Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

Keeping with tradition we did another family photoshoot this year.

This time we wanted to try something a bit more ambitious with a boxed setup where the individual boxes tell a bit more of a story.

I couldn't find an existing box that was big enough to fit me as well as the boys together, so I had to build one myself. I decided on the dimensions 90x90cm (as this was one of the dimensions that I could buy and also transport). I then had to cut it, paint it and nail it together. I had to do all this inside the house as the box is too big to fit through a door.

For Christmas the boys got new bikes from us and my dad (bedstefar).

The old were getting too small, so needed something bigger....

One day we went playing bowling...I had a dream round where I played my best game ever (including a turkey - three strikes in a row).

This year both the boys played soccer for the first time.

They made some good friends while playing and did pretty good considering it was the first time.

Lucas' team won the competition in his age group. Aiden made a great effort considering he is a head shorter than all the other boys in his age group.

Kims dad celebrated his 90th(we think) Birthday this year.

He is mostly bedridden these days, but we managed to get him downstairs to celebrate on this day.

One evening we were invited on a double date with one of Kims friends.

The theme was painting and we were to make an abstract painting of eachother.

Next day the boys tried to draw their versions.

Strange year indeed, and other than a few things, it is remarkably the same.

The kids have still done a lot of activities and here are some of them.

Aiden hanging out with his friend Jake at the beach.

Mini golf with Sammi.

Doing puzzles at home.

Aiden had patience to do one of the simpler ones.

Me trying to teach them how to use photoshop...not a bad result for a first try.

Painting the old way.

One of Aidens favourite drawings. It got soaked by accident and he was absolutely devastated. I managed to rescue it somewhat and take this photo.

He went through a phase where he was obsessed with the Titanic.

He was also into Harry Potter and made a drawing of the sorting hat.

I took Aiden out for a run and he did 4.5km without a break...very proud.

Ice skating with friends

Backyard tennis

Ice cream

Karate - Lucas got to wear a black belt after doing a 3 minute plank.

Their Kumite (sparring) gear.

Aiden reading a bit. Reading is really difficult for him. He can read all the words and sentences perfectly, but it is hard for him to comprehend the stories he reads (almost like he is unable to visualise and imagine the story as he reads it.).

During the lockdown we spent a lot of time in our backyard having a firepit on the weekends.

One weekend I put up my old tent and I camped in the backyard with the boys...they had a blast.

On the other side of Botany Bay is Kamay national park.

On a very stormy day we went for a walk over there to experience the wild weather.

Aiden likes to dress up, this time like harry potter...

We just finished another grading as a family. This time the boys and Kim graded to their first brown belts and I graded to my third brown belt.

We were supposed to have graded about a month ago, but because of Kims dad's funeral we had to postpone it for a month.

It therefore turned out to be just a mini grading with just the four of us as a family.

Now it will be quite a while before any of us are grading again. The boys need to get a fair bit stronger before grading for the next belt based on the feedback. I will need to start working towards the black, so Kim will probably be the next one grading towards the end of the year.

The boys putting up the tent.

Our campground from across the lake.

Teaching the boys to fish (only caught seaweed).

The kids spent hours climbing up and down this little hill.

Lots of brains trying to put up a gazebo. Eventually we had to consult the instructions.

Sunset scenery

It was raining so we gathered under the canopy.

Lots of curious ducks (waiting to be fed).

Spotted a 2016 vintage from Coonawarra...had to try it.

Scenery from our camp ground.

Great selfie with Lucas and I.

More spectacular scenery.

Cuties in the hammock.

I have seen steam tractors in museums before, but this is the first time I have seen one that is still functioning. This one is from 1913.

One day we went mushroom picking. These ones you definitely can't eat.

And these ones you can.

First time I have seen a Leopard Slug.

A pretty good picking...

The kids found a bird skeleton. It could be a dead lyrebird, or maybe a dodo.

Here are some various photos from first part of 2022.

Here is one of Aiden in his happy space at the Piano and Guitar.

At Cabramatta we sat down having an asian drink. It looked so much like one of the birds from Angry bird that I just had to get a photo. See the resemblance?

This is a Lego truck that Lucas built.

