Hunting the Elusive

In this post: The new shopping place next to George Street Greater Union cinemas, Christmas Tree lighting at Martin Place, Sydney, and Town Hall lighting. Caution: lots of pictures.

New Shopping Place

 

The new shopping place which until recently had been behind construction barricades is now open to the public. I like the clean designs, but it seems to be really small and right now there is nothing in it that would get me excited. Bread Story is sooooooo last semester.

 

The security man asked me if I was working for someone, cuz I was taking photos. But the boss lady said taking photos was ok, and I was doing this to blog anyway. More publicity for them. Maybe.

Christmas Tree Lighting at Martin Place

 

I had heard about this a few days ago, and since I was going to see Borat today, I thought I might as well stay in the city afterwards to look at this event.

This is the tree. It's the same tree that pops up every year at Martin Place. Same decorations too. I wish they had a bit more variation.

An old man dressed in Xmas colours. People get him to pose with them for photos. I took a photo of his profile. :P

 

The first appearance of the angels who will pop up randomly throughout this evening. I love their costumes. Their role is basically to give out sweets to little kids (only during their first appearance), pose for photographs with people, and walk around singing carol-like songs.

The gathering of angels.

They pose for photographers. At this point, it feels like cosplay photography. WHEEEEE.

Another pose, in which they do something to the little boy in their midst. There is only one little boy, btw.

 

And another pose of L'Ange Dormir. Pardon all the photos of the angels, because up until this time, there was nothing else to photograph. 

Singing before going away.

A wide shot of the Christmas tree at Martin Place.

 

At this point, people have begun gathering around the tree in anticipation of the lighting up. It's still pretty bright. Later on, even more people arrive, and it's becoming almost like a kindergarten. Check out the number of strollers!

 

The doorsteps of Giorgio Amani are not immune.

It's getting dark, so I used the Night Scene settings. Unfortunately, that promptly screws up almost all the photos from here onwards. The exposure time is too much, resulting in blur (no tripod).

The crowd goes crazy as troopers wearing santa hats ride in with a horse-drawn carriage. All the parents and kids who were up to now seated stood up and the place went crazy.

OMFG ITS SANTA. QUICK WAVE TO HIM!! This is the only photo I managed to get and it's a really crap photo too. Lots of red-eyes, and just generally horrible.

 

At around 7:12pm (or was it 8:12), the lights were turned out. The tree was lighted in 4 sections from top to bottom. People went crazy.

But wait, there's more! Swivel around quickly enough and it's the fireworks over Martin Place. A fairly short display, but adding lots to the atmosphere.

 

 

And back to the tree.

The angels return for more photos

ALL HAIL MOTHER RUSSIA!

The clock had dotty lights on it, but too bad you can't see the bigger version of this photo because it is blurry. :P

 

 

Town Hall

 

Again, sorry that no bigger versions of these are viewable. They're all blurry due to that stupid long exposure mode. I stood there for like half an hour taking photos of all the different variations of colour. Basically, Town Hall gets an image of sorts projected onto it, in effect giving its front facade a "painting over". There seem to be 10 different designs, as seen below.

    

I lost track of time doing all this. By the time I took the train it was 9:20pm and all the buses in my local area had ceased running.

End of photoblog.

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