Australia Day 2010, Melbourne, part 2

Continued from Part 1...

As the armed forces march into the distance, the Peoples' Parade takes over with Australians from all ethnicities and walks of life joining in the fun to celebrate a vibrant nation.

I guess they form part of a comedy troupe that can potentially work in circuses.

You can hear the bagpipes screaming from a distance. They're pretty loud ;)

This school band participates in almost every major street event that I know of.

The Turkish troupe.

I'm not sure how Elmo fits into the Korean costume, but at least he's red~

I've this idea that senior chinese ladies spend their days drinking tea, practising tai chi and talk about life, something that my grandmas should be fond of doing.

Vietnamese umbrella girls. Now thats one pretty lass over here.

The dragon ushers the coming of the Chinese New Year. Hmm.. I wonder where all the lion dance groups have gone to.

The girls from the buddhist group walk in single file bearing their lotus flowers.

The Falun Gong group.

This group has something a bit special in mind...

A giant lotus flower, with a little girl in it. Wow.. Australia Day is looking more like a Buddhist procession as the years go by.

The Drum Corps are the finale of the parade (I expected something a little grander, actually) before the rest of the onlookers trail the parade down Swanston St.

Photowalk 11 Jan '10

Had an afternoon nap today, intending to go to Docklands for an evening shoot. Unfortunately, I woke up pretty late. By the time I reached Etihad Stadium (formerly Telstra Dome), the sun had already set below to horizon.

This is a view of the city at 9pm. There's still plenty of natural light left in the sky.

I then took the 50-200 SWD and zoomed right in to the front of the stadium. I was fortunate that the breeze is quite slight today, so even with a long focal length (240mm equivalent), the image was pretty sharp. Try doing that on a windy day and I'd guarantee you that you'd be cursing the weather elements ;)

After 20 minutes, the sky has a deep purple hue which accentuates the light from the buildings and streetlamps. Although most cameras have no autofocus issues, it is extremely imperative that you get focus extremely spot on. Of course some highlights will be blown out (unless you do HDR), so getting the right exposure is also essential.

As the prayer of proper pixel placement goes:

Darks on the left
Lights on the right
Greys in the middle
And Lord help us preserve the holy highlights
Amen

As a final treat, here's a panorama of the scene.

I hope these windless summer evenings continue for some time.

Cheers.

Photowalk 29 Dec 09

Sometimes as a photographer, it's better to put down your camera instead of missing out on all the fun. I had that compulsion two days ago to drop by a friends place to play Wii for an hour and then leave for some evening shots. Instead I stayed on for the next 12 hours for poker, cooking instant noodles, youtube-ing and making a make shift bed using 3 chairs! Wow, that's a blast indeed.

Anyways, I headed down Dudley St from home yesterday towards Docklands for my first evening photo walk in 2 weeks.

The weather was beautiful - a little windy, yet not too hot.

A closer look at the railway yards.

The city bathed in beautiful golden sunlight.

Interesting building facade at Docklands.

Docklands is all geared up for the New Year's eve celebrations. The metal barricades are all up.

Lots of boats parking in Docklands nowadays.

The stumps represent some victims of ferry related incidents, or something like that.

Here are some other images from Swan St Bridge which I just got down to editing them today. I took them two weeks ago.

Thats's all folks! Cheers.

ps: whoops, I almost missed this out:

The internet is great for sharing photos. It's a revolution in itself. It's convenient, democratic, robust, vibrant. I'm not saying it isn't any of those things, so please hold the complaints! But the problem is that it's a Great Pacific Garbage Patch of pictures. That's its nature. There are billions of photographs on the web. One person cannot look at all the photographs on one big photo-sharing site—I mean cannot, it is not possible, even looking at three pictures per second all day long as a full-time job—and there are thousands of sites.


So what's missing? Editing. Winnowing. Sifting. Curating. The creativity of culling. The imposition of a viewpoint. Redaction. Call it what you will.


Now, let the culling begin!

The advent of Christmas

Today was quite warm, so I thought I might as well go out of the house and do some photo walking.

Yep, this is Melbourne at 730pm. Still pretty bright eh? You betcha!

Rush hour is still in progress, but most of the office folk have gone home.

I rushed to the Yarra and set camp there. A boat carrying some rowdy school kids passed by. They must be really enjoying themselves.

It took another long wait for the sun to finally set and the city lights to be brought out to their full splendor.

The ferris wheel does its own business as usual at Birrarung Marr.

Somehow, the night sky looks more enticing to the west compared to the east sky. Hmm..

I'm currently practising some ''creative'' night photography techniques after watching a DVD tutorial. Hopefully the lessons would get me somewhere eventually.

Bourke St Mall is brightly lit up with a belt of LCD lights to usher in the Christmas shopping season.

And here we have it, the current mascots for the Christmas windows in Myers. The piglet looks lovely, doesn't she?

The family of piglets eagerly place cookies and milk at the fireplace for Santa.

This exhibit is well worth the visit, so do pop by if you go along Bourke Street. It will be there for almost two months, so there's almost no reason for any Melburnian to miss it, unless you don't give a damn of course.

Cheers.

Stop and look

Its a pretty warm Sunday evening, so I decided to take a stroll down the river again. Summer's here! Time to get out your sunnies and bathers and hang out at the wonderful beaches.

Like huge metal guardians, these statues watch quietly over the Yarra River.

Melburnians and tourists alike are strolling along the Yarra River bank, perhaps stopping by the restaurants for an elegant Italian meal or some gelatti for dessert. School kids are now on their holidays, hanging out with their friends without any worry in the world (unlike some unfortunate Malaysian school kids who have tuition during holiday times).

But that's all that is on the exterior, isn't it? All pretty, prim and joyful ? Allow me to give you a glimpse of whats happening below the surface based on what I've seen so far.

A saxaphonist nearby busks for his daily living, hoping for some pitance from passersby. They throw him a coin or two, listen for a short while, then continue on their way. He treasures every coin, cause thats whats going to earn him a little dinner for himself. He hasn't eaten the whole day, and continues to play on through the night as long as he can.

A drunkard hobbles slowly along the footpath, shouting randomly at anyone that gets his attention. He's unshaved and hasn't bathed for weeks. He holds his bottle like a vice, and drinks from it from time to time. He goes towards the saxaphonist and utters some more random words. He's a public nuisance and pisses on the streets. No, the rest of the folks aren't amused with what he's doing and they don't give a sh*t.

A group of homeless folk sit down on a bench, talk among themselves and share a cigarette. Though the city council does give them some cash to tide them over, they instead spend it on booze and drugs. Unless they get a real job, they'll most likely in that same situation for a very very long time. They've only got their fellow homeless friends to keep them company. Things get worse with old folk. They're usually on their own, and just make do with whatever there is, usually a park bench. I've seen a fair share of them all these years. Only God knows if they'll ever be remembered when they pass on.

A homeless mother and her child wait eagerly for the soup van to arrive for their daily dinner in one of the city's back alleys. Their meal is simple, just some soup and bread, served by willing volunteers. Otherwise they wouldn't have a chance of surviving. They're thankful for their meal everyday.

Every city has its ugly side. If you're looking at this article right now, chances are you have a comfy home to live in, a stable job, a nice family, accommodating friends, etc etc. You're so much luckier than they are. Its just a matter of whether you're willing to stop and look, or turn away and go your own way in life.

Cheers.