Today is a very unique day in that the planet Venus passed over the disc of the Sun. The next such passing wont happen for another 105 years.

And it is even more interesting since we recently returned from Tahiti where Captain Cook observed the last passing several hundred years ago.



Here in sydney it was a very cloudy day, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos using a very powerful lens covered with dark filters. It is a planet Venus at the 7 o'clock on the sun in the photo.

Bummer...I had to return the camera yesterday. It was driving me mad with back focusing...not what you would expect from a $3000 camera. Hopefully they will be able to fix the issue, but unfortunately they are saying that there is a 21 day turnaround. The focus was 5cm off which is critical especially then taking portraits.


I did however manage to take a couple of photos that were ok and a bit of video with it on Sunday inside a very dark ten-pin bowling place (it was Kayla's birthday party) with all kinds of weird lighting. I was shooting at insanely high iso (12800) and I must say that I general I was pretty impressed.



Especially impressed with how fast I could shoot with lots of kids running around. They are totally usable for my blog and online posting although I wouldn't enlarge them. There was a lot of noise at these high ISO's, but most of it could be managed to a certain degree in Lightroom.






Later I was shooting with KC's camera at the lunch table...there was more light and I was strugling with taking photos using natural light.

Today I picked up my new camera. It is the new Nikon D800 and is currently one of the most sought after cameras on the market.

I have been wanting to get a full frame camera for some time now and this was the one for me to get...the reviews are excellent.


I pre-ordered it shortly after is was announced and has been waiting for over three months for it to arrive...but it is finally here.




It will be a steep learning curve to get used to all the new features of the camera and it will be a sad goodbye to my almost 10 year old D50 entry level camera.

I am now moving from 5 auto focus points to 51...from 6 Megapixels to 36 megapixels...max 1600 ISO to 25600 ISO...no bells and whistles to having features such as Video, Timelapse, HDR, face detection, live view, aparture preview...and the list goes on...



The D50 has served me well, but it is definitely time to move on as the technology has advanced so much. Not sure what I do with the old camera...but I will most likely end up selling it.

It is Autumn here in Sydney and today the forecast was for 19 degrees and sunny...the first cool'ish day here. In the morning we went with Kims family to the cemetry to visit Kims mum. After this we were planning to head up to the Blue Mountains to Mt Wilson to visit some of the private gardens to take photos of the Autumn colours and get some new family photos of Kim, Aiden and I.


When we arrived it was really windy and only 7 degrees (later it dropped to 5 degrees). We had dressed for the cold, but Dylan who had joined us on the spur of the moment was a bit underdressed and cold so he borrowed a spare jumper I had with me. We immediately found a pile of leaves and they started having fun throwing them up in the air.








We decided to visit the Yengo Sculpture garden and the owner came to greet us, tell us about the garden and charge for the entry.











The garden was very nice and the colours were awesome.















There were lots of sculptures hidden around the garden.



Dylan got a bit upset because we had to scold him for running around (this was a private garden so deserved a bit of respect), throwing pebbles, thrashing my camera gear and keeping to run into the frame of the photo I was trying to take. I had also been trying to get a bit interested in what he is seeing around him to learn more things and asking him if he was interested in some of the lookouts to experience one of the most beautiful places in Australia, as well as look at the things in antique shops etc., but he was totally dis-interested..."you can drag the horse to the water, but you can force it to drink".



After the garden Aiden was really tired and cold and we were getting hungry, so we decided to head back and stop along the way for lunch. It was good timing as it started to rain a little. I decided to drive on the great western highway as there were more options for food and I though it would be quicker getting back...turned out everyone else had the same idea so it was at a crawl.

Today Kim and I went to the Lyrics Theatre to see the 'An Officer and Gentleman' musical.

It was a remake of the 1982 movie, but on the stage.



It was ok but nothing special. The acting and singing was great, but the screenplay itself as well as the music/lyrics could have been more original and the stage setup was pretty basic.

Kim is pregnant again and we are now halfway there and on Monday we went for the halfway scans (due late September).



Everything is on track and looking good so far (5 fingers and toes etc.). For the first time we were able to tell the gender of the baby and it turns out that we are expecting a little brother to Aiden.

This means that Aiden very soon will have someone to play with here at home.

Today was Anzac day. We decided to use the day to explore some of the local area in the National Park on the other side of Botany bay near Kurnell.



It was very windy (Aiden wasn't happy with the wind). The walk along the coast is easy an quite scenic. There is even a small lighthouse about a kilometer down the track and the rocks have cook textures.

Today we went to the Symbio Wildlife park together with some of our friends.

They don't have a lot of animals in the park, but the ones they have a pretty cool and it is a good spot to get some nice animal photos (It was especially nice to see that they had polished the glass surrounding some animals).

