Vivid Hits Chatswood... - Rodney Campbell's Blog Rodney Campbell's Blog

Vivid Hits Chatswood…

by Rodney Campbell on May.20, 2015, under Life, Photography

It’s once again Vivid Sydney time. This year some new Precinct’s will be opening up (outside of the CBD) including one in my home area – Chatswood.

In a few days time the onslaught will begin – the crowds, the cameras and the cacophony of light and music which is all part of the amazing Vivid Festival each year here in Sydney.

Light Under the Sea

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/2 sec at f/8, ISO 100

This year I’ll getting out of Sydney during the opening weekend 🙂 – however both before and after I know I’ll be drawn once again to joining those crowds and shooting those amazing light installations.

Last night I took my gear and headed into my local shopping district (Chatswood) where a number of light installations will be playing during Vivid (22nd May through to the 8th of June). I wanted to recce the area where the installations would be so I could get a better idea for where they were and work out some test compositions for when it was all lit up.

As luck would have it one of the people working on the projections was someone I knew and he was kind enough to light it all up for me and even better freeze frame some projections so I could shoot at a cleaner low ISO with longer exposures rather than having to shoot fast shutter and high ISO to freeze the animations.

The theme this year in Chatswood is an underwater aquarium feel and all the installations across Chatswood expand on that theme.

Whether it is one of the glowing oriental sea creatures brought to life with lighting (by 32 Hundred Lighting) as seen at the top of this post, or the underwater aquarium projected in the mall outside Chatswood Westfield.

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.

Norbert the Nautilus

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 2 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200

It is however the fantastic projections (designed by the awesomely talented team at Ample Projects) onto the modern architecture of the Concourse building which steal the show in my opinion. It’s amazingly impressive how they’ve managed to wrap this piece of modern structure and is probably some of the best I’ve seen. The five minute loop is fantastic and definitely one for the young through to the young at heart to watch.

Dancing with Jellyfish

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 3 sec at f/7.1, ISO 200

The Nautilus and the Sea tells the story of Norbert the Nautilus and his brave journey to find a new home. Trapped in a bleak world of discarded human refuse, Norbert lives in a homemade shell created out of lost objects. The surrounding environment is a stark, black and white underwater world fastidiously patrolled by Lieutenant Angler. Our hero breaks free, to embark on a perilous journey to discover a vast ocean, and a reef teeming with life.

Fishing