Sydney Harbour Bridge | nothing to where and no wear to go

Have you ever been stuck at home wondering what to do? You don’t want to go too far to waste your time but you fancy something different. Next time you have no idea where to go head to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Located in the Rocks near Circular Quay and the Opera House it’s easy to get to by train or bus. There’s no entry fee to wander around the museum but sometimes they charge you for specific exhibitions. The place has been recently extended and revamped, it’s fun and vivid and some of the exhibits fairly interactive. Once you get tired there is a cafe on the top floor with stunning Opera House and Harbour Bridge views, just perfect on a sunny day. If you have more energy and time it’s great to walk across the Bridge. You can take breathtaking photos and enjoy the views. With even more time to spare you can climb the steps of the Pylon Lookout to have 360″ panorama of the Harbour. Once you are on the other side of the Bridge explore Kirribilli’s cafes or restaurants, go to the Luna Park for a quick ride on the Milsons Point side. Either way you won’t be disappointed and you definitely get enough exercise for the day.

Exhibits at the MCA

Chapel on the other side of the Bridge, Kirribilli

I would never think I might be interested in night time photography. I was wrong (not for the first time ;-). One of my Christmas presents was a night time photography lesson. Worried, as I always am about my skills, I took my tripod (another Christmas pressie), my DSLR, lenses and camera user manual to our meeting point at the Opera House in Sydney. There were less than ten people attending the course all armed with cameras and tripods. We set our ISOs, shutter speeds and apertures and walked around the Circular Quay area for about three hours. We took some amazing shots. First stop was an old cemetery by the Royal Botanic Gardens. We were ‘painting with light’ a technique that required a torch and long exposure. Some people took amazing shots, not including myself since I realised last minute that my filter was really dirty. Then we moved on to the bridge above the ferry terminal and took some long exposure (20-30 seconds) road shots. Finally, we walked to the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal building and started shooting the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from high up. Suddenly, just out of the blue fireworks above the Opera House appeared. Our tutor said that has never happened before so we were really lucky. I took some awesome shots and even though the teacher had left we stayed to take more night time photos. Truly unforgettable night!