The Story Behind the Photo

August 2025: Member’s Choice

Ron Steinke

This photo was taken late August of 2024 on the south island in New Zealand.  I took an astrophotography workshop to the island to focus on the Milky Way. 

 August is winter in New Zealand, there were large storms coming in to the west coast so we decided to explore New Zealand’s east coast where it was much clearer.  In the afternoon while sight-seeing and scouting for a night time shot, we found the Moeraki Boulders Beach.  Not good for Milky Way but good for a sunrise.  These boulders formed 4 to 5.5 million years ago.

 The next sunrise our group went to the beach and got pictures.  I saw this broken boulder with water in it and with the water around the boulder made a nice reflection.  Our entire group made a conscious effort to not walk too close to any of the boulders to keep the foot prints away.  Got lucky in the tide, it wasn’t covering the rock or way out there for no reflection. 

 I used my Canon EOS R, Tamron 15-30mm G2 lens at 30mm, f/9, 1/30 second and ISO 200.