At karate Aiden is sometimes asked to teach the newbies. It is great to see how it gives him confidence.

Aiden went to a birthday party with a Virtual Reality experience...a bit scary for him.

The local corner shop was refitted for a TV show.

Easter egg loot.

What do the boys get up to in their room sometimes???

Family photo at QVB

Having desserts in the city

A seal resting on the rocks at the opera house.

While at Warilla Beach we one day did a walk at the Macquarie Pass National park. This was an easy walk with the reward of a waterfall at the end of the walk.

One one of our trips down south we visited the Nan Tien temple south of Sydney.

It is a Chinese Buddhist temple that is worth a relaxing visit for anyone with some time.

During the Christmas holidays we rented a place at Warilla Beach a couple of hours south of Sydney.

We discovered that the beach has pipies in the sand, so every day we made sure that we harvested a plate full of them for dinner.

We brought Aidens new guitar, so that he was able to practice his music while enjoying the scenery.

The kids also attended online drawing lessons.

It was a beautiful spot to sit on the balcony, enjoy the view and have some great food (including fresh pipies).

One day we also visited the Jambaroo Water park. This was a disappointment with long queues at every ride and Aiden was too scared to do any rides so it was a bit of a miserable day.

Last weekend it was Ethans 21st Birthday. He had a bit party with the whole family and his friends.

They had arranged for catering with lots of Cambodian, Laotian and other asian foods.

It has been three years since I last spent time with my dad. This is due to Australia closing its borders for two years due to the Covid pandemic.

As soon as they announced opening the borders again in February my dad booked his ticket to come a visit.

It was really nice to have him here and different from when he has been here previously. For starters, he was here by himself which was a different dynamic and also Aiden and Lucas have grown older and really enjoyed bonding with 'Bedstefar'. Especially Aiden and my dad found that they had music in common and Aiden took great prise in being able to play some of the pieces on piano that my dad was able to sing.

I really enjoyed having a few beers (and other good stuff) with him while he was here.

A couple of years ago I bough a machine to transfer my dads and grandads old 8mm film to digital. Because of the pandemic I was never able to try it out. My dad brought one of his films to do a trial transfer. It worked really well and he'd now brought it back to Denmark with him to transfer the rest.

One afternoon dad and I went up to the Barrenjoey lighthouse. My dad is still able to do it although he is a bit slower and not as strong as he used to be.

Kims dad passed away 92 years old. He will be greatly missed by his daughters, grandchildren, grandsons and friends.

It was a beautiful funeral following chinese traditions with wearing white clothes to celebrate a long life.

Aiden played a beautiful song on the piano in front of everyone and we had put together slides showing his life.

Day after we did the traditional cleaning of the tomb stone and also the burning of paper clothes and money (theory is that it will then go to the afterlife for him to wear).

I hope that the boys are old enough to remember their time with him.

Even though his old body was failing him, his mind was still sharp enough to play Mahjong and other games with us. These photos are from our last trip with him down to Bowral.

Lucas is part of the schools chess club.

The other day he was very proud that he'd received this award.

When I initially arrived in Yangon / Rangoon, I wanted to fly up Bhamo - one of the bigger towns north of Burma. I also considered exploring Myitkyinã - a town further north of Bhamo.

My Lonely Planet guide indicated that the only border crossing into China was to the east of Bhamo. My initial plans to Burma also included exploration of western China. However, I was disappointed by the military turning me back, despite the fact that my Lonely Planet guide said I could cross into China at Ruili.

I decided instead to fly to Mandalay, not only because it was cheap to do so, but it saved me a 20-hour bus ride there from Yangon.

City of Mandalay

I heard about a song for sailors.

“To be a real sailor, the sailor would have to have been to Mandalay way upriver”

I quite liked Mandalay.

The photo below, is of Mandalay Hill.
During World War II (20 March 1945), the British and the Japanese fought one another to gain control of the position on this hill.

Important Position in Mandalay

The photo to the left is taken from the hill itself facing east - as you can see, it has an aerial view of the whole city, and puts any oncoming enemies at a disadvantage. Control of Mandalay was important during the war, as the soldiers were able to set up artillery and attack anyone approaching the fortress.

This hill was of big strategic importance.

