One-a-day posting No. 17 – Goodbye from Sydney. This is the last of the Sydney postings. Hope you enjoyed them. Tomorrow we start the Melbourne (or more accurately, Victoria) one-a-day postings – look forward to some fab views of the Great Coast Road, The 12 Apostles and Wilson’s Promontory.
One-a-day posting No. 16 – Abstract Sydney lights. The last shot taken from Watson’s Bay towards Sydney – another of my odd city lights shots. See the earlier posting in the Hong Kong series for another example.
One-a-day posting No. 15 – Sunset at Watson’s Bay. Second of the evening shots from Watson’s Bay towards Sydney. To get this shot, I used a neutral grad filter in combo with a graduated “sunset” filter – hence the contrasting colours from the previous shot. Seconds after the photo it tipped down with rain!
One-a-day posting No. 14 – Watson’s Bay. This is the first of a triptych of photos taken from Watson’s Bay towards Sydney on New Year’s Day evening. We’d just spent the day on Bondi and were about to have dinner in the very famous fish restaurant (I forget the name) in Watson’s Bay. The food was ok – but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it again. Anyway the fab sunset over Sydney capped off a memorable day …
One-a-day posting No. 13 – Icebergs at Bondi. The Icebergs Swimming Club gets it’s name from the tradition of its members of lobbing great lumps of ice in the pool before their swim. Sounds like something only the mad dogs and Englishmen would actually do….
One-a-day posting No. 12 – Bondi. This photo was taken from the Icebergs swimming club back towards Bondi beach on New Year’s Day 2007. Sara and I had dragged ourselves out of bed following much champagne and fireworks the previous evening – slapped on the factor 30 and headed for the sand and surf….
Now the technical stuff – this was taken with a polarising filter (hence the deep blue skies) but absolutely no “Photoshopping” thereafter. Nice when one gets it right “in camera”.
One-a-day posting No. 11 – Hunter Valley. This photo was taken in the Hunter Valley in December 2006.We had been doing a mini tour of some of the vineyards (interesting, but not spectacular wines) and came across this lump of red rock – framed by vines and interesting sky.
One-a-day posting No. 10 – Skippy in the Hunter Valley. Sara, Stuart and I took a bit of an excursion to the Hunter Valley – to sample the wares. We stayed in a great place in the valley – and this old-dear was the resident kangaroo.
One-a-day posting No. 09 – Circular Quay and the Toaster. This shot was taken from the steps of the Sydney Opera House looking back towards Circular Quay. The building in the foreground is unaffectionately called “the Toaster” by Sydney-siders – it’s fairly universally revilled by the locals because it messes up some of the traditional Sydney iconic vistas (like the Bridge and Opera House). Personally, I think it’s okay. Sara and I were invited by a friends-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend to a fantatastic New Year’s party in the Toaster – we were eye-level with the Bridge and had fab views of the fireworks.
On a technical front – the shot was taken at the wide end of my 17 – 35mm lens. This meant that in the original shot all the buildings started to converge in the sky due to lens distortion…..thankfully corrected by software.
One-a-day posting No. 08 – Sydney – Hobart race. This shot was taken on Boxing Day in 2006 at the start of the Sydney – Hobart race. The leading yachts are just passing through the Heads – the entrance to Sydney harbour before heading south to Tasmania. Just out of shot are thousands and thousands of spectator boats – quite an impressive sight in their own right! There was a stiffish NE breeze and it was fantastically warm and sunny. Unfortunately the race lived up to its reputation – within a few hours gales had blown up and a number of yachts were dismasted overnight. Someone famous (I forget who – answers on a postcard, please) likened the race to standing in a cold shower tearing up $100 bills…. the reputation lives on.