It was also really cool to have Aiden and Sammi feed some of the more friendly animals.

Today Luke and Alexsandra was married. She is from Serbia so the wedding itself was a beautiful traditional Serbian Orthodox wedding in a small church in Alexandria.










The church was very darkly lit and I was shooting using natural light trying to be as discreet as possible using my old Nikon D50 camera (still waiting for the new D800) but by some miracle I was able to capture the above photos (by setting it to my max 1600 ISO and underexpose 2 stops and then push and noise reduce in post...would have loved to have one more stop).


Luke has some Scotish ancestry so ourside the church there was a guy playing the bag pipe.





Afterwards the reception was in Drumoyne with about 250 guests invited. Lots of very loud Serbian music and traditional Serbian line dancing (Not sure what the correct name is).

Synday we took Dylan to the Easter show at Fox Studios. We had bought him a 5 hour pass as a reward for an assignment we gave him.



Dylan tried a number of rides, but I think his favourite was a dodge'm'cars.



While Dylan was queueing up we had a look around at the other entertainment.

One of the model was a more mature girl by the name of Sarah.

I had the pleasure of shooting her using natural light next to one of the windows in the upstairs studio.

The Look I was going for was a more soft Boudoir type look and I think I managed to capture that in this photo.



I found it really hard shooting using natural light. I was using a new Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens that I bought. The look I wanted required me to shoot it at 1.4 but the light at the window was fairly bright so I was constantly hitting the ceiling of how low the ISO could go and how high shutter speed I had.

Model: Sarah Lucien
Hair and Makeup: Carla Vallelonga
Lights: Natural

I had a blast of a day this Sunday participating in a modelling workshop with Studio 1A...22 models, 10 makeup artists, 20 sets and lots of opportunity to take great photos.

I was totally buggered after shooting for 5 hours but it was great for building experience.

This was one of my favorite photos (many more to come) from the day.



Model: Taylia Lopez
Lighting & Set: Studio 1A
Hair & Make-up: Kabuki Mee Designs

A cute moment of Lucas attempting to draw and with a very snotty nose.

This is a test shot using a new Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens that I recently bought.

It is a manual focus lens so it is harder to use (especially with the kids), but this shot shows what beautiful results I am getting when shooting wide open.

We are training Aiden at the moment. The other day he did a big one on the toilet and as a reward we gave him the dinosaur that we had promised him.

My Aunty and her husband arrived to Australia a couple of days ago and will be traveling around the country for the next 5 weeks.
They asked if they could come over for dinner one evening to see where/how we live, so Saturday night we hosted them at our place.
It is not often that I have relatives in this part of the world, so when it does happen then it is nice even if it is just for a short visit.



The menu was Kims lemon pepper prawns for starters, Duck breast with home made bearnaise and raspberry creme brulee for desert (plus a lot of other goodies such as dips and cheese and wine).

They were supposed to have arrived the night before but their flight was delayed so they arrived 6am in the morning going straight to their hotel and then straight onto a bicycle tour around Sydney. From there they went straight to our place...they must have been buggered...

Last weekend we went down to La Perouse to do some family photos as we needed some new ones. We decided to do some on the lawn in front of the tower.
Lucas was not in the mood to have his photo taken and wanted to be held all the time so we decided to stick to using the picture frame that I had brought along.



Aiden on the other hand was having a blast of a time running, climbing and playing.

Monday it was St Patricks day (an Irish thing) and at daycare they were celebrating it by putting colour and hairspray in the kids hair (Green is the Irish National colour).

Aiden came back with very spiky hair and was his own cheeky self about it...

The other day we went to the park to play with the kids.

I brought the camera along to take a few shots of Lucas on the swing.

He was so tired that he almost fell asleep on the swing.









I also managed to get a couple of great photos of Aiden.

The other day Aiden figured out how to pedal his big bike (with support wheels).

He was very proud and keen to get out riding.

The other day Aiden came back from daycare with face paint around his eyes proudly saying that he was a super hero.

Traveling with the two boys can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, but this time it actually went very will. They behaved well on the flights watching movies, playing, drawing and looking out the windows.











They were even lucky enough to be invited into the cockpit while at the terminal and were allowed to press the big red button on the flight stick (transfers the flight control).



During the trip the boys were sleeping in the same bed (and sometimes in the same room as us), and they were usually so tired after a days of activities that they would sleep rather than muck around.





The accommodation was a combination hotels, lodges, cottages and apartment. (useful to have two toilets sometimes).



They also loved seeing large beetles and grasshoppers - but refused to touch them.





Some of their highlights were the unusual playgrounds they got to play in and the large lollipops at the airport.





And some of my highlights were the local toys such as the cars/tractors made from wires and the homemade slingshots.