The building you see near the shrine is a monument to the British regiment who managed to take control of this hill from the Japanese.

At the eastern part of the delta, a lot of logging takes place. There was a train line built that used to cart all the trees/wood for export to Thailand.

View of the Fortress

The moat around the fortress is man-made.
Although man-made, comes from the local river.

The original fortress was burnt to the ground.
The whole fortress covered an area of 2.5 x 2.5 km

Fortress at Mandalay

The design of Mandalay was quite colonial, and surprisingly, most of the streets were at 90º to one another.

Overall, I found Mandalay the most expensive city to travel to in Burma.

No matter what one does in Mandalay, be it explore Mandalay Hill or the city itself, the locals always had “special” foreigner prices. It really annoyed me.

I tried to use local currency as much as possible. However, FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency) was more valuable and worth more to the locals. FEC is also used in China, and one tries to use local currency as much as possible. Any item you buy has 2 prices - and obviously it is cheaper to use local currency than to use FEC.

I must admit, even Mandalay Hill was not that nice for the price I paid to explore it. It was also expensive just to go into the fortress.

Surprisingly, I could not find maps of the area that was not more that 40 years old.

Politics . . .

Queue for Rations

There is a lot of politics going on in Burma that an outsider should not get involved in - Burma is one of those countries where political opinions are best kept to oneself.

In Burma, use of the Internet and mobile phones is illegal. This is the government's way of controlling the information entering the country. Even access to equipment such as laptops is illegal - the country is so poor that many could not afford such a piece of equipment.

I saw many young women queueing for their rations. They were standing so close together that I thought they were lesbians! *laugh* The girls stand close together so another person cannot jump the queue by pushing in.

Girls Standing Close

The girls here are very young, some have barely reached puberty and are doing some very hard work.

Young Girls Working on Roads

There is a lot of critique by Amnesty International, of Burma's use of young girls to provide maintenance for the roads.

Medicine . . .

My girlfriend, Arumi, tells me one sees the wares of a 'Medicine Man' quite often throughout Asia.

Whether they sit by the roadside, or whether they own a shop in a building, one will see very similar items being sold around Asia.

The “pellets” you see here are in fact different types of roots such as ginger or some unknown vegetable, that have been sun or air dried.

The Medicine Man 1

You will see the antlers of various animals such as deer or even rhino. There are also skulls from different animals - some of these animals may be endangered species, but somehow you will see them being sold in these markets.

The Medicine Man 2

These skulls are definitely not being used as “trophies” around the house!

The Burmese, like many Asians, believe in using very 'natural' remedies to cure common ailments.

Tiger Skull

A Medicine Man may not necessarily be a “doctor” according to western standards - that means he may not have a university degree.

However, a Medicine Man, may be what we know as “witch-doctors”. Some of the remedies they know are very natural and useful.

Unfortunately, not all of these remedies work. Around Asia, you will see shops or Medicine Man selling items like tigers' paws and skulls, or ground ivory tusks. Many of these are sold as cures or enhancements for the sex life.

In Burma, there is virtually no wildlife left.

Selling Tobacco

You will even find that even tobacco is sold naturally.

Not in cigarette form, but in leaf form! The laws in Burma are not quite the same as they are here. Marijuana is also sold very freely.

Lotus Fruit . . .

Quite often in Asia, you may see lily pads floating on the water. In fairy-tales, you hear about frogs sitting on a lily pad.

You will be amazed to associate that this fruit here, comes from the flowers/plant growing out of the water near the lily pads.

The yellow seeds come from the flower itself. The seeds are used often in many Asian desserts, and said to promote better blood circulation.

While, the root of the lotus plant is also a delicacy. It is white when cooked, and has a crunchy texture, similar to that of the water chestnut. Mainly used in savoury meals, although used as a dessert as well.

Personally, I think it is too much hassle retrieving the fruit! *smile*

Created: 31 Oct 2001

Schwedagon was a holy place with extremely large and beautiful temples.

To get to Schwedagon, you had to travel up very long escalators. I took this photo because these escalators were the only escalators I had seen during my whole trip in Burma. As Schwedagon is a very religious place for the locals, I guess to travel up these escalators give the sense of travelling to a higher and holier place.

