Sydney Opera House

In preparation for this year’s Vivid festival, I’ve decided that I would like to take some shots of the Sydney Opera House from Lady Macquarie’s Chair. Last year, I took all of shots from the other side.

I wanted to get there just before sunset so that I could get some dusk shots, just before the sun dipped below the horizon.

I love the sky colours and the greenish light on the sails. The shadows from the other sails gives an almost 3D feel to it. The test shots were promising from Lady Macquarie’s Chair and I am definitely convince that it will be amazing when the sails are lit up again.

Hopefully, it will be even more amazing, than last year, when the festival starts at the end of this month.

Here are some of the other shots I took that night.

It is not often I pull out the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 as I mostly shoot landscape and my favourite lens being the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. The Sigma is probably not as sharp as the Nikon 70-200mm VR II but not bad at all for an “el cheapo” lens.

I also managed to brush up on my panorama technique. I took the panos in both portrait and landscape modes. I think I prefer the second because of the sky colours and also the lights from the office buildings in the CBD. I used my beloved Nikon 14-24mm for the panos.

Hmm, I think I stayed too long as the gates to the Botanical Gardens were locked so I had to walked back to the car the long way round.

Lady Macquarie’s Chair

Lady Macquarie's Chair

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.