It’s been almost a month since I have taken any of my cameras anywhere.
Bad weather, other commitments, and to be honest a lack of desire to shoot have been the reasons behind the inactivity.
Life, and your mind can tend to get in the way sometimes and temporarily freeze desire and ambition.
On this day I had an opportunity to shoot with a close friend, Matthew, who was visiting from his recent new home location of Tasmania in Australia… no better way to break my photography mini drought.
The Sydney CBD was the location and we decided to meet mid morning in front of the Town Hall, a familiar and convenient place to do so due to it being pretty much at the midway point of the city, and also the close proximity to parking stations and train stations.
Truth be told, I arrived approximately thirty minutes earlier than the agreed time and therefore once Matthew arrived I was already warmed up… and yes, warming up is important.
Here are a few of my warm up images.
Love the contrast of old and newer vehicles here...
Couldn't resist the building reflecting in the car window...
Take the picture and look away!
Despite being warmed up I was in need of a coffee and food therefore we headed south down George Street and found ourselves at Starbucks.
A large coffee, bacon and egg roll and some catchup chat and we were now ready to get moving and make some pictures.
On this day I brought along my Fujifilm X100VI, along with my DJI Osmo Pocket 3, Matthew had his Fujifilm X-T4.
We decided that the Haymarket area was as far south as we wanted to go therefore we walked there to start the journey.
Whilst today wasn’t the busiest I’ve seen the city, there were still plenty of people about.
As well as being a keen photography student, Matthew is also a very accomplished musician (guitar and vocals) and can never ignore an opportunity to converse with buskers on the street.
On this occasion, and to the busker’s surprise, Matthew joined in and began singing the song that the busker was playing on his guitar.
Eventually we decided to head back up George Street to see what else we could capture, all the time searching for pockets of light to enable opportunities for subjects to be more prominent.
Here’s Matthew capturing a food delivery cyclist alongside a tram.
Never just walk blindly along George Street, pay attention to what may be available in side streets or laneways, such as these ladies walking between blocks as well as the guy with the suitcase having a smoke break, strangely remaining faced to the wall.
Sensational Korean fried chicken beside the cinema complex… I didn’t have any that day.
As we reached Bathurst Street and faced the Town Hall precinct we were again greeted with beautiful light.
A bicycle bonanza!
It always bemuses me when I see the positions that people get into when taking portraits of others with their mobile phones!
For the record, he was taking pictures of his mate, not the girls… I think.
I was honestly unaware of the graffiti inside the phone booth until I edited this photo of Matthew whilst he was creating reflection shots against a digital billboard… haha!
You are always guaranteed of at least one strange looking character in the seating area opposite the Town Hall building.
Below is probably my favourite image from the day… love the way that the guy is positioned low in the frame, allowing your eye to move upward into the sky which is framed by the buildings on either side of Park Street.
From here we ventured further south down to the Apple store as the light can reflect off the huge glass facade and shine across the King Street intersection.
Alas, it wasn’t really happening there at this time today, although I did manage to capture this interesting perspective of the facade.
With the lack of light here, and the fact that we were now foot weary we decided to head back to Grill’d near the Town Hall for lunch.
The lunch sit down was a great opportunity to rest, eat, chat more about life and simply enjoy each other’s company.
After lunch we made the short walk back past Town Hall so that I could grab a box of egg custard tarts from Breadtop for a snack once I got back home.
Love this shot of Matthew in the left corner of the frame, with the hustle and bustle all around him.
Not quite sure how all six of the tarts survived the drive back up to the Central Coast without being demolished in my mouth, but there you go!
Did I remove my photography funk?
Pretty sure that I did, but more importantly we filled each other’s cup with laughter, smiles, random stupidity and serious conversation, all hallmarks of a great friendship.
Add photography into that mix and it gets even more special.
Thanks for the great day man!
Thanks for reading the blog, I really appreciate it.