White Night 2016 has happened and it’s been huge. I’ve been to a number of them, but this was the second time that I headed along with the sole goal of documenting it via time-lapse. The only downside to all this is there are some parts that I just can’t get access to. Looking online, there’s some great shots of the Melbourne Baths and the La Trobe Reading Room at the State Library, but for what this is worth, I hope it gives some idea. So here we go, Melbourne on February 20, 2016, like you rarely see it.
Watch the Night in 2 minutes
I’m up on Facebook, too…
I’ve also got a video up on Facebook – check out the direct link to watch it on Facebook.
Looking over at Eureka Tower and the Arts Center
People moving around Melbourne
Looking at the sunset from Federation Square
Federation Square
Iconic location for White Night views
Up the top end of Swanston Street
Highlight of the festival. These guys were awesome 2am entertainment.
I’ve decided to ramp up my photography in 2016, so I’ve kicked off with a bold plan. I want to take a photo a day and share it that same day on facebook.com/regularsteven. Sounds pretty simple, if quality isn’t a goal, but I’m really hoping that I can snap and share something that I’m actually happy with. I’m a bit fussy with my shots; In the past you might see a picture that is cherry picked from 50 (sometimes more, sometimes less). So this project is hopefully going to push me to sharpen up what I shoot and put me under pressure to show what works, and perhaps what doesn’t.
This week has kicked off and I’ve hit every day with something I’m happy with. Some of the days I’ve captured a few shot that I’m pretty chuffed with, and one day (Jan 6 ) where I needed to give it a second crack.
I’m also hoping to get it up on Facebook pretty quickly. So while I might snap something in the morning, I’ll hopefully get it live that morning. Wont always be possible, but that’s the goal.
I hope you enjoy the effort that I’m putting in. It’s gonna have some misses – I know that. But fingers crossed it lets me find another gear and allows me to get some diversity in to my work.
So here we are; Week 1. Some of these were selected for my Facebook page, some have yet to be seen. Feel free to use for your own personal use in a digital sense, such as a wallpaper / screensaver. If you’d like to obtain higher resolution, please hit me up via facebook.com/regularsteven.
In East Melbourne
Overcast Melbourne Sunset
Looking over Southbank just after sunset
Longing for a long exposure
Looking up at the city above
Out the front of Section 8
Under H&M
Little Bourke Street
Looking down at the little people
Leaves covering the walkway
Out of place and in order
Looking East and up the hill
Seriously racing… Getting sideways, all that crap.
Beautiful sky on a Sunday night
Under a crazy sunset sky
And a big cheers to the rowers
Jellyfish in Docklands
Departure time TBC
Old and tired
Couldn’t catch a train…
Under the Bolte Bridge
Kensington way
From the subway
Black and white crossing, black and white treatment
Under Flinders Street Station
Clouds at the top of La Trobe Street
Feeding time at Flinders
Back streets of Melbourne
Flinders Street Clocks
Taking their position at the Flinders Street Taxi Rank
I’ll get this out of the way… I don’t really know Ween. I mean, I kinda know them, who doesn’t? But ‘know know’? Not me. I’ve got friends that love them – and they like good stuff, so, by extension, I guess I like them? Well, it’s the same kinda thing with Hello Ween: Tribute to the Boognish. We’ve got quite a few mutual friends, but that’s always what makes for an awesome party. And Hello Ween delivered – they were a fricken party.
You know when you see friends on stage, and you’re just so happy for them? I’m not trying to be sucky or anything like that, but it’s always great to see people you love just doing what they love, while entertaining a bunch of friends and strangers alike. When I turned up, I knew I was a little late, but I didn’t know if Big Leage had started yet. I was queuing up, I heard music, but I thought “all good, that’s just the CD…” but it was Big League. They were great.
