Sydney Vivid Festival - 2010

Thanks Mr. B for organising the “usual suspects” to shoot this year’s Sydney Vivid Festival. We met outside McDonalds in Circular Quay and things didn’t look promising as it had been drizzling all day. I was pleasantly surprise with the large, than normal, turnout considering the crappy weather. It has been quite awhile since we had almost everyone turned up for one of these sessions. Except three, who piked out, as they didn’t want to get wet, you know who you are.

We decided to start off at St. Mary’s Cathedral and work our way down to the Sydney Opera House. It was still drizzling so I put on my rain poncho which became a mini portable sauna and the humidity was getting higher the longer I walked. However, it did keep me and my camera bag dry. The rain miraculously stopped when we got to St. Mary’s Cathedral. Hmm, wondered if it was the praying or cursing?

St. Mary’s Cathedral

Some of the guys decided to do some impromptu light painting with the free torch given by the festival’s organiser. All these shots were taken with my Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8.

We took a break and had dinner at Wagamama, Have to say that I wasn’t overly impressed with the food, Their ramen was rubbish and wasn’t cheap. This is not the worst food ever but definitely not the best either. Anyway, after dinner we headed off down to the Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Opera House

This is how the images are projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.

All the shots of the Sydney Opera House were taken with my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8. I will upgrade to a Nikon 70-200mm when they bring out a f/4 VR II version.

The original plan was to head back towards Hyde Park Barracks but most of them were complaining that it was too cold and tired to carry on and just wanted to go home. Looks like we have to come back another night to finish the shoot.

The Blast Furnace - Lithgow

Decided to check out the blast furnace after reading about it in a photography knoll. Looked rather interesting. Left about 3:30 pm in the afternoon for a leisurely 2 hour drive to Lithgow. Get there just in time for a dusk/night shoot.

Drove around Lithgow for a Cafe for a quick dinner and some coffee but just about everything was shut. Hmm, I saw  a sign for Maccas on the way into Lithgow but we couldn’t find it. I stopped and asked a local cab driver for directions. He said that it was about 10 mins down the road on the way out of town.

The cappuccino was horrendous, it was bitter and tasted really odd. I heard the guys on the next table whinging that it was the worst coffee ever. At least the quarter pounder was okay but the fries were yucky!

The Blast Furnace

Blast Furnace Park is a monument to Lithgow's industrial history. It was here that the first iron and steel were cast in Australia. William Sandford established the blast furnace in 1886 and it continued production until 1928 when the entire industry was move to Port Kembla.


 

 

All the above are HDR shots. Each shot consist of 3 separate exposures (-1, 0, +1). Tripod used, tone-mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6. 

All these shots were taken at around  20:00 hrs. I was eaten alive by mossies but it was worth it.

Here are a couple of non-HDR shots. The sun suddenly appeared from behind the clouds. I really liked how the reflected sunlight gave both the building and wall a warm golden glow.

Cathedral Rocks, Jones Beach, Kiama

I was looking for something new to photograph outside of Sydney. I found

, after about an hour surfing, Cathedral Rocks at Jones Beach, Kiama, a small seaside town  about a  2 hours drive south of Sydney.

Here are some of the shots from my shoot last Thursday. I hope that you will enjoy them.

 
This HDR shot consist of 5 separate exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2). Tripod used, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6.


This HDR shot consist of 5 separate exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2). Tripod used, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6.


This HDR shot consist of 3 separate exposures (-1, 0, +1). Tripod used, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6. 


This HDR shot consist of 5 separate exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2). Tripod used, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.6. 

                                                       ISO 200 | f/8 | 1/200

This is a non HDR shot. It was taken with my Sigma 70-200mm.  I love the texture and details on the rock face. It may not be the sharpest lens around but I am pretty happy with it.

                                                      ISO 200 | f/16 | 30 secs

This was taken a few minutes just before the sunset. I love the glassiness of the water with the reflections of the rocks. I also love the bluish tones. For some inexplicable reason I did not do a HDR version.

