Newtown is a very eclectic inner west suburb of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, just a quick hop away from the Sydney CBD.

I’ve been to Newtown on thousands of occasions, whether it be to shoot gigs at the famous Enmore Theatre or dine at one of the many fine restaurants and cafes, however I’ve never wandered the streets with a camera and people watched.

This was my first outing with my new Fujifilm X-H2 camera, and whilst I usually have the Fujinon 23mm f2 attached, tonight I was armed with the Fujinon 16-55 f2.8 lens to help give me a wider perspective.

It was a warm spring evening in Sydney as I ventured into the famous main street of Newtown, King Street.

I met up with a close friend and fellow photographic enthusiast, Matthew Slager, whose photographic skills are improving rapidly. Matt is studying the photographic art form, although usually when he is in Newtown it is as a professional musician, not a photographer.

There is never a shortage of photographic and artistic video content here in Newtown. Newtown is a place where you will find graffiti and street art, wonderful restaurants, theatre, live music etc, it has it all.

There was still plenty of daylight available when we arrived, and we chose to wander to the northern end of King Street to stretch the legs and warm up.

Though the traffic was hectic, it was still too early for a huge people stampede as we marched toward the Enmore end of King Street. The window of daylight gave us opportunities to shoot people entering and departing the precinct with a setting western sun behind them, and the odd plane arriving into Sydney also added to the story backdrop.

As dusk began to take place, suddenly the lights took effect and different opportunities presented themselves.

We now had street lights, car and bus lights, retail shop and restaurant lights, all set before a magnificent magenta sunset.

Enter the darker part of the evening and now there were considerably more people and vehicles, making for candid images or b-roll of people moving about, almost always completely unaware of the cameras near them.

People, vehicles, lights, action!

My new Fujifilm X-H2 is perfect for hybrid shooting. A couple of buttons and it changes quickly from photo to video and vice-versa. It is such a wonderful machine to work with, so light and functional, and the image and video quality is outstanding.

After a couple of hours Matt needed to head home, so I bid farewell, thanked him for the companionship and continued to walk around a little more on my own.

This gave me the opportunity to head back to my car, grab my tripod and do some time lapse of vehicles moving along King Street - this was always the plan, however I didn’t want to lug the tripod up and down King Street for a few hours.

Well, my legs and back were now too sore to continue, and I had a tonne of content to work with, so I headed back to the car to begin the drive home.

I have scratched the Newtown photographic itch, although I’m quite sure that one day I’ll return, perhaps later in the night when it is even busier than when we we there.

Thanks for taking the time to read the blog, hope you enjoy the images and the YouTube short film in the YouTube tab on my website.

Roger Brooks.

#streetphotography

#fujifilm

#fujifilmxh2

#fuji x-h2

#urbanstreetphotography

#shortfilm

#urbanshortfilm

#sydneyaustralia

I could imagine that there would be no more senses awakening actions than early morning ocean swims, particularly in winter.

On this cold July morning in Australia I decided to take a one hour drive north from my place to the Merewether Ocean Baths in the Newcastle region of New South Wales, and observe the locals going through the motions of their morning ritual, which is swimming in the ocean baths and I’m told this particular ocean baths is the largest of its kind in Australia.

To be honest, on the night before I was contemplating whether there would be any swimmers there given the time of year, however I was pleasantly surprised that not only were there swimmers, but plenty in fact.

I was suitably dressed for winter filming and taking pictures in long pants and several top layers combined with a beanie, but then I wasn’t the one getting wet.

It was dawn when I arrived and there were already several swimmers in the water, whilst others steadily arrived thereafter and proceeded to prepare themselves for the plunge.

Many of them wore wetsuits, whilst others were braver and chose more traditional swimwear.

Back and forth, back and forth, lap after lap, many performing traditional swim styles, whilst others appeared to be performing some type of designated hydrotherapy.

As I watched the people arrive and begin preparing to enter the water, I identified that this really is a ritual for them, very purposeful. There is a process involving how they prepare themselves, it is measured and definitely not rushed… there is reason.

The laps in the water tend to be like clock work. There is a defined mindset here, one that is focused on achieving a goal. The goal may be a certain number of laps, it could be to stretch muscles with weightlessness, or it could simply be almost transcendental to achieve mindfulness, just by being out there.

Then again, it could be all of the above.

I observed the swimmers as they exited the water and I could sense that their day had begun as it should, by exercising both the mind and body, to experience a short period of time in our often hectic lives where time almost stands still and you cannot be distracted by anything.

One cannot control distractions nor stop them from occurring, however one can provide a calming platform to enable us to stand a better chance of managing whatever life throws at us.

I could not think of a better daily platform than swimming in ocean water early in the morning and getting ready to embrace the day.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for checking out the images.

Roger Brooks.