Vivid Sydney 2016

Photography opportunities are rare as of late, though I did grab a shot or two in a quick portrait/head-shot photoshoot with JG the other day (which felt great -- it's been a while since I've shot a portrait).

With schedules that seem to grow never-endingly-busy, it was a struggle to find a date for all four Selective members to meet up and visit Vivid Sydney, with lights on lasting for a mere two weeks. (Also, yes! New Selective member!). Even so, with a decided date of the 27th, our attendance rate still sat at 75%. Such are the lives of busy Uni students.

The classic Cahill Expressway was a first-stop. Many flashbacks to the hyper lapse we attempted last year (which took far longer than we anticipated and was highly difficult and tedious to complete). This year, no hyper-lapse (thankfully), but just a few photos

Lugging around a tripod the entire day is:

1) Not fun

2) Extremely exhausting

and

3) Attention-grabbing

So it's a rare occurrence. Since we had them that day, we decided to make use of them, trying to grab long-exposures everywhere we went.

Long exposures are nice to do and I love the effects they can have (lots of creative potential) but my arms were most definitely exhausted for the following two days from all the lactic-acid build-up. Literally carrying around 4-5kg in my hands, resting on my bicep strength, for several hours is not something I am quite fit to do.

Nonetheless, what I loved about Vivid Sydney this year were the huge number of installations. This year they really spread everything out, with various installations dotted all over Sydney. Biggest shame was that a large number of them weren't interactive, though had the potential to be.

In fact, we saw one of the installations shut down because of the mistreatment that it suffered from, under the hands of the public.

You're supposed to sing to it to elicit a response, not jump on them and hit them with your hands.

One I really liked involved physical touch between two individuals; two conducting metal poles set the scene and the installation would light up only if the circuit was completed by individuals linking hands and acting as a conducting-medium. That was cute.

Vivid Sydney 2016 also coincides with the 200th birthday of the Botanical Gardens, so this display was on.

Funny to see the hundreds of people mistake this for a Vivid Structure, when really all it was made of was a string of Christmas/fairy lights strung across the lawn and on a hedge.

With Vivid lighting up various new settings, ranging from Taronga Zoo to the Botanical Gardens, I can only hope that it will remain next year. I'm not sure if the Botanical Gardens was a once-off thing due to its 200th Birthday, but it really spreads out people and makes each installation less crowded.

This year you could actually walk among the crowds, even on the opening night! Incredible!!

Another thing considered, however, was the literal environmental footprint left by all the crowds that marched through the grass in the Botanical Gardens. It makes sense to allow crowds to step on the grass (otherwise the concrete paths would be blocked) but after two entire weeks of non-stop treading by hundreds of thousands of people, one can only wonder what the state of the ground will be at.

"Do you think the light will interfere with their photosynthesis?"
(technically, since this light was blue, it wouldn't have)

One of my favourite shots at this year's Vivid

Although I may not have taken many shots this year (this is pretty much the collection of all the decent photos I managed to get), mostly because of time, exhaustion, and really over-all lack-of-excitement, I hope to think that the quality of each photo that I took is higher. 

I've come to realise that it's not so much about the quantity of the images you take, but the quality of each one of those. You may only walk away with one or two good shots, but the important thing is that they're good shots -- that's so much more satisfying than leaving with a hundred mediocre images.

A classic angle. Absolutely classic.

I also forgot to mention that this year's Opera House projection was one I favoured. For once they had a substantial amount of the projection and display dedicated to Aboriginal culture and art, which is really what should be included every year, considering the history and origins of our nation and country.

And, of course, another exciting thing about Vivid is watching people interact with art. Never an opportunity to miss for some handy street photography, and even just witnessing the wonder and curiosity of kids as they interact with the structures is something I could do for hours.

Vivid was a nice day out. Not so much for the photography, perhaps, but of the catch-ups and the laughs, and the fact that it was altogether just nice to get out of the house. With exams coming up, I've been busy and hardly found much time to post or complete any photography for my own joy. I'm hoping that once exams are over I'll be able to try that a bit more, and perhaps finally get around to posting about South-East Asia, or even edit all that footage (unbelievable, I know!)

Life has been busy, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. Big changes, and big things to do, and also planning some travel dotted here and there. Recently I've been re-thinking this blog and what I want to do with it -- with seldom posts and motivation to write, I'm not sure what to make of it. 

It takes a lot of effort to write and produce a ~quality~ blog post, and far too often I don't feel like I have that time or the effort/motivation to do that. It really is a shame because blogging has been something that I have been doing for many, many years, and is not something I want to give up in the flick of a switch.

Hope you all are well and life is treating you kind. With winter months coming up, stay warm, stay hydrated, and stay healthy.