My Favourite Image

First witness

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By Ian Moore | September 15, 2018

Ian Moore

Lifelong photographer, now enjoying retirement in the flatlands of Lincolnshire. Landscape, architectural, and some portraiture. Only shoot MF , currently on the Pentax 645Z, with a variety of 645 and 67 (via adapter) lenses. Favourite destinations include the deserted Norfolk and Lincolnshire marshes, Ireland, and American west and southwest. Printing with Epson printers , currently the 7900 and 4900, preferably large scale, up to 36" x 24" , on Epson, Fujifilm, and Colourbyte papers.

Every photographer has an image that means a lot to them, even if it's not the most successful on social media or one that friends and family don't 'get'. Images that stretch the edges of compositional norms, that show well-known places in different ways or that reflect a moment that means so much personally in your progress as a photographer or just in life. When Ian Moore sent us this image, we thought it would be a good way to start a regular feature. So thanks Ian!

If you have a personal favourite photograph of yours and a story behind it and why it means so much, then why not share that with our community. Submit your favourite image here.

We have all been inspired by a unique moment defined by an unrepeatable image. For me it was Earthrise, the ‘Blue Planet’ photograph of Earth rising over the Moon’s surface, taken from lunar orbit by Bill Anders in 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. (Galen Rowell said “it was the most influential environmental photograph ever taken”). The closest I have ever come to personally experiencing such an event occurred during a touring holiday in New Zealand, a few years ago. I was carrying only a small travel camera, so the resulting image is certainly not one of my best, but remains vividly imprinted in my memory for the reason of being in exactly the right place at the right time…..”..be there” as we say…

Whilst planning my three-month tour, I had researched NZ history and culture, especially the Maori legends. The image shown is of Mount Hikurangi which stands 80km north of Gisborne on the eastern coast of the north island of NZ, in the Raukumara range, and according to Maori mythology was the first place of their nation to rise from the seas, fished out of the ocean by Maui (a Maori cultural hero). It is revered by the Maori, and the summit of the mountain was chosen by one of the largest tribes as the place of celebration for the arrival of the new Millennium. As mountains go, it is not particularly striking in appearance and at 5748ft certainly not the highest in New Zealand.

However, Hikurangi was of interest to me for a different reason. I had read that due to the tilt in the earth's axis and orbital pattern around the sun,

I had read that due to the tilt in the earth's axis and orbital pattern around the sun, in the southern hemisphere summer months the slopes of Hikurangi are ‘generally regarded’ as the first place on earth to receive the first rays of sun of each new day,

in the southern hemisphere summer months the slopes of Hikurangi are ‘generally regarded’ as the first place on earth to receive the first rays of sun of each new day, due to its altitude....although other islands in the Pacific east of NZ claim this distinction at other times of the year, and Gisborne claims to be the first 'city' in the world to see the new dawn.

Visitors from the north island of NZ meeting Maori from the largest south island tribe, are apparently given a traditional greeting which translates as "Welcome O’ Sunrise," a coded reference to Hikurangi. We regard sunrise and sunset as the 'golden hours' of the day for making pictures, and some even measure the future by the number of sunrises left in a life. So, I decided to make the trek to the Waiapu Valley looking out onto Hikurangi, and, perhaps for the only occasion in my lifetime, be amongst the first on earth to witness the start of a new day. But standing alone on a remote windless hillside that morning, with no-one else in sight, no man-made sound, and only bellowing bulls and birdsong for company, looking out at Hikurangi, at 21 minutes past 7am local time, I realised I had a unique view, and like to believe that, however unlikely, I was the first and only witness to the start of a new day.