New tripod!

After Vivid, I realized that my trusty old Slik (at least a decade older than me!) wasn't really up to the task of supporting my D90 and fat-ass 17-55 for long exposures. With that in mind, I picked up a Manfrotto 190XPROB and 804RC2 head. Awesome.

Now, no post without pics. As you may remember, I was intending to go back to Milson's point to experiment with long exposures, but I last night I found myself in the vicinity of Lady Macquarie's Chair (on the other side of the harbour), so I decided to stop by and give the new tripod a whirl (yes I just so happened to have my camera in my car. And my new tripod. And my ND filter. :D)

From this side, the bridge and Opera House aren't particularly well lit, so I won't post up those pictures. Instead, here is a bit of the Sydney skyline.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 18mm | 239.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

There are a few blurred stars in the sky, but I decided not to remove them in post.

Vivid Sydney 2011

Vivid Sydney. Festival of lights. Armed with my trusty D90 and tripod, I decided to check it out.
To be honest, I went more to experiment with long exposures of the harbour, and the light-show on the Opera House and surrounds was just a bonus (or negative, in that there were millions of people everywhere). I managed to find a reasonably clear spot and set up amounts a forest of Manfrottos and Bogans (and Bogens).

Now one annoying thing with the D90 is that when you use Bulb mode, it requires you to keep the shutter depressed for the duration of the exposure. Definitely not going to happen.
Thankfully, if you use a wireless trigger, you press once to open the shutter, again to close it. I don't have a wireless trigger, but my faithful Nokia N900 does have an IR transmitter and - with the help of a handy little app - happily took over that job.

So, with ND8 in place, here are the results...

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 60.0 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100

Damned moon moves too fast...

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 120.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Water is getting silky smooth. I was going to try for a much longer exposure, but a group of children decided to set up camp next to me, and keeping my camera steady wasn't high on their list of priorities. Plus, the Opera House had lit up, so I decided to move on.

The next few are taken from the Cahill Freeway, you can take a lift up to the overpass, which was surprisingly deserted. With the Opera House however, exposures longer than about 30s resulted in a big mess of colour, rather than pleasing patterns. Back in the bag with the ND8 then.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

I was glad that I had lugged along my 80-200. Meant that I could sit back away from the crowds and photograph in peace. My old Slik tripod wasn't too happy though, I had it at full extension to shoot over the concrete barriers lining the sides of the freeway.

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Squiggly lines here are patterns of dots that ran up the sails. Made for a nice effect.

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 2.5 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 3.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800

Went for a walk through the other sculptures, waay too many people crowding around for me to bother with the tripod, so I just walked on....

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1/30 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1600

...and found myself near the Harbour Bridge with a nice view of the Opera House. The lights made for funky patterns on the longer exposures.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 38mm | 25.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200

Eventually I made my way back down to the harbour, and found an even better vantage point. Unfortunately the patterns were repeating themselves, and I got bored (and cold) and decided to call it a night.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge

Another couple of old photos I decided to post up before going to Vivid Sydney. Taken from around Milson's Point, out all the way to Luna Park. I'm quite happy with the way these turned out, I might revisit this spot now that i've gotten my hands on a ND8.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400

(Almost) silky smooth water..mmm

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 18mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400

 Blasted ferries are annoying when you're taking long exposures. I had a few more versions of the last one, but there were light trails all over the place.