Where: Meet at the Canberra Times Fountain in Civic Square.
When: 9:00 am for 9:15 start on Saturday 8 February 2025
Why: The Multicultural Festival is always a colourful event and provides great opportunities for “street photography”. In normal circumstances it can be challenging to ask a stranger to be photographed but I have only ever had one rejection. To be fair, the person was a marshal rather than someone in a national costume. There are lots of other things to photograph including the details of displays and costumes; Smoke coming from bbq’s; Parades of National costumes and National dancing there are almost no limits. I hope to get some Henna art this year.
Lenses: A 200mm or greater length lens is useful for cropping in on individuals performing on stage but a standard 24 – 70 zoom lens is more than flexible enough for framing either individuals or wider scenes. Using a flash can improve the lighting but it tends to be more intrusive and off-putting.
Coffee: It gets very busy in Civic by mid morning. Last year we were able to fit in at the Coffee Club Cafe at the Ainslie Avenue end of the Canberra Centre.
General: Most of the exhibitions don’t get going until around 10:00 am. I like to start before then because there can be interesting scenes during the setting up process. Similarly, because the Festival starts on Friday, there is a lot of activity on Friday night. The light quality during the late afternoon and early evening, combined with the lights in and around the display tents create a quite distinct ambience that is great for capturing interesting images. Definitely consider going on Friday night. Also, consider using your mobile phone. They work amazingly well in low light and can create really interesting shots capturing the blur of movement, especially with the dancers on the larger stages.