Static Life Photography

Hi, and welcome to my very first blog post!

As you'd expect, it's a photo blog. A phlog? I feel like phlog isn't a thing, but that it definitely should be.

Now part of the reason I love photography is because I feel images convey much more than I ever could with my feeble command of the written word. And as such I promise I'll try to keep the rambling to a minimum, and pretty pictures to a maximum. I'm always up for a chat, so if you have any thoughts, drop some knowledge on me in the comments section below!

So thanks and welcome again. Read on for more about Vivid Sydney, and most importantly, more shiny happy photos.

Dan.

After moving to Sydney a few short years ago, one of the photographical highlights for me at least, has been the Vivid Festival. 

Vivid Sydney (www.vividsydney.com) now in it's sixth year, is an all-out celebration of Light, Music, and Ideas. That's what the tag-line says at any rate.

This year I made sure I got in early, to sus out all the good spots before things got too busy. As I found out, all this really got me was into the background of many a Harbour Bridge/Opera House selfie.

Not to be put off by featuring on many a tourist's facebook feed, I reached straight for my 24-105mm and an ND filter and got shooting.

If I was to shop again, I'd go darker than the Kenko ND400 I have in my kit, as even at F/22 & ISO 50 I wasn't able to completely phase out the sedentary tourists. I could composite multiple exposures to achieve the end result, but as a rule, I prefer single exposures throughout my photography.

Having come to love this city over the last few years, I couldn't resist grabbing some establishing type shots of Sydney. So still sporting the ND400, I meandered over towards the Botanical Gardens and snapped this shot looking back towards the city.

A single exposure just over 2 minutes gave me that smooth-as-a-baby's-butt look on what was actually quite choppy water. The wind was on my side for a change though, as the clouds really co-operated, sliding outwards away from the setting sun.

Finally the sun buggered off and the light show began.

I'd signed up for a free walking tour of vivid with Canon Collective (check out CanonVivid for details), which is a must for anyone interested in bettering their photography.

Canon ambassadors were on hand for ideas and tips, and for those interested in new gear (let's face it, who isn't?) they had a whole swag of 70Ds & standard zooms to lend for the night. Now if you already know your F-stops from your bus stops (Thanks Colin), it still makes for a great social walk with like-minded folk.

I won't go on any more about Canon HQ (seriously, just check it out), but the icing on the cake was after the walk the gurus at Canon HQ were all too keen to demo the Pixma MG7160 and let you walk out with a free A3 print of your favourite snap. I printed the above image straight off camera, and it came up a treat!

Full disclosure: I am in no way affiliated with Canon Australia. I am however, a big supporter of using community as a marketing strategy. Everybody wins.

No need for explanations here.

Tasty street meat - get it in ya.

Fresh prints in the bag and food in the belly, I headed back out for a few shots now the crowd had started to thin out.

Out came the tripod again and the mid-range tele (70-200) and I made myself just about as comfortable as I can ever be; sitting on the cold ground huddled over a tripod and a DSLR (we photographers are a weird bunch), and I'm reminded why I love photography so damned much.

Photography gives me an opportunity to freeze one perfect, beautiful, stress-free moment into a frame, for myself and anyone looking on (and hopefully still reading), regardless of whatever else might be going on around you.

Unfortunately the night did have to end, and more fortunately, so does this blog post. If you want any info on the gear used or details/EXIF data of any of the shots above just leave me some love in the comments section and I'll get right back to you.

Dan