The West Coast National Park north of Cape Town is something special. During the spring all the South Africans go there to see the spring flowers, but it is equally beautiful other times of the year with its remote beaches and azure blue water inside the lagoon.





It was a beautiful spot to have Kim do a bit of modelling.





The boys absolutely loved playing in the water.









Even though it is a long drive (on easy roads) there were some interesting creatures along the way.



Such as Eland



And lots of Ostrich.



And lots of scenit spots in the small villages along the Atlantic coast.

Hout Bay is just south of Cape Town - Besides from being a nice little fishing village it is also famous for its boat tours out to Seal Island. This is an island with a large colony of predominantly male seals.



From the harbour it is a short 45 minute round trip out to see the seals.



Back at the harbour there was one of the locals who had managed to train one of the wild seals to come and get food from him. It would jump out of the water and grab the food from his hand or from his mouth.





It was also tame enough for the boys to touch.

Cape town is a nice place and fairly small by Sydney standards. Although very modern it still has an African feel to it.







It is possible to walk through the city and get a pretty good overview of most things in a single day.



In the centre of the city is the Company Gardens which is where the Dutch East India Company used to grow supplies for their ships. This is now a big park full surrounded by old buildings, souvenir stalls and full of squirrels.












On the squares there are people entertaining with dance, music and entertainers everywhere.









At the waterfront it is full a bustling environment of museums and restaurants.

We spent a day driving out through the wine lands around Cape Town, namely Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.



As everywhere else it is a beautiful area surrounded by mountain ranges.



Kim had been recommended a nice restaurant in Franschhoek, but when we got there it was fully booked (or invitation only - not sure), so we ended up at an equally nice french restaurant down the road.





The vineyards there are massive compared to Australia - they are proper estates on massive lands.





One of the estates had this nice McLaran parked outside.



We didn't do much tasting though - the way they do it (you order a sit down wine tasting or a wine package for a fee) didn't really fit with me driving and traveling with kids.

The Boys were as usual more interested in playing.

One morning we went to the Cheetah Outreach centre outside Cape Town.

Here they train dogs to keep wild cats away from cattle and sheep so that these don't get eaten. The idea is that if the farmers keep dogs to keep their animals safe then they don't have to set traps to kill the wild cats. Interesting idea, but I would think that it would take a lot of dogs, and the farmers would probably still shoot or trap the wild cats anyhow.

The centre also keeps some cheetahs that visitors are allowed to pat (for a fee).

The Cape Peninsula is a beautiful area with nice views and little isolated beaches where ever you look. We spent a whole day exploring along the coast...breathtaking.

Going to Boulders Beach with all the penguins was a fun experience for the boys.





There were lots of nesting penguins and they are more agile than you think, jumping between the rocks on the beach (notice how the penguin below is airborne).



They sit on their nests until the eggs hatch.



and they stay with the young ones after they hatch too.



And once in a while a seagull gets lucky and steals one of the eggs.




There are hundreds of them on the beach.





And they are right next to the path.





The whole area was covered in smoke from a massive bush fire up in the hills, so our eyes were watering and hurting by the end of it.



Despite the smoke I still managed to get a good photo of this beautiful flightless bird.

In the evening we went to Cafe Africa. This is a nice little cafe serving authentic African cuisine in the middle of Capetown. The menu was a 16 course degustation type menu with all you can eat of food from all over Africa.

They came around to do a bit of face painting and later there was drumming and dancing from the staff.

On the way down from Table Mountain we visited Bo Kaap.

This is a predominantly muslim neighbourhood with some very colourful houses.



Great as a backdrop for photographing the most beautiful girl I know.



And also the most handsome boys.

Lucas is now 5 months and we did his monthly photos the other day together with Aiden.




This also gave me an excuse to try out the new strobe I bought for photography (an Alien Bee B800) and it worked out great...so much better than trying to use multiple flashes inside a softbox to get enough power.

Aiden and Lucas are already ganging up on us and sitting giggling together. They absolutely adore eachother although Aiden sometime can get a little rough with Lucas.




Afterwards we went to the local Park to have a bit of a play (see previous post with photos of Aiden).

The other day we visited Boralee Park to let Aiden play and to take some photos of Lucas.

Aiden is now definitely less afraid of playing and is quite happy zooming down the slides by himself...although he is a little cautious about the swing unless showing off in front of Lucas.

This Sunday we went to Sydney Aquarium with Sacha, Mavis and their daughter Sammi.

Believe it or not, but it was my first time to the Sydney Aquarium, I guess we were waiting for Aiden to be old enough to really enjoy it (Lucas is still too little).



Aiden immediately ran off with Sammi to look at all the fish tanks.





And as we descended deeper and deeper we came close to the big fish in their larger tanks.





And we could look at them walking through the underwater tubes.





They are also one of the only aquariums in the world having Dugongs in captivity.