I’ve never been to Jells Lake at sunrise, let alone Jells Park at first light. I’ve had no real need, and to be honest, I didn’t really know much about it at all. But a local amateur photography competition(#SnapMonash) recently caught my interest, and the requirements are to capture a photograph in the City of Monash. So that led me to having a little explore. On to Google Maps I went, had a look in the region, and I thought ‘that might be nice’.
I used to live just around the corner, but I wasn’t really in to photography back then. And having never been, I had no idea what I’d find, but I’m really happy I got up at 5am on Wednesday morning to check it out . The fog on the water, all the wild life, beautiful colour in the sky – the morning was really rad.
As for the competition, it’s being run from the Monash Gallery of Art and The Glen Shopping Centre. There aren’t too many entries yet on Instagram (check out the #snapmonash hashtag), but this kind of stuff really needs grass-roots support. I’m not a professional photographer, but it really is a massive passion of mine. And the only way these competitions run and encourage people with their passions, is if they get the entries. For all the details, check out the #SnapMonash Competition page
Anyways, here are my photos – I hope you like what I’ve found, and equally, get down there yourself. I just hope I submitted the right one. They say you can enter multiple times, but I don’t wanna be ‘that guy’…
Tree on the Edge. Just before the sun pops up.
Those Legs Are Working. Ducking across the lake
Flying in Straight Lines. Crossing the river at first light.
Fog’s Up, Moon’s up, Sun’s Down. Jells Lake Jetty, just before Sunrise.
Grass on the glass lake. Beautiful light at Jells Lake.
Birds of a feather… Flying over Jells Lake at Sunrise
Sun Punching Through. And ready to burn off the fog.
Smoke on the Water. Long exposure with fog floating on the surface.
To be honest, I wanted to run with a title of ‘Beautiful Billville’, but that would just be confusing… I mean, William gets shortened to Bill in some instances, but not this one. In any case, I think Williamstown is alright. It’s so close to the city, but it’s just so calm and peaceful. There’s always little boats bobbing around, and when the weather is nice, it’s just a killer view Melbourne over Port Phillip Bay & Hobsons Bay.
These here were shot on Sunday October 18. Mix of short and long exposures; that misty look on the water is a result of a 30 second exposure, if you’re wondering.
With Melbourne in the background, looking over Port Phillip Bay from Williamstown
Seemingly a mess, yet all very ordered
Long shot looking down the pier
Shooting at 200mm 2.8 with the sun glowing the air
Lines and lines
Looking over the bay to the city at dusk
Looking down the pier with a 30sec exposure
Melbourne at the end of the day, looking on from Williamstown
The Pinnacles at Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island are pretty close to Melbourne. All up, the drive is about 2 hours from Melbourne, but living in Australia, that’s not massive. As you walk down to the beach, it’s a pretty typical Aussie surf beach. Big waves, lots of sand, mist in the air, windy, and cliffs on the horizon. The entrance to the walkway is about 1km east (left) from the beach car park, so it’s pretty cruisy walk to the walkway which is the beginning of Cape Woolamai. You start to climb and get a better picture, but it doesn’t really prepare you.
The walk from the car park is about 45/60 minutes (depending on how often you stop for a click), and it’s not a tough mission. Along the way, there’s plenty to see, but nothing really prepares you for the real highlight of The Pinnacles. When you get there, you’re looking down from an observation platform and things look amazing, but still a little small. When you head down, it really gets put in perspective, and you really appreciate how large those rocks actually are. Each on of those pebbles are big enough for two to stand on. And there are thousands of them!
Lucky for me, this weekend I decided to head down and see how I’d go. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a bad move. The weather was wild, and I thought this could be a real fizzer. So, have a look through the photos below. You can see the weather starting off pretty rough, and as time goes on, the clouds blew over and the colour in the sky comes on strong to put on a show. Loved it!
Icing on the cake
Just to put icing on the cake, at one point we saw a pod of dolphins about 20 strong! Talk about an awesome little mission. Too far out with my wide lenses on, but still, it’s about more than the photos.
