VIVID is an annual 3 week long festival in Sydney showcasing light artworks, musical performances, and thoughtful talks. That said my brain is too flummoxed from my daily happenings to want to hear talks and speeches, and I find myself in music venues for work on a regular basis anyway.. so off to see the lights!

VIVID wasn’t able to happen for the last two years due to COVID-19, however this year (2022) as Sydney recovers, the lights turn on! Supposedly this year is the longest light walk, spanning nearly 8 km from Circular Quay to Central. I haven’t posted a [photographer’s] commentary post about VIVID before, so this will be my first :)

Personally, the lights at VIVID have been hit-and-miss - as some installations don’t seem to be that creative or well-thought out. I think the last “nice” installation (by nice, I mean… good for photos) was the Cathedral of Lights (giant arch of fairy lights) all the way back in 2016.

I feel like each installation should have some sort of plaque to describe the piece, and the author’s meaning - you know… art stuff - rather than leave it completely up for interpretation by the viewer. Whilst you can view it online (ish), it’s a rather troublesome step to have to take out your phone to search up every installation - especially when you’re physically there trying to take in the atmosphere and environment. That said, given how crowded Sydney gets at night, that plaque would need to be rather large hey…

Photo Style: 💃

Being more of a landscape / scenic photographer, I’ve historically been to VIVID solo, and bury myself in the same spot for hours (minutes.) taking long exposures and photos of the like. During COVID-19, when Sydney was in lockdown and I couldn’t leave the house… whilst processing my backlog of assorted photos I felt like the landscape photos which I took felt.. rather lifeless (akin to my mood at the time). But this led me to think.. how many of these photos will I actually look back at…

Probably not a lot hey.
Now I still love my landscape photos, chasing the sunrise and sunsets, the calmness of going to places alone, the stillness (or roar) of the wind - but I did want to challenge myself and switch up my photo styles.

For VIVID 2022, I wanted to try more night portraits and “creative people photos” instead of the usual Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Luna Park, Darling Harbour water show, etc… - these are on each year, and are essentially always the same thing anyway.

So yeah, this year my photos will (hopefully) be less landscape-like and more portrait-like.
And yes, it means finding a common time to go with people 🙃

Location Scouting

Hah tricked you - I still went by myself!

Since I wasn’t sure of the lighting conditions, or space conditions prior to the shoot with friends; I decided to go ahead of time to figure out the sort of photos that I’d like to get. Considering the light walk is 8km, I’d want to maximise the quality of time.

Okay here we go

Central - Goods Line

Where

At the exit of that long tunnel towards UTS at Central Station

What

Haze + lasers + projector to create a ‘sky’.
Probably cool to people who don’t do event productions, otherwise it’s just a bunch of lasers in a long room

Probably would look cool to have a low-aim-up shot with a model.
Complement with some blue key light
Flash from behind maybe (hard if there’s other people)?

Tip 1

Get here early (perhaps make this your first stop, and walk Central -> Circular Quay), the waiting lines get long.

Tip 2

With the crowd control fencing, you take a ∩ path. It’s super crowded in the direction towards the tunnel since everyone’s holding their phones recording a video and taking it in. In the outwards direction, everyone’s done with their photos/videos and just want to exit. Take your photo on the way out to get the most separation from everyone else.

Tip 3

It’s quite dark. Have fun getting your camera autofocus working. Use your AF assist beam or use a light on low power

Tip 4

Try a variety of shutter speeds, a fast shutter speed, long shutter speed (w/ second curtain flash). Perhaps get the model to hold something luminous and spin around?

Darling Quarters

Some store selling novelty lights

Where

Darling Square, near the Bubble Nini tea shop

What

There’s a little store where they’re selling these transparent balloons with lights. I didn’t check the price.

Tip

Interactive lights, you know what that means? Play with it!
Hold it close, hold it far, hug it; get that nice face illumination and bokeh from the background

Overglorified ring lights rotated on its side

Please be aware that these aren’t the real names of the installations… I mean I hope that was obvious

Where

Outside the Chinese Garden of Friendship

What

Up close, you get this really playful atmosphere.
From afar the street light’s orange glow really complements the blue
#cyanandorange

Tip 1

This gives me “wonder” vibes, model looking off into the distance

Tip 2

Try to split the orange and blues; either a key + fill, or key + back

VIVID House

Where

Near the Chinatown bridge to Town Hall

What

Be advised: super long wait lines…

It’s a bunch of giant LED screens around the room, I kinda really just see it as a large fill light…

Ideally I’d like for a wide shot with the model in the middle, but with the amount of people in the room, I can only really envisage one or two nice portrait photos… Not really worth the 30 min ± (some multiple of 5 minutes) waiting time

Tip

Maybe nice to model with glasses, and get the screens as a catch light in the glass?
Model learning against the panels. You can touch it (the crowd control security guard stands outside)

Hidey Holes

Where

Er, up the stairs near ICC?

What

Not an exhibit, but probably a nice place to get some bokeh

Tip

Definitely will need some extra light

Darling Harbour

Where

Waterfront of Darling Harbour, you can’t miss it even if you try.

What

The plat de résistance of Darling Harbour, the water show.

Tip

There’s two main perspectives - perpendicular to the water line (you see all of the jets of water horizontally); but I feel like it’s more interesting (and unique) to go parallel to the water line - such that the jets are behind each other. Walk around to the ex-IMAX area and you should be able to line yourself up

That said, the water shoots out in all directions so it still looks quite magnificent

Barangaroo / Wynard

Where

Near the Barangaroo exit of Wynard station. It’s away from the main path of the walk, so a lot of people will miss it if they just follow the coastal path from Darling Harbour to Barangaroo to Circular Quay

What

The ChronoHarp artwork (probably my favourite) is quite a large yet hidden (due to its physical location) tubular light installation. Plenty of ‘neon’-eque and perspective photos

Tip 1

Stand in the centre, look up.
And get the photographer to snap!

Tip 2

Transparent umbrella?

Tip 3

Play with being ‘in’ the art

Circular Quay

LED Cube

Where

First Fleet Park (Circular Quay). You’ll see it.

What

LED matrix with a interior reflective sphere.
No photo direction here, just enjoy it (or record a video I guess)

“That” back alley

Where

EDIT: Nurses Walk (lane)

Honestly I don’t know the name of this alley. From my recollection it’s one of the ways to get up to the Harbour Bridge. You walk along the streets of Circular Quay and then turn into one of the perpendicular streets

What

Idk, just feels like a nice bokeh spot again

Keep walking along that back alley

Where

Greenway Lane … just keep following Nurses Walk until you hit Argyle Street

What

Some mirror I guess, I felt like it was cool

CYAN AND MAGENTA 👏

Where

Hickson Road, near the Overseas Passenger Terminal (FYI if you didn’t know, you can walk up to the top deck for a nice view - ignore the boom gate; it’s actually always publicly accessible)

What

Cyan.
Magenta

Duotone.

Tip

Probably stand where that lady in the photo is standing, the lights are just blowing out where I am… but hey look at my edge light!

The scary robot thing, but to the side

Where

Hickson Road Reserve

What

Okay I don’t actually care for the robot (it looks nicer at a distance btw).
But it has a smoke machine. And it creates a nice ambience.

Tip

Get the model to stand on the sidewalk. Perhaps a silhouette, or a front on, vogue-like, head to the side, etc…

Walsh Bay

Where

Pier One, Walsh Bay

What

BUBBLES

Unfortunately the fencing gets in the way for any nice portraits

Tip

Bring that background to the interactive foreground!
Buy some bubble mixture and get the model to blow some bubbles of their own.
Probably need some catch light for the bubbles