                                                   ISO 200 | f/11 | 240 secs

I had to wait unit the sun was completely down for this shot. It was about 21:00 hrs (9pm). The mosquitoes were out in force. I use my LED head torch to light paint just the face of the two rocks to highlight them.


This 180° HDR Panorama consist of 8 separate panels, shot in portrait mode. Each panel contains 3 exposures (-1, 0 +1), tripod, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro, stitched together in CS4 and tweaked in LR 2.6. 

Newport Tidal Pool

Went out to for an evening/dusk shoot at Newport Tidal Pool. I really needed to do more tests with my Cokin X-Pro filter setup. All the shots was taken using 2 x Cokin X-Pro filters stacked. My feet, socks and shoes got a thorough soaking. I just wished the swell was larger and more frequent. The long exposure wave shots would have had more oomph! Should really do this in the early morning when the tide is high.

                                          ISO 200 18mm f10 13 secs

This was my favourite shot from the entire shoot. This was taken towards the end of the shoot. I really love how the surface of the tidal pool turned out, so smooth.

HDR

   
                ISO200 24mm f22 2 secs                    ISO 200 17mm f22 2.5 secs

I also tried a couple of HDR shots. Each shot consists of 3 separate exposures [ -1, 0 +1 ], tripod, tone mapped using Photomatix Pro and tweaked in LR 2.5. I like to keep my HDR as realistic as possible.

                                                ISO 200 14mm f16 4 secs

                                              ISO 200 16mm f22 1.6 secs

There was way too much daylight when I was trying to get the long exposure shot of this wave receding. I had to stop down to f22 just to get 1.6 secs.

                                               ISO 200 16mm f16 15 secs

Panorama

                                          ISO 200 14mm f16 1/50 secs

This is a 180° panoramic shot of the beach and the tidal pool. I should have shot this in portrait mode like I normally do. This pano consists of 8 separate shots taken in landscape mode, stitched using CS4 and then tweaked in Adobe LR 2.5.

Newport Tidal Pool - Northern Beaches

Sydney Luminous Festival - Canon G10

Went out last night, armed with my Canon G10, with a couple of photo buddies to shoot the Sydney Luminous Festival again. The weather was a bit dodgy with intermittent rain. Had quite a few shots ruined because of water on the lens.

Projectors warming up with targeting marks to ensure alignment

I really wanted to see how good my Canon G10 was for night photography at long exposures. Overall, I am pretty happy with results but I thought that they were a little noisier and definitely not as sharp as my Nikon D700.

Museum of Contemporary Art 

Sydney Opera House

Unfortunately, the maximum exposure for the G10 is only 15 secs and no bulb, so it was not always possible to shoot at f8 to increase sharpness and dof. 

Click here for more of my Canon G10 shots from the Sydney Vivid/Luminous Festival.

Sydney Opera House - Sydney Luminous Festival

The iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House is currently being used as a canvas illuminated by the artwork of Brain Eno, ex-Roxy band member, as part of a sound and light festival in the city. 

The "artwork" uses "self-generating software" to manipulate 300 of Brain Eno's drawings and projecting them onto the sails.




The inaugural Luminous festival started yesterday and runs until the 14th of June. The show starts at 17:00 hrs each night with the artwork morphing every few minutes. You need to be there a quite a long time to see all the possible incarnations.




The sails are illuminated on both sides of the Opera House but the display from the Botanical Garden end is static. The sails looks awesome with artwork projected onto them and I wished it could be like that all year round.

A marks the exact spot I was taking the shots from 

I took the shots from Sydney Cove, I arrived about 20:30 hrs and there were already quite a few photographers happily snapping away. I was very impressed with the display and I would like to back to take some shots at 17.00 hrs, the light should be fantastic just after dusk. So if you are in Sydney get down there and get some shots.






Here are some up close shots of the Opera House. It was harder to take shots here as there were people walking through your shots and the worst part is some of them were photographers who should know better.

Click here for more shots from the Sydney Vivid/Luminous Festival.