And a little freebee
You can download pretty sweet resolutions here, but if you’d like a super high original resolution of “Saving the best moment for the end. Amazing.”, I’ve got a download link for my favourite Pinnacles Sunset Photo. Feel free to use for personal use however you’d like – just don’t sell it…
Looking like it could get real, but there’s always a chance of change…
With the storm blowing over, I kinda thought this was going to be bad.
Beautiful views of the popular beach in clearing weather.
Along the walkway around Cape Woolamai
About an hour before the sun sets on The Pinnacles
Colours are flat, but that will change
At the base of The Pinnacles in the spring afternoon
Looking at the begining of the edge of Cape Woolamai. Here Bass Strait makes its splash felt.
Sun hiding behind the clouds for a brief moment before sunset
Saving the best moment for the end. Amazing.
Sun kissing the horizon at The Pinnacles on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
Just after the sun goes down, the sky really changes colour
Looking at the afterglow of sunset at The Pinnacles
Sky changes, surf rolls on. It gets darker, the mood changes, but the surf still sounds the same. Only more dramatic. P.S. All those dots in the sky; they are birds!
Mixing classic and contemporary isn’t usually as pronounced as this. But it just works…
Tim O’Grady, restored this little beauty as a pet project, and it took quite a while. When it finally hit the road, what better way to celebrate than taking it for a spin and shoot. I don’t know bugger all about cars, but here’s what Tim had to say.
So the car is a 1963 mini. I swapped it for a lawnmower that I had found in a hard rubbish collection. I’ve had it since I was 13. At the time it had been T-boned by an F250 truck and had been scrapped for parts. I took the shell and all the parts I could get my hands on. All the body and mechanical work was done by Dad, John (the original owner) and myself. I owe a huge thank you to Fiona and mum for work on the interior. It has been made to resemble the performance minis of the 60’s and I’ve tried to keep things original but with modern touches. The car looks exactly as I wanted it too and I’m really happy I stuck with it.
This Mini could get in places cars aren’t meant to be.
Cruising around Melbourne was a blast.
Docklands, as it is now, didn’t even exist when this 1963 classic was born.
New Backdrop with a Classic Foreground. Two icons, generations apart.
Hosier Lane Headlights. 1963 Classic Mini with a modern twist.
Hosier Lane Headlights. Street art working a treat as a surrounding prop
Taking a 30 second exposure, with 25 seconds still, then ‘GO’. Roll on…
It’s funny how when you’re a local, you tend to not really absorb the great things around you. Using myself in Melbourne, as an example, how much does it take to do something like visit the Aquarium? Or go for dinner on the Restaurant Tram? Or even head down to the Dandenong Rangers for a day out? What I’m getting at, is there is so much to do for locals, yet we often wait for friends of family to visit (from afar) as justification for doing something interesting.
Weekend road trip to the Mornington Peninsula
This last weekend, a group of friends headed down to the Mornington Peninsula, and considering it’s only 90 minutes out of Melbourne, it’s pretty remarkable how much of a change of sights we get (and the fresh, sea air!). I mean, you know it’s going to be different, but it’s easy to forget that beautiful nature isn’t really that far away when you get stuck in a routine of work-eat-sleep-chores-socialise, then repeat. And the photos below really only represent the beachy side of things; the winery and food missions we did were awesome! Only they were more about food and boozing (um, tasting) than photography.
So, needless to say, I tried to make the most of it, and for me, that means getting up at sunrise and trying to get that beautiful glow. Walking around with my camera really is how I find my own space, and I’m always wanting to capture something different (at least for me).
And on with the photography
I hope you enjoy the random splattering of shots from the weekend below. And feel free to download them as your wallpaper – they are pretty high resolution, so just right (or option on a Mac) click and chose to ‘save link as’ for the image. Let me know what you think, share it round/up-vote on social if you dig!
I’ve had my Lensbaby Edge 80 for around two years (at point of writing this), and I’ve never really put a group of photos together that demonstrate the kind of fun you can have with it. It’s not a lens that I’ll have with me all the time, but every now and then, it’s really cool to drag out and have a play.
