Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

13. March 2005 07:33
by Rene Pallesen
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Mum and Dad in Sydney 2005

13. March 2005 07:33 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

At the end of 2005 my Mum and Dad escaped the winter in Denmark by travelling to Sydney for a couple of weeks.

They stayed here over Christmas and New Years Eve. While they were here we went for a drive up to Graemes house at Taylors Lake near Port Macquarie where we Christmas Eve cooking traditional danish Roast Duck, and Ris-a-la-mande.

New years even we celebrated at Graemes place at McMahons Point here in Sydney.

New Years day was the hottest on record...48 degrees.

Click here to see more photos from Christmas and NYE 2005

Click here to see more photos from: Christmas and New Years Eve 2005/Slideshow

14. November 2004 12:59
by Rene Pallesen
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Afternoon Sailing in a Felucca

14. November 2004 12:59 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

14. November 2004 12:58
by Rene Pallesen
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Grandchildren's Meal for Bedstemor

14. November 2004 12:58 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Normally Bedstemor's fest is for paid by her children, but this year, all of Bestemor's grandchildren decided to also treat the family in return. They chose the Italian restaurant in the hotel.

It was a 3-course set menu at US$8 per person.
For starters, it was thin minestrone with salad vegetables and grated cheese.
For entrée, it was 3 pieces of ravioli with mushrooms and white sauce (ravioli suprisingly had cinnamon in it...)
For mains, we had a choice of either chicken or veal scallope with fettucine...
But all our meals were served with the same sauce and somehow we all ended up getting french fries...

When we asked the waiters about the fettucine listed on the menu, no-one had any idea...

And our surprise dessert was a scoop of ice-cream swimming in fruit salad and syrup.

These breadsticks were really very nice, although surprisingly these contained cumin, instead of Italian herbs or cheese.

With Bedstemor in the middle, the oldies at one end, we sat at the other end with Kim, Rasmus and their respective girlfriends. Rasmus and his g-friend told us about their trip around Asia, toVienChan and Laos. Kim and Birit had spent 6 months backpacking around India, Nepal and Thailand.

In the meanwhile, there was an Egyptian engagement party that started in the hotel lobby. The musicians stood around the couple, playing oboe-like instruments, tambourines and drums, whilst the guests clapped and danced to the music. It was deafening, the sound echoing throughout the hotel. They eventually made their way up to one of the function rooms to party all night long.

14. November 2004 12:54
by Rene Pallesen
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The Citadel & Mohammed Ali Mosque

14. November 2004 12:54 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Our first sightseeing trip after arriving in Egypt was the Citadel and the Mohammed Ali Mosque. The Citadel was once the home of the royal family until 1870, then the military took over this joint until the 1970s. It is still used occasionally by the military but mostly opened to visitors although certain sections are closed off to them.

Neither did our guide tell us much about the Citadel, nor give us the opportunity to explore. So most of the photos here are of the Mohammed Ali Mosque sitting on the Citadel.

The mosque is famous for its alabaster corridors, columns and floors. Alabaster is a cheaper form of marble that seems to be slightly more porous and does not have the smoothness or coolness of normal marble.

Adam, our guide sat everyone down in one corner of the mosque like school kids, and gave everyone some sort of history lesson about Islam and marriage.

The interior of the mosque was magnificent, with globes of light hanging in multiple rings from the ceiling. In the far right corner, there is a gilded green and gold staircase that leads to some sort of pulpit.
Local women were allowed into this mosque, but clad from head to foot. Female tourists were provided with a green abaayas if they were sleeveless or wearing shorts.

During Adam's chat about Islam and its history, René asked for more information about the Citadel, and was rudely scolded for not listening.
Adam did not give any more information about the Citadel for the rest of the trip...

Left: In another corner of the mosque was an enclosure containing the marble sarcophagi and burial place of the mosque's namesake - Mohammed Ali.
Right: The ceiling was also quite beautiful, but I could not use the camera flash and it was a little dark. In each "corner" of the dome were large arabic inscriptions in gold

Cairo has a brown haze over the city. The buildings are made of mud bricks.
Dirty-white and grey are the only other colours one can see.

Apparently there is a number 7 written above one of the doors of the Citadel. History says Napoleon and his troops numbered each of the entrances around the Citadel as he could not understand the local language.

14. November 2004 12:53
by Rene Pallesen
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Khefren's Pyramid - Limestone Tips

14. November 2004 12:53 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Khefren, Khafre's son, did not seem to have the same desire to outbuild his father.

His pyramid is not as tall as Khafre's pyramid, but looks so because it stands on higher ground.

Each of these blocks of granite came to about shoulder height on the average man
- they were about one cubic metre each in size.

The few people who tried to climb up the pyramid were called down by security guards patrolling the area. We noticed the granite blocks further up the pyramid seemed smaller. The quality of the workmanship worsened as the pyramids neared completion and smaller blocks were used.

