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Bird's Eye View of Rangiroa
"We found a French man who has an ultralight, a crazy hang-glider contraption with a lawn-mower engine. We hired him to come meet us on the far side of Rangiroa. He has pontoons on it so he can land anywhere in the water. We wanted to get an aerial perspective of the atolls to show how flat they actually are.
"I'm looking down the atoll of Rangiroa, and on the right you can see dark blue in the upper corner. That is the Pacific Ocean, and it's crashing on a live reef there. The center area is all basically fossilized coral. On the left is the interior lagoon. That's where the island would have been when it first erupted as a volcano, but has since eroded back down into the ocean. What you're looking at is not sand but small little pieces of white coral."
—Photographer Peter McBride
Photography Notes
- Camera: Nikon F100
- Film: Fuji Velvia 50
- Lens: 50 mm
- Shutter speed: 1/500th
- Aperture: f8
- Time of day: 2 or 3 pm
"One challenge was just trying to get a clear view. I'm sitting in front of this crazy French pilot, and there are lots of wires and cables everywhere.
"You also have to be careful with reflections coming off the water, which can confuse your light meter. Since I didn't have a light meter, I had to take a measuring of the light off the back of my hand, using my hand like a gray card to get an average light reading."
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