During a recent visit to New Zealand my wife and I had the opportunity to do some impromptu explorations which included a visit to Gemstone Beach.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

This stretch of coastline is found in the Orepuki area on the South Island and is located about 20 minutes from the town of Riverton.

Gemstone Beach has some beautifully rugged coastal cliffs. Some caution needs to be exercised when walking close to the cliffs as they are subject to ongoing erosion, making rock slides common.

At low tide you can walk along the expansive beach and hunt for shells and semi-precious gemstones such as garnet, orbicular jasper, and quartz, as well as oil shale and fossil worm casts. Driftwood can also be found along the beach which can add some interest to compositions.

Using a wide angle lens allows photographers to capture the feeling of grandeur of this impressive stretch of beach and its reddish-orange cliffs.

While I don’t normally like to have other tourists in my photographs I did compose a number of images which included people as they helped to create a sense of scale.

We came across a fast running creek towards the end of our time at Gemstone Beach. I noticed two pairs of shoes that other visitors had taken off when they waded through the stream.

I liked how the colours in the shoes coordinated nicely with the natural colours of the beach rocks so I incorporated the shoes in one of my photographs. My wife and I both enjoyed photographing the wild, rugged atmosphere at Gemstone Beach, listening to the waves, and smelling the salt air.

Technical Note:
All photographs were captured using Nikon 1 gear as per the EXIF data. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process of DxO PhotoLab, CS6 and the Nik Collection.

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