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.

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.