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I attended the recent Google Plus Sydney PhotoWalk 2013 hosted by Elia Locardi - for the event we were granted special group access to the Opera House Concert Hall Northern Foyers - with tripods and cameras to shoot, which was a rare opportunity. Nearly 300 avid photographers turned up.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't forthcoming and by the end of our time inside the Opera House it was raining consistently and all hope for a nice sunset was lost in thick heavy clouds and rain.

As part of the Chinese New Year celebrations the Opera House sails were to be lit bright red from the Overseas Passenger Terminal (the same location as for Vivid Sydney). Unfortunately there was a massive cruise liner at the OPT which had not left and thus the light show could not go ahead on time. A few brave souls along with Elia braved the weather to walk around to the other side of circular quay to the rocks side in the hope of catching some images of the Opera House from that side.

Around 8:30PM the cruise liner started moving out into the harbour and soon after I headed up towards the deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the hopes that the light show might start. As luck would have it when I arrived at the bridge steps the Opera House lit up - it was still raining but it was time to head across to the middle of the bridge and I spent an hour trying some different compositions.

Blood Red Sails


Be interested to see if people like this with or without the ferry?

Streaking into the Quay


I was starting to pack up from my very wet position on the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and was just about to leave for the night when fireworks started further down the harbour so I figured since I was here I'd setup again and take a few images which included the fireworks.

Tripple Threat


Nuclear Skies

Well done for persevering thought the wet conditions. My pick is the third with the fireworks adding a little more interest in the distance, but a heavy crop to remove all the darkness in the lower half would make it stronger. Perhaps crop just below the reflected blue light in the centre of frame?

Really pretty images. I agree, chop the 3rd into a pano style to get rid of the blackness.
The last photo is a real beauty, the redness in the sky compliments the red sails beautifully. Fantastic stuff and kudos for persevering !

For what it's worth I prefer no ferry in the first series of shots. I like them, but I don't love them.

Rodney

of the first two I prefer without the ferry

but number 4, I think is special.

Philip

I like the first photo and the last one

I like the ferry in, and the last shot is fantastic.

#2 is great, and a tighter pano crop for #3 has potential. Nice work Rodney

Rodney,

Fantastic photos and full marks for perseverance.

I think the last one is best; the way the fireworks catch the underside of the clouds at left and the reflection in the water bottom left really complete the composition. Not to forget the little catch light on Fort Denison

Did you use a slightly longer shutter speed for the last one?

Would you mind sharing image stats for the benefit of less experienced members?

Cheers.

Geoff M wrote:Well done for persevering thought the wet conditions. My pick is the third with the fireworks adding a little more interest in the distance, but a heavy crop to remove all the darkness in the lower half would make it stronger. Perhaps crop just below the reflected blue light in the centre of frame?

Thanks Geoff - I hear you re the dark area on the left - however I did like the edge of the harbour leading to the bottom right corner - with the third image however we do have the three elements spread very wide so I tried your idea - I've used a 3:1 crop here at the bottom...

Rooz wrote:Really pretty images. I agree, chop the 3rd into a pano style to get rid of the blackness. The last photo is a real beauty, the redness in the sky compliments the red sails beautifully. Fantastic stuff and kudos for persevering! For what it's worth I prefer no ferry in the first series of shots. I like them, but I don't love them.

Thanks Chris - appreciate the comments

sevencolours wrote:Rodney of the first two I prefer without the ferry but number 4, I think is special.

zafra52 wrote:I like the first photo and the last one

CraigVTR wrote:I like the ferry in, and the last shot is fantastic.

Thanks Philip, Zafra and Craig

... seems we're split on the ferry (as was I )

aim54x wrote:#2 is great, and a tighter pano crop for #3 has potential. Nice work Rodney

Thanks Cam - see below...

Victor03 wrote:Fantastic photos and full marks for perseverance. I think the last one is best; the way the fireworks catch the underside of the clouds at left and the reflection in the water bottom left really complete the composition. Not to forget the little catch light on Fort Denison. Did you use a slightly longer shutter speed for the last one? Would you mind sharing image stats for the benefit of less experienced members?

Thanks Victor - actually I needed to use a shorter shutter speed for the fireworks images (otherwise you just end up with a blurry overexposed mess)

The shooting details for the four images were:

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 30 sec at f/8, ISO 100
NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 25 sec at f/8, ISO 100
NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 12 sec at f/8, ISO 100
NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 5.6 sec at f/6.3, ISO 400

You'll notice for the last I bumped the ISO and widened the aperture essentially so I could use a faster shutter (basically you don't want too many fireworks bursts going off in the one frame otherwise they all blur and later on top of each other instead of seeing individual bursts). I shot the fireworks ones using the remote trigger manually and just pressed and held for the time I wanted (basically open the shutter before the burst - when I hear them launched - and close just after the burst has completed)

... and the crop for Geoff and Cam

The crop is perfect.

Rodney,

Thanks for shooting stats. I have been trying to get a handle on an EV table to help with assessing shoot settings.
Would I be right thinking that the EV was about +1 based on your settings?
Seems a bit low?!