Iconic Sydney - Australia

Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

I hadn't taken any photographs for sometime so decided to get out with the camera over the weekend. I drove down to Milson's Point to photograph the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. My shot list for the night included a panoramic photograph of both icons. I also tried a new 2:1 ratio on the photograph above and thought it came out pretty well.

More photographs inside.

Harbour Bridge and Opera House - Sydney, Australia

I got there at dusk hoping to be able to include a clear blue sky in the photographs but it was cloudy and grey. However, I liked the fact that the setting sun brought out the details on the underside of the bridge. Fortunately there weren't any people around to walk into the frame and I manged to fire off a few "keepers".

Harbour Bridge and Opera House - Sydney, Australia

The panorama above was a 4 or 5 image stitch. I would have liked the left hand side of the image to be a bit brighter but short of getting there earlier, there wasn't anything I could do. Maybe another drive down to Milson's Point is in order?

 Opera House - Sydney, Australia

These photographs were taken with the Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. I also used a tripod for all these shots. An aperture of f14-16 and a shutter speed between 20 seconds and 30 seconds was used for all of these.

Around Sydney - Australia

The Skyline - Sydney, Australia

I hadn't been out in the city with the camera for sometime so decided to go for a bit of a walk last night. I started off near Mrs Macquarie's chair near the open air cinema but didn't have any particular route in mind. I wasn't after any specific shots last night, just a walk and an an intention to photograph whatever came up.

More photographs inside.

The Opera House & Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

The next subjects were the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I'd been to this location to photograph them before (to take this photograph) but the light conditions were very different. This time I got there after sunset and the sky was a rich blue in colour.

The Opera House & Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

I would have preferred to have used a longer lens for the photograph above but unfortunately, I only had the 24-105mm lens with me. I was surprised that the smaller sails of the opera house were not lit up. That resulted in the main sail being a lot brighter than the others.

Cahill Expressway - Sydney, Australia

The next stop was a bridge overlooking the Cahill Expressway. Being a Saturday night there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road but a 30 second exposure was sufficient to photograph a few light trails as cars moved to and from the city.

Chaos on William Street - Sydney, Australia

Heading up along William Street towards Kings Cross on a Saturday night is probably the worst place to drive in Sydney. Kings Cross, the red light district in Sydney, is a hive of activity with thousands of people hitting the clubs in the area. The ever present hoons add a level of stupidity to the whole experience.

The Archibald Fountain - Sydney, Australia

The Archibald Fountain in Hyde park was the last stop on my walk. Built in 1932 , the fountain was a gift to the city bequeathed in the will of J. F. Archibald. It is intended to commemorate the association between Australia and France in World War 1 and is the work of French sculptor Francois Sicard.

All photographs on this post were taken with the Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. I also used a tripod for these photographs.  

Observatory Hill - Sydney, Australia

Observatory Hill - Sydney, Australia

I've been going to Observatory Hill over the last few weekends to try and photograph the Sydney Harbour bridge. I was after a couple of specific shots ( a couple of panoramas) and most of them required warm light. However one of them, the second in this post, had to be taken after sunset on a cloudy day. As a result of all of this, I had to go back to Observatory Hill on three separate weekends.

The results, after the jump.

The Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

I had to slow down the shutter speed considerably to get the light trails of a car driving down towards the bridge. I ended up using an aperture of f/22 and a shutter speed of 15 seconds to get a decent light trail. If I was to take this photograph again, I would probably compose the shot in a way that cuts out the tree in the bottom left hand corner of the frame. To me it just looks like a black spot and takes away from the image.

Observatory Hill - Sydney, Australia

I wanted to use one of the trees at the top of the hill to  compose a panorama. The light was coming in from the left hand side of the image and I though it would help define the tree and add another layer of interest to the image while balancing it out. This is probably my favourite image from this shoot.

Observatory Hill - Sydney, Australia

The tree in this shot is the same as the tree in the shot above. I wanted to capture an image of the bench facing the bridge and the branches of the tree worked well to frame the shot. Both panoramas were created by stitching 8 - 9 separate images.

I'd like to find out what you guys think of these images. If you do have a minute, please let me know via the comments. I'm particularly interested in finding out what sort of improvements you would have made if you were capturing similar photographs.

Opera House and Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

The Opera House and Harbour Bridge - Sydney, Australia

The weather hasn't been the best over the Australian summer and today was no exception. We woke up to another gloomy, wet day with showers forecast. From a photographic point of view, I had been waiting for one of these days to take some close ups of the Opera House with moody gray clouds in the background. I hopped on a train at around 2.00PM for the ten minute trip into the CBD and wandered down to Circular Quay.