In the old days it was though that these creatures were mermaids and you can see how that could happen.

LOOK!!!!! A MERMAID!!!!





Anyway...for the most part it is about me watching the Dugong watching the people watching the Dugong....




Unfortunately I had a terrible hay fever and probably would have enjoyed it even more without it....but we may go back in the near future.

This weekend in the Blue Mountains I took a series of Panorama and waterfall photos.

This first one is taken from Govetts Leap.



And these two are from Evans Head.





This waterfall is also at Govetts Leap.



And these waterfalls are all from the Grand Canyon walk.

On the last day in the Blue mountains we made a visit to the Toy and Railway museum in Leura.

They had a lot of old toys and movie related memorabilia such as Tintin.





...and James Bond.



and some impressive Meccano pieces.



Outside there was a garden with a Japanese inspired section



Along with a Matterhorn model railway.



And other railway stuff.

This weekend we rented a small cabin in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.

It was a nice little place with a couple of bedrooms and a nice little fireplace. It was a cool couple of days so we had the fireplace going most of the time.



During the day we would go for nice walks in the local area much to the enjoyment of especially Aiden...






...and have lunch at cafes to the enjoyment of Lucas.




The forest around the cabin had a couple of lyrebirds.

My dad holiday is over and he is returning back to home. To celebrate their last ight we went to a Korean BBQ place in Sydney and then we had a coffee across the street later.








Hopefully it won't be too long before he is coming back!

Last night we were at Darling Harbour with my dad having dinner. They had already started the pre-Australia Day celebrations with music and a light show on the harbour.



Dinner was very nice...but too much food.

The other day I was playing around with some macro shots of Lucas and managed to shoot this photo of him...I had something else in mind, but this turned out quite nice (I think).




It was a real challenge to try and keep reflections out of his eye...and as you can see I didn't succeed using a shoot-through umbrella.

Lucas is now 4 Months and here are his monthly photos.





Kim has him started on solids hoping that he will start sleeping through and he is almost able to sit and he has started babbling when we talk to him.

His favourite pass time is to eat his fingers and play with his feet.

Religion is an integral part of Laos society where the majority are Budhists.



The monks dressed in orange and red ropes are still visible everywhere and it is largely seen as becoming a novice (junior monk) is seen as an opportunity to get an education and support your family if you come from a poor rural area.


 


The high influx of tourists, especially to Luang Prabang is therefore a bit of a win-win situation for everyone. The tourists support the temples in the area by paying their admission fees to visit and on both my trips I have found that the monks are keen to have a conversation as it is a way of practicing their language skills.

In Luang Prabang the monks walk in procession every morning to collect rice from worshipper along the roads. Before sunrise there are hundreds of monks walking the streets in every direction. There is an equal horde of tourists trying to take photos of these monks and equally tourists handing out (sometimes dubious) rice to them.



There are posters around the city encouraging being there and seeing the monks as well as providing some guidelines such as keeping a certain distance, not using flash photography and if you hand out rice then where to get it from. Most of it common sense really, so it was sad to see how some would be blocking the paths and sticking their camera phones with flashes into the monks faces.





Sacha and I went there a couple of mornings, but because of the time of the year everything was dark and because the monks move quite fast through the streets it was a challenge getting good shots.



One afternoon we walked past a temple and a group of monks were in progress of cutting down a large tree and afterwards trimming off the branches. They were going to use some of the tree trunk for traditional drums and the rest for ornamental purposes inside the temple.







In the late afternoons you would hear them chanting in the small rooms of meditations, chanting and prayer. These are often smaller places of worship and not part of the main temples which are used for more ceremonial purposes.
One evening I heard such chanting and went to investigate and found these monks. Definitely one of my favourite moments in Luang Prabang.



A common assumption and misconception is that the monks live by an ancient code with a simple life, so it is quite interesting to see that even they have adopted modern technology with smart phones and cameras.

The locals are still relying on motorbikes to get around. They are far cheaper and more convenient in the towns. It is even possible to fit an entire family onto a single motorbike.







Younger kids and high schoolers ride their push bikes for transport.



Although Aiden and the other kids definitely preferred the motor bikes.



Nothing too flash for weddings - a normal new car will suffice. If you notice the sign on the door, then I am not sure if the bride was expecting to come home to 'Meat & Sausage'.



There are also some vintage cars around which have survived since colonial times - like this 1952 Citroen.

On the last day in Luang Prabang we went to the local ten pin bowling alley.

We had heard and read that this is the place where things are happening in Laos. When we got there the place was totally deserted apart from a few staff members.

We did play bowling and it is a bit surreal to play by ourselves in this fairly modern centre in Laos.



They didn't have any support rails for the kids, but Aiden especially did really well and the kids managed to beat Kim on points.