I went for a photography outing last night with my friend, who's also a photography aficionado! We initially planned to go to the city, but decided to go to Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) as my friend anticipated that there will be fireworks at 9pm. We were really, really lucky and we DID see the fireworks! There were so many people coming back from RWS too.
Anyway before we started off with the fireworks, we decided to hang around the rooftop of Vivocity before heading down to find a good spot. And since these involved low shutter speed and everything - out came the tripod!
The huge Christmas tree at Vivocity - a highlight every year. It's so bright - it can probably be seen from the Boardwalk leading up to Sentosa!
We heard some explosion-like sounds, and realised that there were small fireworks being released at RWS! If I'm not wrong those come from Universal Studios...or somewhere within the resort. We initially thought it was the actual fireworks show, but apparently not. So we had quite a bit of time to find a good spot. So much for running over to the railings with our tripods!
Because we wanted to shoot from bottom-up, we chose to set up our tripods on the ground floor, outside Vivocity. The restaurants around were still brightly lit and very active, but after the fireworks, they were starting to close pretty quickly.
Because there was a bit of time to spare, I chose to take some night shots of the surroundings - particularly of RWS, directly opposite to where our tripods were set up.
We even anticipated where the fireworks would be firing from, and were pretty much ready for them.
And here we go! The fireworks show! Started promptly at 9pm but finished by around 9:15pm. The fireworks were fired from a number of boats near RWS. They started off with lower fireworks, then got higher and higher...and we were desperately trying to get the high ones!! I even went to the point of leaning way back with my tripod on my thighs. Anyway we had to act fast - for the fireworks were pretty fast!
This picture is probably my favourite of the lot. I had my camera on "Bulb" mode and deliberately wanted a pitch dark background.
And here are some pics of the fireworks that were fired higher up. At one point they had heart-shaped fireworks, but those were really hard to capture!
And when the fireworks ended, I decided to try some long-exposure shots of the surroundings. Exposed them for as long as 30 seconds to create starburst effects. My friend had a super hardcore camera, which could expose up to 2 minutes!!
We had our commitments the next day, so we decided to call it a day after a few long exposure shots. Wandered around Vivocity for a bit...and took a couple more pics :)
And that wraps up a successful night shoot with a photography aficionado (my friend!). It was really enjoyable, but wasn't as hard as I thought. The fireworks were particularly enjoyable. My second time (ever!) taking fireworks. Hopefully I get to take fireworks pictures again on New Year's Eve.
OK let's reverse the clock now, back to daylight. Here are pictures from Canning Bridge and Applecross - affluent areas of Perth - before I left to go back to Singapore. As of now, I'm not too sure if I'll end up in Perth again, but before I left, I decided to go to as many places as I could. Apart from Fremantle (which I explored in really really great detail), I decided to venture out a little more. So Applecross was my final destination before I left.
Hopped onto the train early and ended up here. And on the road - was a brief sign showing where Rockingham, Fremantle and Perth roughly were.
First things I saw when I ventured out of Canning Bridge station. I bumped into a girl from Moldova, who was on here way to a job interview. She was heading in the same direction as I was - and we were equally lost as we had never been to this area before! So we ventured out of the station together and at the bridge (next picture), we parted ways. Hope she did well in her interview, and I hope that I would somehow bump into her again someday. She was really, really nice.
The Perth city skyline was very visible from where I was. I was actually standing at the start of the walking trail - leading towards Applecross.
I remembered seeing a sign "Raffles Hotel" on this building, but it was restricted to the ground floor...kinda. So up till now I'm not entirely sure what this building is for. Probably for residential purposes! I saw people living in there.
And here's the walking trail I took. I wanted to go further, but I had to go to the city to grab some stuff. So I only went through about half of it. But the view was priceless.
There were around 7 to 8 black swans that day, and I've not seen so many black swans congregating at any one time. In one of my posts, I mentioned about spotting a swan family crossing the road - but that was in the city. I saw fewer swans after that...but when I came here, they were happily hanging out on the shores!
One of them was flapping his feathers to dry himself off...and it was quite a beautiful sight. I love black swans very much - they're sensual and really beautiful.
The black spots in the water are actually the black swans. :) They were so laid back that day, swimming around and sometimes even walking out of the water. Most were already mature adults. I didn't see any cygnets that day.
Sailboats are very common in Applecross and in some other areas. When I took the train back from the city after buying my stuff and having some lunch, I noticed that there were even more - on the water. Probably because the weather was good. I was really lucky as I enjoyed warm, sunny weather all the way till I left Perth, and after that I think they had yet another cold front and heavy rain.
One of the bigger houses in Applecross. I've seen lots of big houses in Williamstown when I was still living in Melbourne, and they can be comparable to these ones seen here. There're actually more along the way. Many more in fact!
A pleasant surprise - some wildflowers growing along the roadside!
And there were a few smaller boats scattered on the shore.
Time for me to walk back! So I took some pics of the trail...and ended up back at the tall building. That was probably the only tall building around.
Tivoli Cinema - constructed in the 1930s. One of the major landmarks of Applecross.
And a few more pics as I was crossing the bridge to get back to the station.
I'm really familiar with this announcement now: "Passengers - alight at Canning Bridge for bus services to Curtin University". Apparently the bus station isn't too big, but there were also buses that led directly to the city - mainly to the Esplande and Wellington Street bus ports.
Ended up at a crossroad. To the left - Canning Bridge, Applecross and Como. To the right - Perth city.
To walk all the way from Canning Bridge to Perth city would probably take AGES! It is kind of crazy if I did so. I'd rather cycle to Perth city from here.
And that's it for this day-to-night post! I'll post pics in the near future! Meanwhile, I'll be going to Thailand over the weekend! CAN'T WAIT! More photo opportunities! :D
Stay tuned!