Temples at Schwedagon Photo 1

The temples at Schwedagon were really impressive.

Temples at Schwedagon Photo 2

I was told that collectively, these temples were built with 39 tonnes of pure gold.

Cleaning Up

At the end of the day, the locals all contributed in cleaning the place. They clean all the tiles and are very organised.

Big Stuba

Here is the 'Big Stuba'. All that gold...

Up close, the temples are a glorious sight. Especially at night!

Can you see those lights at the base of the Big Stuba? Each is a 'mini temple', illuminating a Buddha.

Lots of Gold

You can really see the magnificence of these temples!

Praying to Buddha

There are lots of rules or procedures about the way one prays to the Buddhas - very complicated to an outsider!

I saw a couple of the buddhists pour water onto the statue of the Buddha. Depending on the day of the week a buddhist is born, the individual would pour the respective number of bowls for the day of the week. A buddhist believes that by doing this, it would bring them luck.

At Schwedagon, I noticed there were hardly any tourists, mostly locals paying homage.

Can you see how intricate the carvings are in the foreground?

Praying Monk 1

The monks rung this bell to announce prayer times.

It brought luck to ring the bell.
For example, if you were born on the 1st day of the week, you rung it once to bring good luck. If you were born on the 6th day of the week, you rung it 6 times etc.

Burma/Myanmar surprised me in many ways. I would have liked to see more of Burma than I did, but due to military restrictions, I only had access to certain parts of Burma and was not able to see any of the indigenous people along the border as I had initially planned.Burma is a very poor country. It was difficult to travel... travelling 100 kilometres could sometimes take up to 6 hours.

One of the most beautiful places in Burma, I thought, was Bagan.

I took many photos in Burma, and tried to order them in the following pages:

I spent some days in Yangon, which had a heavy colonial influence.

Schwedagon was another place full of temples, a place laden with pure gold.

Whilst travelling, I could not help notice how influenced the people were by religion, and Burma's politics is one thing an outsider should not get involved in.

I was fascinated by what the Burmese used for medicine. They also had some rather interesting local fruit.

Mandalay also had an interesting colonial battle history. Whilst there, I watched the “Mandalay Marionettes”.

With the restrictions up north, I did not get to see much. But you would not believe how the Burmese play volleyball!

Finally, at Mt Popa, I went there to see a local monastry, and saw a lot of wild monkeys there.

Yangon ( Rangoon ) . . .

One of the ma

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4. June 2011 01:26
by Rene Pallesen
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Vivid Sydney 2011

4. June 2011 01:26 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Again this year I went into the city to have a look at Vivid Sydney. This is a festival of light and music in the city around Circular Quay, The Rocks and the Opera House.

On the first few days of the festival it was raining a bit, but one evening when there was a clear night I went into the city leaving Kim and Aiden at home.

I managed to get a couple of good photos I think although I spent way too much time on photos of the opera house and therefore ran out of time.

This was the third year of the festival and I found this years festival much more creative than the previous years.

Anyway, here are some of the more interesting photos from the evening.

1. June 2011 10:36
by Rene Pallesen
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Another trip to Centenial Park

1. June 2011 10:36 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This weekend we made another trip to Centennial Park to go for a walk, have lunch & coffee and take some photos. Is it becoming a regular event so expect some more post in the future.

This Sunday the park was car free, meaning that everyone had to park outside the gates rather then drive into the park. It meant that there was a lot less people in the park which made it even more enjoyable. The trees as beautiful with their golden yellow and red leaves.

It is currently Autumn in Sydney and lately the weather had been fairly miserable and even this Sunday when we went to the park it looked a bit dark and gloomy at first. Fortunately the grass and leaves were fairly dry so I could do our 11 Month photos of Aiden. At first he didn't like the leaves at all, but after a few minutes he warmed up to the idea and started having fun playing with them (and eating them).

He is very funny at the moment, he is starting to crawl a lot faster and would try and get to the camera so I had to keep crawling backwards to keep the distance between us.

1. June 2011 10:17
by Rene Pallesen
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ABBA Cruise

1. June 2011 10:17 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Friday night Kim, Dylan and I joined a number of Kims friends on the Abba cruise on the Sydney Harbour.