In terms of how I use it, I really like to try capture a long or elevated shot, that gives the flexibility to make a tilt-shift type effect by bending the lens in its mounting (see this geeky YouTube to learn some more). It’s not something I need to do at any serious level, so the price point (compared to a tilt-shift) really makes sense, and I’m a big fan of it.
There’s something cool about doing this stuff in-camera, and the blur you get when bending it around, is very optically-real. What I mean by optically-real, is this is an effect that happens as a result of real optics changing, rather than trying to mimic the effect in Photoshop. Sure, Photoshop can do this kind of stuff, but at the same time, this lens will also work with 35mm film (I must try that!). But, who cares really, as long as you’re having some fun with it.
I hope these shots can give a little taste of what you can produce. Mostly Melbourne below, but I did recently take it with me to Vietnam for something a little different.
Walking around Southbank really is a treat. There’s so many photo opporunities, and it’s no surprise that there’s trigger happy snappers all over the joint. These shots here are from my walk home. Pretty easy to take your time when the sun is going down, and the city lights really come to life just after sunset.
White Night Melbourne has just happened, and it was a big one. I headed along to try capture as much as I can with my camera (along with the rest of the world), and I’ve made a little time lapse clip from how I saw it. Massive cheers to Holy Moses Heartache for allowing me to use “Good Times” on the track. Check them out on Facebook, and buy their album Cheers on BandCamp.
White Night Melbourne 2015 in Time Lapse
All nighter required
And some photos
The photos below are all from the clip. Each video sequence requires about 250 raw images to be taken, and I’ve just grabbed a few out for some visual love below.
White Night Melbourne, on the darkest of nights
Inflatable flowers lighting up the waterway
Dancing on the water
Hundreds of thousands of people walking the streets
At the Queen Victoria Gardens for White Night Melbourne 2015
Wonderland capturing the attention of all
Hundreds of thousands of people on the streets
Turned in to a White Melbourne Wonderland
Massive Sofles display on the edge of the city for White Night Melbourne 2015
It was a pretty cruisy Sunday, and with a bunch of things on my mind, felt like it was the right time to get out for a walk. I decided to head back to two old favorites; Hosier Lane and Croft Alley.
Depending on your luck, you can get a real wet (paint) experience, or something a little more roughed up. You know your getting a good show when you can smell the paint. You get wild colours, awesome reflections and a generally un-touched experience. And don’t lean on the walls. This Sunday, though, was a little rougher. It’s not my first choice, but still, I dig it.
As for the photos below, if you know the artists, please let me know. I’m not totally across who does what, but happy to link back.
Croft Alley
Croft Alley doesn’t get as much action as Hosier, and as such, the pieces are older but they last a bit longer. There’s not as much tagging going on, so pieces are generally kept in better order. There’s also way less people, but it’s seriously worth the little walk. Equally cool is the Croft Institute at the end. It’s been a few years since I headed there, but if you’ve never been and in the area, give it a look.
Break
Break Sadm Porno Sigs
Chefs gotta rests
Come in to Sharkfin
Milk crates everywhere
Shida at the end
Sofles on Croft
Stranger watching on
Take a picture mate
Train Lady
Unknown
Walking towards the Croft Institute
Hosier Lane
Hosier Lane (and Rutledge Lane, which is basically the same thing) are the showcase for Melbourne’s street art. The streets are constantly changing, and there’s only a few pieces that stand the test of time. That said, despite the apparent outrage a few years back when Rutledge went blue and that it was going to be changed forever, it’s back to normal. There’s always people, there’s often tags all over pieces, but it’s the centrepiece of Melbourne’s street art for good reason.
Print it, share it, send it, copy it, edit it… Do whatever you like. It’s free. Just please don’t sell it.
If you do something with the print, let me know in comments below. Love to hear if you get it printed, put it on a website, use it on a design, or whatever it might end up as.
