Sydney in a Day

Recently I spent a nice vacation/work trip in downtown Sydney, Australia. The timing of the trip was over my 25th wedding anniversary so I brought my wife along and we scheduled some time to visit the city of Sydney, as it was her first time there. We enjoyed ourselves as we stayed at a hotel in the Circular Quay, which allowed us the chance to see most of the city either by foot, train or ferry. One day we decided to visit Manly Beach, which required a 40 minute ferry ride in either direction. Even though it was winter time in the southern hemisphere, the weather was perfect and we couldn't have asked for a better day.

One of the challenges that I try to set up when I go on trips and have some personal free time, is to give myself an assignment that will challenge me so that I can continue to grow as a filmmaker and photographer. Some people may consider this extra work, but for me I find it extremely relaxing.

My challenge this time was to shoot a short video documenting the day, using a small mirrorless camera and only two lenses. I would also film it without any camera support, so I had to be careful to make sure that the shots weren't shaky. The final challenge was that I had to film it in 4K.

The camera that I chose was the Panasonic GH4, and my two lenses were a Panasonic 7-14mm F4 lens,  and a Canon 24-105 F4L lens using a Metabones adaptor and a Singh Ray Vari-ND filter.

I tried to map out my day so that we left for Manly Beach on a mid day ferry, and caught the 4:15 pm ferry back to the Circular Quay so that we could see the sun setting below the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I use an app called Sun Seeker on my iPhone to help me determine where the sun will be setting and at what time. This proved to be very helpful as the ferry traveled right by the bridge as the sun was setting on the Sydney skyline.

I was happy with the results and I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it.