More photographs from today's shoot, inside.

 

The Sails of the Opera house - Sydney, Australia

I got down to the Overseas Passenger Terminal to find a massive cruise liner docked at the terminal and blocking the view of the Opera House completely. I was a bit annoyed with my luck but decided to make the most of the day and walk around to Mrs Macquarie's Chair for some shots of the other side of the Opera House. I hadn't planned on shooting from here and I only had my 24-105mm lens with me. As a result I had to shoot and crop the images slightly to get the shots I wanted. I'll head down there with the 100-400mm at some point and re-shoot these images.

 

The Opera House - Sydney, Australia

On my way back to the station I heard the horn(?) of the ship and thought I'd go back to Circular Quay and check if it was moving. I arrived at the Overseas Passenger Terminal to find the ship heading off and the Opera House appearing from behind it. I spent another 20 minutes taking more shots of the Opera House before heading off.

 

The Sails of the Opera House - Sydney, Australia

All images on this post were captured with a Canon 7D and the 24-105mm combo.

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia 

New Years eve celebrations were fairly low key this year. I was at a friends place for a barbecue dinner followed by fireworks on the harbour. People usually get to the foreshore fairly early (8.00 - 9.00 in the morning...) and claim spots for their chairs and picnic blankets. We couldn't be bothered going through all of that and ended up on leaving home at around 10.30 PM.

More images after the jump. Happy New Year everyone.

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney Australia

We had decided to head to a location on the lower North Shore as it was not too far from home. The area was really crowded by the time we got there but I did manage to find enough room to setup the tripod without blocking anyone's view. We had unobstructed views of the city from where we were and had to hang around for only half an hour. No complaints form me.

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

The most annoying thing about photographing fireworks is the smoke. The first few photographs turn out alright but the others smoke obstructed the view of the city in some of the later images.

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

All the photographs in this post were captured with a Canon 7D and a Canon 24 - 105mm lens. I also used a tripod and a remote shutter release.

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

New Year's Day Fireworks - Sydney, Australia

Venice

A pickup point for Gondolas in Venice 

In this post, I thought I would concentrate on some of the things that we first noticed while wandering around the floating city - not so much the things that one thinks of as quintessentially Venetian, such as gondolas and Carnevale masks, which I will look at in more detail in later posts.

The image above is of the main Gondola "pickup point" at St Marks square. A 5.30am start was required to photograph the area around St Marks square without tourists walking into the frame. This area is unbelievably busy during "normal" hours of the day. The church in the background is San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of San Giorgio.

Read on for more info and images.

A Vaporetto navigates the Grand Canal

Venice consists of two main islands, which are divided by the Grand Canal, and a number of smaller islands. The Grand Canal, as the name suggests, is the main waterway used to get around. It starts in the Venetian lagoon and ends in St Marks Basin. The areas along the two banks of the Grand Canal are very touristy and full of restaurants and souvenir shops.

A Gondola glides along the Grand Canal

There are 4 bridges which span the Grand Canal. Of these the Rialto is the best known and the oldest - in fact, until the middle of the 19th century, this was the only bridge to span the Grand Canal. The Rialto is named after the market on eastern bank of the canal. It was initially a pontoon bridge built in 1181 by Nicolo Barettieri. Due to increased traffic the bridge was replaced by wooden bridge in 1255.  The wooden bridge burnt once and collapsed on two separate occasions, the last of which was in 1524. The stone bridge which stands today was built in 1591. It is constantly packed with tourists, either taking pictures, looking out over the Grand Canal or browsing around the two rows of shops which span the length of the bridge.

The Rialto Bridge

The Ponte dell' Academia is a relatively new wooden bridge across the Grand Canal. It is also the closest crossing to St Marks square. The entrance to the Gallerie dell' Academia is at the foot of this bridge on the eastern bank. The bridge offers two of the best views of Venice.

The Grand Canal photographed form the Academia Bridge

The islands of Venice are home to around 80 churches. Walking into most of these is like walking into small museums, as a number of them contain paintings and sculptures of the great Venetian artists including Tintoretto, Veronese and Titian.

Santa Maria della Salute photographed from a Vaporetto

All these images were captured using a Canon 7D and a Canon 24-105mm Lens. I also had a circular polariser on the lens.

Observatory Hill