Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts tagged ‘festival’

Festival of Lights, Potsdamer Platz, Hauptstadt, Berlin, Germany, fotoeins, myRTW

Fotoeins Friday: optical scatter, Berlin Potsdamer Platz

21 October 2012.

Berlin’s Festival of Lights takes place every year in early- to mid-October at various sites and plazas in the German capital city. At Potsdamer Platz train station (“Bahnhof”), the light show begins with beams “marked” by carbon-dioxide “smoke” with the surrounding buildings as “screens”. We see “light scatter” as carbon-dioxide molecules are much smaller in size (about 200 picometres or 2 Angstroms) compared to the wavelength of the visual light (about 0.5 micron or 5000 Angstroms) being scattered. At right angles, the intensity of scattered light is one half of the intensity of light in the forward direction. This is an example of Rayleigh scattering which is also responsible for why clear skies by day are blue. Light intensity also falls off with the inverse source of the distance from the source, and in just a few metres, light intensity diminishes to near zero. Only the word “Bahnhof” which indicates the entrance into Potsdamer Platz station stands alone.

Bonus: you get a pretty picture and a quick lesson in physics.

During my year-long RTW, I made this photo on 21 October 2012 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and these settings: 1/5-sec, f/4.5, ISO800, 33mm focal length (53mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-agv.

VIVID Sydney - 3 Jun 2013, fotoeins.com

VIVID Sydney lights festival: 2013 highlights

Since 2009, the annual VIVID Sydney festival lights up the city with vibrant colour and imaginative displays. Between 24 May and 10 June, the 2013 version has over 60 light projections on display around Sydney Cove, Walsh Bay, and Darling Harbour.

VIVID Sydney is an important annual wintertime cultural event bringing together light installations, live music, photography, design, creative ideas, and people in one of the largest festivals in the southern hemisphere. With the central display on the sails of the Opera House, the Spinifex Group put their unique spin to “Lighting the Sails.” Also, for the first time, the Sydney Harbour Bridge gets the VIVID treatment.

I’m fortunate to have photographed a variety of installations over six evenings 24, 26, 28, 30 May; and 3 June 2013. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-3qf.

( Click here for images and more )

Sun Life Stanley Dragon Boat Championships : Stanley, Hong Kong

HKG Dragon Boat Championships in Stanley

As a boy to Chinese parents in Vancouver, I remembered looking forward to the middle of the calendar year, because there would be plenty of sticky-rice dumplings (粽), which CantoDict describes as a “glutinous-rice dumpling or tamale, made by wrapping the rice in broad leaves of reeds and boiled for a few hours, usually with other ingredients such as meat, oysters, beans, etc.”

A very popular Chinese holiday surrounds the Duanwu Festival, which occurs on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in the Chinese calendar; the big festival day occurs on 23 June and 12 June in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Along with the consumption of rice dumplings, the festival is known as the Dragon Boat Festival with the racing of dragon boats. Tradition tells the story of boats set out to retrieve the body of poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned himself (278 BCE) after false accusations of conspiracy forced him into exile.

On a June-weekend, thousands congregate to the south portion of Hong Kong Island, all there to attend the annual Dragon Boat Championships. On 23 June 2012, my sister and I head out to Stanley by friends’ invitation to witness the spectacle and party from the comfort of the Horwath HTL boat in Tai Tim Bay. This turns out to be a big bonus, as the weather in June is oppressively hot and sticky. Instead of being stuck in the midst of huge crowds on dry land, we find ourselves in the middle of the bay, surrounded by countless ships of all shapes and sizes in relatively calm conditions.

( Click here for more )

70000th photo (part 2), Sydney Opera House

Yes, you read that correctly … part 2.

I made a mistake.

I wrote previously about “flipping” or resetting the image-number counter on my camera for the 7th time as I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

I was wrong and I’d been too hasty when I began writing. I’d read the image numbers incorrectly, and I’d overlooked the image numbers (67000!).

But it wasn’t long until zeroes were back on the camera display and the actual 70000th exposure was made on the Canon 450D/XSi.

For a few evenings after opening night, I’d visited and photographed various displays at the VIVID Sydney festival of lights around Sydney Cove, Walsh Bay, and Darling Harbour. Midweek is a good time with fewer people around for plenty of space at the best spots to photograph the sights. I chose a Wednesday evening to focus on the Opera House. The photos below form a part of the sequence called “PLAY” by the Spinifex Group who have additional projections at the festival.

MIRROR by The Spinifex Group, Opera House, VIVID Sydney, Australia
MIRROR by The Spinifex Group, Opera House, VIVID Sydney, Australia

 
 

Previous rollovers :

•   15000th photo with the 450D/XSi in Berlin, Germany
•   25000th photo with the 450D/XSi in Vancouver, Canada
•   50000th photo with the 450D/XSi in Berlin, Germany
•   60000th photo with the 450D/XSi, in Vancouver, Canada

I made the photos above on 29 May 2013. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com.

Sydney SIFF 2010: Rubyos, in Newtown

(Written and posted 7 October 2010.)

The Crave Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) is happening around the metro Sydney area for the entire month of October.

One of the highlights occurs Sunday (2010 Oct 10) when the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed to all vehicular traffic for “Breakfast on the Bridge“, effectively turning the bridge into a large picnic area for BYO breakfast or brunch.

One of the “Precinct Promotions” for the SIFF is happening in a hip area called Newtown (just south-southwest of the University of Sydney campus), packed with heaps of shops and a wide variety of cafes and restaurants. “A Taste of Newtown” features seven restaurants. We made the leap and chose to dine at one of the restaurants, Rubyos, last night (Oct 6).

Dining at Rubyos is meant to be family-style or yum-cha like, and their mains are strongly influenced by Asian and Mediterranean flavours. The special SIFF menu is a pretty good deal with at least half a dozen mains plus a drink all for $41 AUD per person. However, the menu included pork and shrimp/seafood which my two accompanying friends could not eat. This was just fine, so we dove into their regular menu.

We chose the following six to share.

Rubyos Sydney food

Peking duck, with rice flour pancakes, hoi sin sauce, and traditional garnish

Rubyos Sydney food

Rubyos’ “Nicoise” of hot smoked salmon, with potato crisps, oven dried tomatoes, sliced quail egg, and black olive puree

Rubyos Sydney food

Tea-smoked tofu, with wok tossed asparagus, black wood ear mushroom, water chestnuts, and a ginger & shallot sauce

Rubyos Sydney food

Crispy fried tuna, with a sour red curry sauce, sticky black coconut rice, thin rice noodle, and candied chili

Rubyos Sydney food

Oregano and almond crusted salmon, with chunky skordalia, rocket, and a tomato & black olive salsa

Rubyos Sydney food

Meatballs of wagyu beef, flavoured with tuscan herbs, and smothered in rich tomato concasse & melted cheddar

Totally stuffed and a bit forlorn at not being able to sample their dessert menu, we all felt that six mains would have been ideal for four people with a much stronger chance afterwards for dessert.

It’s too bad I’m leaving Sydney on the weekend, as I would’ve loved to sample more of the Food Festival over the remaining weeks.

Rubyos Sydney foodRubyos Sydney foodRubyos Sydney foodRubyos Sydney food

I made the ten photos above on 6 Oct 2010. Initially published 7 Oct 2010 on Posterous, this post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-1r.

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