Riverfire bonanza!

I had an absolute blast shooting Riverfire this year. Surprisingly, I was able to get a really good view with less than an hour or two before the start, with a great view of the barge in front of the Story Bridge. Just in time for the RAAF's new F/A-18s to zoom over at full volume. Which is very, very loud!

Here are some of my top shots from the fireworks themselves:

Top shots from Riverfire

Next up for me is a month-long trip to Hawaii. It will be busy, but nevertheless a welcome break during our very short post-season recovery period. I will be jumping straight back into training on my return!

The photogenic Noodle Markets of South Bank

Wow! I did some research on the Noodle Markets, held for a couple of weeks each year at South Bank, but I didn't expect to enjoy the night as much as I did! The combination of lanterns floating on the walkways and the activity of the Wheel of Brisbane in the background made for some great compositions:

A selection of awesome compositions from the Noodle Markets  

I was also in the right place at the right time and happened to grab this snap from the boardwalk, looking back towards Brisbane's ever-changing skyline:

Sunset reflects the CBD

There were several other photographers out and about, trying to capture some great shots as well. Hopefully I'll be out and about again come Riverfire and the spectacular light shows put on by the city!

Fogged up

What a difference a bit of patience makes! Having rode all the way to the cliffs at Kangaroo Point in hopes of capturing the sunrise, I was disappointed to see the fog I had seen was so thick you couldn't even see all the way across the river.

Sitting around for a bit over half an hour, I decided to go a bit further along the river to see if there were any better vantage points, and stumbled across a spectacular diffraction effect with light bouncing off one of the CBD's glass buildings a bit further downriver:

CBD light diffraction

After grabbing some snaps there, I headed to Wilson's Outlook to see what effects were to be had from there. While they weren't nearly as spectacular, the ND1000 filter made for an interesting landscape, including a blurred CityCat:

Morning fog from Wilson's Outlook

So the mantra of patience definitely paid off!

Brisbane city lights up for IDAHOT!

For the second year running, International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia advocates managed to get the council to light up the city with rainbow colours. There was a flag ceremony at Brisbane City Hall, but the main attraction was undoubtedly the multi-coloured Story Bridge:

Brisbane IDAHOT celebrations

Does this count?

So maybe this blog will now be redefined as a combined travel/photography blog. I guess I did travel, albeit only 6 kilometres this time around.

Tonight I went down to Kangaroo Point Cliffs and took some photos of the city at sunset. I met a couple of other photographers at the same time, one who was living out of a motorhome and a Brit who was here for 3 months with his Australian girlfriend.

I was also able to give my new wide-angle lens a run. I took some shots and converted them into sort-of panoramas, they're included in the gallery on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157648850768936/

Some of the highlights. Until the next voyage!:

  Brisbane CBD highlights