vivid sydney 2011

Vivid Sydney is now on until 13 June. I remember I enjoyed snapping away in the cold in 2009 but missed the event in 2010. This year, I lugged my own equipment - a brand new tripod making its debut for this festival and my old but faithful dSLR - instead of the borrowed gear I had to make do with two years ago.

I don't remember these skycrapers being lit up in 2009 but I may have been distracted by the other lightings back then.



This light sculpture named Jellight depicts three giant floating jellyfish and is the creation of a multinational team of lighting designers and architects from France, Australia and Singapore. It is the largest light installation that greeted me when I arrived at Circular Quay.



These trees have been there for like forever and have been part of Vivid Sydney since its inception.



And of course, the highlight is the colourful projections of 3D images onto the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House. It was a bit more difficult to capture the illuminations on the sails this year because each set of images changes too rapidly and partly because the water traffic right in front of the Opera House was exceptionally heavy that all the pretty light reflections on the water was disrupted all night long. My long exposure on the camera ended up just showing a bright glare where the lights fall onto, losing all the intricate designs. And the streaks and breaks in the water from the boats that were zipping past every few minutes just added to my frustration. Below are the only nice shots I deem acceptable for public viewing that I managed to capture due to a combination of a lot of patience, some luck and a little bit of good timing.







As it got later into the night, approaching midnight, people started to make their way home.