Just as I had finished setting up for my gear in the middle of Ron Barassi Snr. Park for my sphere photo, I noticed these two hot air balloons traveling through the sky. By the time I got my camera off the tripod and took the shot, they were farther from the Melbourne Star wheel then I would have liked. Still glad I got a photo to remind me where I was when I saw them, and give them a little perspective. I took a couple of other shots but they weren’t as nice.

The EXIF data shows that I really didn’t have much time to take the shot. I literally took the camera, zoomed and snapped. I don’t know how I got such a sharp image at that shutter speed. I should’ve bumped the ISO up a touch and opened the aperture a lot more. I didn’t need such a large depth of field as everything was far away but a higher shutter speed would’ve been better. In the end I got the shot and that’s what counts.

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0.3 sec @ ƒ/8, 37 mm, ISO 100

Here is a different perspective of the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel. It looks much larger than my in last post, doesn’t it? Now that I post this photo, I wish I had taken it at blue hour. I think it would have made a beautiful photo with the buildings and the wheel lit up. Oh well, maybe next time.

I had edited this photo in colour at first but quickly realised it was more suited to black & white. The light wasn’t the best and there weren’t enough colours to make the image pop or interesting.

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1/400 sec @ ƒ/5.6, 55 mm, ISO 100

As I walked up to Spiky, I saw the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel between the buildings. All lit up. Beautiful! I tried to photograph the wheel once before but I was too late to capture it lit. This composition is much better too. Especially with the contrasting red light against blue hour makes it stand out. It was green at my first attempt. And I like the entrance as a leading line.

Though not all the lights on the wheel were working, I still tried to time my exposure to capture them all lit. It took a few trials and errors but I finally came away with this one. I could’ve close my aperture to ƒ/11 to gain an extra second of exposure but I find the images too soft at that opening. A one second exposure was enough.

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1 sec @ ƒ/8, 36 mm, ISO 100

While looking for a new perspective of the Bolte Bridge, I found myself in the Ron Barassi Senior Park (Newquay, Melbourne, Australia). It wasn’t going to be spectacular sunrise as it was very overcast. I had an image in my mind of the bridge that I wanted to take but I just couldn’t find the right angle. I took a couple of photos and I may share them with you but I haven’t seen them on the computer yet.

As blue hour was fading I realised I could stand right in the middle of the park and capture a 360º photo with absolutely no-one in the frame. And create a photo sphere later in Photoshop. I’ve never photographed a 360º image before but thought it’s just a massive panorama. And it is. The sphere though, that was going to be something else. I had no idea how to create one. I’m glad I levelled everything before capturing the panorama, it made things a little easier once in Photoshop. 

I Googled how to create a photo sphere and just followed the instructions. I had to redo it a few times because either the sphere wasn’t lined up right or there was a gap in the sphere. It was my fault though, for not taking the time to prepare the panorama right and not carefully going through all the steps to create it. In the end though, I love it! And it really isn’t complicated. You just need to take your time and capture the best images. And follow the instructions. Carefully.

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32 photos at 0.5 sec @ ƒ/8, 24 mm, ISO 100