sydney

Vivid Sydney at Taronga Zoo

/ Mike / Leave a comment

My son’s birthday coincides nicely with the Sydney Vivid festival, where “art, technology and commerce intersect” – three weeks of light shows and sculpture that brighten up the city during the cold (and sometimes wet) winter here.

Taronga Zoo has put on an event for the last few years, with wonderful light sculptures that look like giant stained-glass animals. Needless to say, an afternoon at the zoo, followed by a trip through this surreal landscape after dark has become a favourite.

(Click on images in gallery to see full size).

  • Australia – where the spiders kill the poisonous snakes
  • Lanterns
  • The pangolin
  • The bamboo shoots make a rather nice abstract with the tiger in the background
  • Tasmanian devil
  • Croc
  • Bilby
  • Redback spiders
  • Duck-billed platypus
  • Lion cubs
  • Bejewled lizard
  • The big blue elephant

Parramatta, city of the future

/ Mike / 1 Comment

Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live and work in, with sky-high property prices. The population is expanding, mostly to the West, and hence, so to is the attention of property developers. Parramatta is a suburb in the western sprawl, and the city council have announced a $1.6 billion investment in new buildings – offices, apartments and retail. And so, Parramatta starts its transformation.Paramatta - city of the future-1Paramatta - city of the future-2Paramatta - city of the future-3Paramatta - city of the future-4Paramatta - city of the future-5Paramatta - city of the future-6Paramatta - city of the future-7

Taken with my new Fujifilm X-Pro2 and 35mm f2 lens.

Australia Day on Sydney Harbour

/ Mike / Leave a comment

Australia Day stirs mixed feelings in me. Most Australians are incredibly lucky, with democratic freedoms and an economy that makes them amongst the best off in the world. However, the wealth and opportunities are not there for indigenous Australians, and Australia Day doesn’t give this hidden Australia much to celebrate.

Australia is changing though. It is steadily becoming more multi-cultural, and most younger people are comfortable with this, embracing the mix of European and Asian cultures that surround us. I work in education, and my employer is intent on taking positive steps to make sure all of Australia is part of what we do.

I choose to take a positive outlook on what Australia Day can be – a mark in time that lets us assess where Australia has been and the progress we are making.

Australia Day 1

Australia Day 2

Australia Day 3

Australia Day 4

Australia Day 5

Our budget has been revised

/ Mike / 11 Comments

I was contacted last week by a representative of an “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” that wanted to include some of my photos in a publication. Wow!

Hi Mike,

XXX Australia are publishing a small format gift book (100 mm x 100 mm) on Australia for the tourist market and we are currently sourcing images to be included in the publication. As you may know, XXX are an international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications. We came across your work and feel your photographic style would be perfectly suited to this project. In particular, we are interested in using images from your Manly on a Sunday and Sydney Here we Come collections. However, we would also be very interested in any other images of iconic Sydney locations and wider NSW if you have any in your archives.

The publication will have Australian and NZ distribution so exposure to a large audience is guaranteed. We would love to include your work in this project and hope we can arrange permission with you to do so.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Kind regards,

Tahlia

Of course, I got back right away.

Hi Tahlia,

Thanks for getting in touch – it sounds like an interesting project. I have a number of photographs you may be interested in, both of Sydney landmarks and the Three Sisters.

Could you send me some further details on the terms and conditions and rates?

Kind Regards,

Mike.

I must say, I was very excited by all this. I was also contacted by Getty Images in relation to licensing some of my images I have on Flickr. The name looked familiar enough that I was sure it was the same company. The process of registering with Getty took a while (those agreements are pretty lengthy, and I wanted to make sure I understood what I was in for). I went through my photographs of Sydney, and selected a number of photos that I thought they might be interested in, and awaited a reply.

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Unfortunately after discussions with my boss, our budget has been revised and we will not be able to renumerate contributors for any images used. We would of course offer a photo credit but I understand if this is not a suitable arrangement for you.

Kind regards,

Tahlia

Great. So, this “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” had sent someone on a fishing expedition, to make a commercial publication filled with photos they wanted to get for free.

Oh well, this does give me an excuse to show a gratuitous photo of the Sydney Opera House – one of the photos they were interested in, and which I publish under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Sydney Opera House