Vivid Sydney (ft. brother) // street photog

What's that? Another overdue post?! I never would have guessed!

Vivid Sydney, as we all know, was a while ago (back in June), but I only just managed to find the determination to edit these photos and post them. (Motivation has been hitting me as of late, actually).

These photos were taken at the same time that I filmed this video.

This time, I focused less on taking long-exposures and capturing Vivid itself. Instead, I looked more to the atmosphere and the people around at the event -- a greater focus on Street Photography, so to speak. [click for my Photography splurge about Street Photography, from one year ago]

It'd been a while since I had taken Street Photography, and I've sort of had to move on from it because of time constraints, so it was good to get back into things.

Street photography is an interesting branch of photography -- I'm no expert in it at all, but I think it truly is beautiful and can lead to some of the most meaningful and memorable photographs of all time. Some of the most famous and significant photography pieces in history have been Street Photos, and often people forget the true value of this category.

Street performers

So either way, I braved the night with my brother and a camera in one hand. And a GoPro strapped to his forehead. We started off at Darling Harbour, and decided to make our way slowly back to Circular Quay.

As with each Vivid event, I'm reminded how difficult it is to take photos in low light.

And, as always, I try to compensate for high ISO with black and white! Photographer's secret.

I never had the courage to go on one of these things.
They're dangerous things, I swear.

We also managed to walk to Darling Harbour and catch the firework show! To say it was a disappointment would be a lie -- it was much better than I had expected, really.

Unfortunate thing was the mass crowds of people, which meant that it was quite difficult for my brother and myself to even see the fireworks, let alone take photos.

And so, the solution? Take photos of people taking photos.

And, as always, I used the distraction of the fireworks as an excuse to look around me and take a few more street photos. At least this time I don't risk people giving me squinted stares of suspicion.

Father and son.

With more time to explore, we walked all the way past Circular Quay and headed to The Rocks. To my surprise, they had their Markets on, with a few more new stores that I hadn't seen in the past before!

Little biomes are so cute!! Like, seriously.

I tried to let my creativity flow a bit and broaden my perspectives, so to speak. Yes, everyone will take photos of the installations themselves, but sometimes there are much more interesting things to capture. Often we forget that and find ourselves too caught up in other things.

Trying to get into a bit of silhouette photography.

One thing I love best about Vivid is the interaction between kids and the installations. In a general sense, the installations are quite interactive, and it's incredibly exciting for young kids (which is also partially the reason I bring my brother along as well. I also find it really exciting, myself. Shhh. Maybe I'm still young at heart).

This year really impressed me because of all the interactive things they had, actually! It seemed a lot more than normal, and the perk of having such a variety was that the crowds and lines for each installation consisted of less people. That's always a +1.

And, of course, more street photography! How cute is it just watching these young kids satisfy their thirsts for curiosity? And of course, how great is it to be able to take photos of them (without parents being all up in your grill like 'why are you taking photos of my kid?!').

Poor ISO problems

Taking photos in low light situations is hard enough. Capturing street photography at the same time is so much more difficult.

I'll admit, I'm still no expert at it. Far from it, really! But I'm trying to stay more aware of my surroundings and slowly grow, one photo at a time. I guess I still need to work on taking photos of people front-on -- I really only do that with children because they seem to be so focused on what's in front of them that they rarely notice you (or, they don't care that you're taking a photo of them).

Either way, here's a shitty ISO photo (that I have conveniently converted to B&W) that I thought captured a really beautiful moment between a couple.

All together now... "NGAWWWW".

Fun thing about Vivid is that everyone seems to connect with each other. It doesn't matter whether you know them or not, there seems to be a commonality shared between all people there. The cold, the darkness, and the wonder of the lights and installations seems to relate us all to each other and remind us that we're here at Vivid to enjoy.

To enjoy, and sometimes lie in the middle of the road because why not.

(There was an installation projected on to the top of a tunnel here)

With the late night sweeping in (and the chilly breezes), my brother and I decided to head on off home. It'd been a long night, and an exhausting one at that, and we were keen to hurry on home and crawl into bed (and also avoid the rush around 10-11pm when everyone else left as well).

A quick pit-stop at the Canon HQ and we were off.

Saying goodbye to Vivid Sydney is always sad because I have to face the fact that it'll be an incredible 365 days until the next event (Well, 366 days). But, the anticipation makes it even more worth it, really!

So that marks the fourth year of Vivid I've attended. And I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Can't wait to see what next year's brings.