Rodney Campbell's Blog

The Vivid Sydney Festival is on in Sydney at the moment during the month of June and Macquarie Street, the Harbour and the Opera House are being lit up with spectacular coloured projections each night this month.

I took my camera and tripod into the office with me on a couple of days over the past week and took the opportunity with the relatively good weather to take a few photos before the rain came.

The first four shots were from the first night I went out and I only took my D90 and Nikon 18-200mm ultrazoom lens (and Manfrotto tripot) – however I was very happy with the sharpness (at these relatively low focal lengths) of this lens combination.

This first image was taken in Hyde Park not long after sunset – the fountain was lit up bright blue however I took the shot from behind the fountain with the bright blue spotlights on the other side facing towards me so I was essentially silhouetting the fountain:

5 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 60mm equiv

This shot is on the Opera House forecourt looking across the back sail and across to the city:

15 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 27mm equiv

The next two shots were taken from the Overseas Passenger Terminal across Circular Quay to the Opera House as it was being lit up by the awesome projectors in the top of the passenger terminal above me:

25 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 78mm equiv

.

20 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 75mm equiv

The next two shots were taken last night (it rained unfortunately – or rather drizzled – which made for both an uncomfortable time as well as reducing the clarity of the image making). They were both taken from a high vantage point on the steps coming off the Harbour Bridge above the rocks.

This first is a HDR created from five shots at -2EV, 0EV, +2EV, +3EV and +4EV and was taken with my Sigma 8-16mm Ultra Wide Angle lens on my D90. It is taken from our vantage point on the edge of the bridge looking back at the city:

1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 12mm equiv

This last photo was taken with my D90 and Tamron 90mm macro lens. This lens has fantastic sharpness and this image is unaltered straight from the camera and taken about 30 minutes after sunset (towards the end of twilight) – a couple minutes later and it is essentially dark:

15 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

You can also see more (and higher resolution) photos I took over the two days in a web gallery of 25 photos at the following (maximise your browser window 🙂 ):

http://www.rc.au.net/vivid_sydney_2010/