Dylan had completed a writing assignment we gave him a couple of weeks earlier (to write a 500 word essay about our easter holiday) and as a reward we took him along on the cruise.

The boat was a fairly small boat (almost house boat sized) and probably fitted around 80 people onboard. The Abba band was pretty good. The singing wasn't brilliant, but still very good entertainment and they managed to get the boat rocking. We even managed to get Dylan up dancing (even though we didn't give him much choice).

^{(oh...this photo is intentionally blurred...I tried to create a cool effect by zooming while I took the photo with a rear-curtain sync).}

It was a beautiful calm night, so it was nice to once in a while go up on deck to enjoy the view of the city line. Vivid Sydney had just started so Circular Quay, The opera house and The Rocks was all lit up. I will be heading in there one of the next few nights to take some more photos (I tried to take a couple of photos from the boat but Abba was rocking it too much ;-) ).

I hope Nikon will soon announce the D800...my old D50 was really strugling this evening with the low light conditions and I didn't bring a Tripod along.

17. May 2011 10:01
by Rene Pallesen
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James Blunt Concert

17. May 2011 10:01 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Last night Kim and I went to the James Blunt concert in the State Theatre in Sydney. Kim (and to some degree myself) is a big fan of James Blunt so when we heard that he was coming to Sydney we had to get tickets.

The concert was brilliant and it had a lot of energy to it. He played both some of his old songs as well as some of his new ones.

The stage was set up with all these LED panels so that they could project videos, images, colours and patterns onto them to change the mood depending on the songs played.

16. May 2011 10:27
by Rene Pallesen
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Centennial Park (again)

16. May 2011 10:27 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

On the weekend we again went to Centennial Park to go for a walk enjoying a gorgeous Autumn day.

Aiden was a bit tired and wasn't really in the mood to have his picture taken.

This time we brough Dylan along for him to get some exercise (watching too much TV otherwise):

11. May 2011 03:53
by Rene Pallesen
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Autumn 2011

11. May 2011 03:53 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

It is getting cooler here in Sydney...the last 2-3 days have been freezing with temperatures at 16 degree during the day (cooler at night). We have turned on the heater in Aidens room as he kicks off his blanket.

One advantage is that there are some beautiful leaves in Centennial Park...

Autumn Leaves

5. May 2011 09:43
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden's Mothers day present

5. May 2011 09:43 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Monday Aiden went to the day care centre (we send him to daycare once a week for him to learn to interact with other kids and more structured play) and the teacher there helped him create a painted "Mum" sign as a Mothers day gift (It is Mothers day on Sunday).

Kim was very proud and asked me to take a photo of it for her to post on facebook. My response was "Sure, I'll go and grap the compact camera"...to which she responded that she wanted a good picture using good lighting so I should go and get my big camera.

So I went ahead and took the following photo of the mum sign using some of Aidens toys as a backdrop.

...but Kim said that she can't use it because it is too good and isn't realistic enough...back to the pocket camera ;-) !

26. April 2011 04:02
by Rene Pallesen
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Easter at Lake Conjola

26. April 2011 04:02 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This Easter holiday the family rented a house at Lake Conjola 220 Km south of Sydney (past Jervis Bay). We drove down there Friday morning (about 3 hours) with all our clothes, food etc.It was a four bedroom house for 8 adults and 5 kids, so always something happening somewhere in the house. Aiden was a bit shell shocked on the first day until he got used to the surroundings etc. We had brought our travel cot (a tent) for him to sleep in, in our bedroom and this made it a bit easier for us to put him to sleep.

Every morning the boys went out fishing in Chong's tinny (aussie word for boat). I went along on the first and last day (the other days I valued my morning sleep) and on the first day I caught a 25cm bream...one of the two legal catches during the week. Chong caught a fairly large flathead on one of the other days.

The beach was about a 15 minute walk away from the house walking through the caravan park (On the first morning there was a coffee van parked there and much to Kims dissapointment it was gone all the following days). It it fairly cool this time of the year so none of us went swimming, but it was fun to run around and take some photos. Aiden is getting used to go to the beach and is now quite comfortable sitting looking at things (He has now finally started commando crawling after 10.5 months).