Just imagine - these pyramids would have once glinted in the sunlight like diamonds in the desert. Kefren's pyramid was once covered with a smooth and shiny layer of limestone. Unfortunately, most of the limestone has been stripped off, used in mosques and palaces. Only a small portion remains at the tip of Khefren's pyramid.

14. November 2004 12:45
by Rene Pallesen
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More Photos of Cairo

14. November 2004 12:45 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

We did not have a lot of opportunities to explore the city of Cairo. Our hotel was located on the other side of the Nile from downtown Cairo, so there was not a lot happening.

In Cairo, we noticed a lot of large carcasses hanging along the streets outside the butcher shops. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed due to Ramadan, but Sunday heralded the last day of Ramadan, so many were preparing for the final feast.

We tried in vain to find a restaurant for the family to eat dinner, but no such luck. However, we did try to stop for some beers at a small café along the Nile - no beers because it was still Ramadan till that night, so we settled for some softdrink and hot potato chips.

The city of Cairo looks hazy and grey, with all the buildings a muddy colour.
It was nice to sit by the Nile.

The view from our Hotel Pyramisa at sundown.

14. November 2004 11:13
by Rene Pallesen
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Lunch on the Nile

14. November 2004 11:13 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

14. November 2004 11:06
by Rene Pallesen
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Pyramid of Cheops

14. November 2004 11:06 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The largest pyramids were built by Khafre (Cheops) and his son Kefren (Chephren).

Khafre's pyramid stood 147 metres tall. Each side was 230 metres (with only 0.2% margin error - can you believe that?)

René's mum stands at the foot of Kefren's pyramid.

It is almost a one-kilometre walk around the whole pyramid.

It is taller than Kefren's pyramid but does not look so as it sits on lower ground.
It is estimated that something like 2.3 million blocks were used to build the pyramid.

Right: There once lay a solar-boat. Khafre's mummy was placed into this boat as the ancient Egyptians believed the pharaoh sailed to the after-life.
The boat is now housed in a building next to the pyramid.

Created: Dec 2004Last Updated: 24-Jan-2005

14. November 2004 11:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Cairo's Hotel Pyramisa Coffee-shop

14. November 2004 11:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

22. November 2014 16:11
by Rene Pallesen
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Daydream island

22. November 2014 16:11 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago we went to Daydream island in the Whitsunday islands at great barrier reef.

This was a great opportunity to check out some of the natural beauties...

...such as Whitehaven beach.

We spent a lot of time playing at the pool and at the beach.

The resort has a massive inland lagoon with lots of stingrays and sharks that the kids loved.

Aiden and Lucas were allowed to touch some of them including this live shark.

and stingrays and star fish.

And on the island there were lots of kangaroos.

A beautiful place.

And I did have time to do a bit of creative shooting.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to the island with a vulcan salute.

20. November 2014 14:11
by Rene Pallesen
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Mini open day photo shoot

20. November 2014 14:11 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

In early November I did another open studio day. This time a mini day with less models, hair and makeup and studio setups.

As usual it was good practice and fun to work with the various models. I think I did get some great photos and there were a lot of lessons learned that can be done better next time.

Model: Charlotte de Lucey

Model: Jessica Garcia

Model: Tanika de Alwis

Model: Britney Williams

Model: Tanika de Alwis

Compared to the other times I was doing a lot more natural light photography this time and some of it in nasty and not very flattering direct sunlight. I think I still managed to get some very usable results out of it.

Model: Nikki Doan

Model: Amy Hill

The hardest thing for me is still the communication with the models and the creation of a vision that is different when you are on a fixed set.

Model: Jessica Garcia

23. October 2014 10:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Trip to Manly

23. October 2014 10:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This Sunday we took the ferry to Manly.

It is a beautiful trip past the opera house and the boys were very excited being on a boat.

At Manly we went down to the beach. It was a calm day so the boys had a lot of fun at the edge of the water.

After that Kim did some shopping, we had some fish'n'chips and we also had an ice cream.

17. October 2014 17:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Water play

17. October 2014 17:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Last weekend it was pretty warm here in Sydney and the lawn needed watering.

I turned on the sprinkler and we let the boys have some water play.

16. October 2014 18:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Playing with Dragons

16. October 2014 18:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

It is Friday, so time for a little photoshop fun.

Lucas gets really scared whenever Aiden roars like a dinosaur/dragon. When we went to the forest last weekend he again got scared and I snapped this photo and decided to insert a dragon into it.

13. October 2014 12:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Sydney Harbour panorama

13. October 2014 12:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This weekend when we went to Luna Park I took this panorama I took this panorama from the top of the ferris wheel.

It is a series of 5 photos stitched together. The large one if amazing. You can clearly see individuals at Sydney Opera house and you can tell the colour of their clothes.

It was just taken handheld with my D800 and 50mm lens.

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