Rodney Campbell's Blog

Shoot the Opera House during Vivid Sydney with the full moon rising behind it – sounds easy :)…

I wish I could say this was my idea – however all credit must go to Ana Andres who had the idea for us to shoot the Opera House with the full moon rising behind it (this night it was scheduled to rise just a few minutes after 6PM (which is when the light show starts)).

It was tricky finding a suitable location to shoot from but eventually found a place way back on Dawes Point up behind the construction site.

Getting further away I could use a longer lens to frame the Opera House and have the moon relatively large in the frame. The clouds were an absolute bonus. Then it was just a matter of timing a display.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I actually shot quite a few bracketed frames thinking I’d need to blend the images to cope with the massively bright full moon – however… I LOVE my D600 – the dynamic range is awesome – these are all single frames with very few adjustments – win!

Vivid Moon Rising

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 2.50 sec at f/9, ISO 400

Vivid Play

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 125 mm, 3 sec at f/8, ISO 400

Turn Up the Vivid

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 2 sec at f/9, ISO 400

Fully Vivid

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 1.60 sec at f/9, ISO 400

An early morning session at Long Reef at Collaroy on Sydney’s Northern beaches with Gerry and Suren. Just a thin band of cloud on the horizon out to sea so no epic clouds this day, but as Gerry predicted we did get some nice crespucular rays and some nice tones in the sky (in both directions). We arrived with the tide surprisingly high so weren’t able to get out onto the reef like we’d hoped :(. It was a case of getting our feet wet (Suren and I) to wander out to where some of the boulders were so we could include them (since they are essentially “the” feature of Long Reef)

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

The stones leading us towards where the sun will rise in about twenty minutes

Step to the Light

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 23 mm, 33.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Pre Dawn Glow

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 21 mm, 6 sec at f/11, ISO 100

We actually got quite a bit of nice colour in the other direction (looking west) as well as a smattering of clouds – this image a single frame looking sort of south westish taken just a couple minutes before sunrise

Stepping Stones

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 2.50 sec at f/11, ISO 100

All Out to Sea

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I joined some fellow Google Plusers for a Saturday afternoon street photography photowalk in the bustling hive of Newtown.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Newtown

NIKON D600 + 35.0 mm f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 1/25 sec at f/14, ISO 100

The Cake Man

NIKON D600 + 35.0 mm f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 1/250 sec at f/2, ISO 100

Man in a Cage

NIKON D600 + 35.0 mm f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.2, ISO 100

Best Friend

NIKON D600 + 35.0 mm f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 1/40 sec at f/8, ISO 450

A less known aspect of Vivid Sydney this year is the move to include some Vivid magic on the north side of the harbour (in North Sydney) as well as on the western side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

You can’t really see any of this from the city/circular quay but if you head over to Luna Park or Blues Point you can see the lighting on the bridge itself.

Before heading into the city to check out this years Vivid my girls and I first headed down to Blues Point to scope it out – this was taken at 5:25PM (about half an hour after sunset but half an hour before the lights for Vivid Sydney started – plus with a full moon behind the bridge – tricky) and is a panorama stitch of seven (7) frames taken with the 16-35/4 @ 35mm, 15 seconds @ f/11 and ISO 100

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Before

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Later that night when we’d finished in the city we returned briefly to see the Bridge (and Opera House, Pyrmont and city buildings) all multicoloured lit up at night.

This one taken at 9PM (in the rain – sigh… my daughters did a great job holding the umbrella over me and my camera whilst I completed the sequence) and again a panorama stitch of seven (7) frames taken with the 16-35/4 @ 35mm, 30 seconds @ f/8 and ISO 100

Vivid on the Flip Side

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 15 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Some Sydney CBD architecture with the very very wide Sigma 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Just before I got “warned” that I wasn’t allowed to photograph this building without prior permission. Strangely I had no problems whilst photographing inside the building, I only got “accosted” when I was outside on the public footpath on George St trying to photograph the outside of the building up into the sky. Sure I know my rights in this respect but I left it at a polite apology and walked off given I had the shots I actually wanted already.

Square!

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/30 sec at f/5, ISO 220

and of course it’s almost mandatory to try the fisheye out in Angel Place and I was really happy with how this image turned out in monochrome

Cages in the Sky

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/30 sec at f/5, ISO 250

Lastly I headed up to The Strand Arcade where I’d been meaning to take some wide or fisheye images for a while. Fortunately they’d also installed this interesting lone tree wrapped in knitted wool of various colours (as part of a campaign for wool). Headed up to the first floor, waited and waited and waited for people to be out of my frame (it was 2PM after all) and handheld the brackets for an HDR on the railing (so I could shoot down to 1/15th of a second and get a nice clean set of images).

The Stranded Tree

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/4, ISO 200