have been stray horses on the island. Paradoxically for a reverse vignette, the vignette helps concentrate the eye on the moai and the horses. Otherwise, the smaller moai fragment at the far left is more of a distraction. This is what it looked like in colour, without the vignette:

[Murray Foote]

Thanks, André

[biggerry]

This is what it looked like in colour, without the vignette:

yeah I like that much better - two thumbs up.

Well said and thank you. There will never be any solutions that make everybody happy and as you say, "doing nothing is no longer a tenable alternative".

true - i gotta say, its only a few days into it I am already sick of hearing about the whole subject...

[Murray Foote]

true - i gotta say, its only a few days into it I am already sick of hearing about the whole subject...

All the negative political points-scoring is rather annoying.

At the risk of seeming to take a lighthearted comment seriously, that I think is the political spinoffs of the Carbon Tax you're referring to. We have yet to see even foreshadowed a Population Policy (taking into account our limited resources) and a policy for sustainable use of resources, the two providing the basis for sustainable economic development. Leaving it up to the market won't work because of what economists call externalities - where individuals or businesses can exploit resources to their own advantage but to the detriment of everyone else.

[Murray Foote]

The second is nice, but for me takes a backseat, the colour feels a bit cool. The slight HDRish feel i do like though.

I had a look at that but I don't find that warming it helps. One subtle change I did make was to lower the lighting in the cave a touch and a highlight in the cave at centre-right a bit more. I thought it was competing a bit with the sea and the sun. (Image above is changed accordingly).

It is an HDR but should appear realistic if possible.

[Murray Foote]

I have just published my last blog post for Easter Island. It includes a list of special topics, a list of posts, a bibliography and a map of the island.

There are also six monochrome images, all of which appear as colour images in other posts in the blog. The one of Ahu Hanga Kio'e appears above and has just become Picture of the Week. The colour image from Ahu Te Peu above appears as a toned monochrome. There are also other images from Anakena, Tongariki, Ahu Hanga Poukura and Ranu Raraku.