Fatu Ma Futi

I lost track ast o how many times I woke up early to get a photo of this rock formation. Either no clouds, raining or something else. I finally ended up with a photo that I liked. There are actually two rocks, with this one being the larger. There is a story behind the formations that there were two lovers from Samoa who sailed here. They were named Fatu and Futu. After a rough journey from the Island of Savaii, they were being tossed by bad weather and their canoe capsized. They continued to swim and swim, and they finally reached Tutuila (now the main island in American Samoa where this was taken). But they died on the shore and were turned into these rocks. When the people discovered their story and epic journey, they named the rocks after them.

If you are photographing sunrises/sunsets, take your exposure reading from the left or the right of the sun (not directly at it). Look at your histogram to try and avoid blown out highlights or shadows. In this case, a GND would have been difficult, given the rock formation. Instead I took two exposures and later combined them in photoshop. I had to do this as to expose for the sunrise would have left the rock black. Expose for the rock and the sunrise is blown out. You of course need a tripod and not move your camera to do this.