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22. November 2011 02:17
by Rene Pallesen
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Building Sandcastles

22. November 2011 02:17 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

building sandcastles


On the weekend we went tot he beach. Initially Aiden was a bit scared of the waves (although he loves the sand and the water)...but after a while he didn't mind the waves splashing around his little legs (I found the water cold but he didn't mind).




As usual he threw a tandrum when we pulled him out of the water.



Afterwards we spend some time in the sand and I was teaching him how to build really cool sand castles and he was teaching me how to demolish them.



22. November 2011 02:13
by Rene Pallesen
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Swimming Pool

22. November 2011 02:13 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

swimming pool


The other weekend we took Aiden to the swimming pool.

He is really happy with water now and loves splashing around. He is no longer afraid of it and doesn't mind getting his head under water.



Only problem now is that he throws a tandrum every time we have to leave the pool.

22. November 2011 02:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Sculpture by the Sea 2011

22. November 2011 02:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

sculpture by the sea 2011


This year I didn't get a chance to go to Sculpture by the sea during the daytime, but I did have some time to go there one evening after we had put Aiden to bed.

I had seen some daylight photos from the exhibition from Tamarama beach where they had these 'Easter Island' type statues. I thought I could do some really cool night time Off-Camera-Flash photos using just ordinary flashes.

When I got there it was almost pitch black darkness...perfect.

I got my gear set up and managed to take the following shot which was exactly what I envisioned in my head.



While there I had a look at a couple of the other sculptures in the area...I did shoot the following photo of this 2 meter tall red chinaman sculpture.

24. October 2011 01:20
by Rene Pallesen
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Booze, Fighting and Cops - in Mudgee

24. October 2011 01:20 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

booze fighting and cops in mudgee


This weekend we went with a couple of friends to a place in New South Wales called Mudgee. This place is about 270 kilometres from Sydney on the other side of the mountains and is best known as a wine district.

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On the way there we did a quick stop at Lake Windamere, famous for its dead trees in the water.

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We arrived to Mudgee after about 5 hours of driving (including a couple of brief stops) and had some lunch with Chris and Yvonne. While in Mudgee we did some jump shots of Chris and I pretending to fight (obviously I did some creative editing to get to this final result).


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After lunch we headed to a couple of wineries. We were immediately impressed, some of the local Cab Savs. and some of the whites were excellent and Kim and I walked away with quite a few bottles from the first couple of places we visited. The wines were also more reasonable priced than the Hunter.


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Late in the afternoon we headed to the Bed and Breakfast where we staying for the night. This was a place run by an elderly couple with 4 dogs, 7-8 Alpacas, mini horses and some cattle.

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Before dinner we did a quick stop to take some sunset photos. It was a very quick stop, because within 5 minutes from us arriving at the location the sun disappeared behind a thick cover of clouds and the good light was gone.

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Chris and I had been planning to do some star photography of the Milky Way. The weather forecast wasn't promising, but after dinner is seemed to clear up a bit so we decided to give it a go.
We hadn't scoped out any good location so it was a bit of a trial and error to find a good place. The trick with start photography is to also include an interesting foreground subject into the photo.
The first place we stopped was next to a vineyard and although the Milky Way was reasonably clear the grapes weren't that interesting.

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We therefore headed up some of the back streets. On this paddock we found this really old truck parked in an almost perfect position...it was something different.
While we were setting up dogs started barking at the property behind us and after a few minutes all the outside lights came on and a woman came out and asked what we were doing.
Chris said that we were just taking some photos and if she was alright with that.
She went back into the house, but the dogs kept barking at us. After another couple of minutes she returned and asked us to leave because we were disturbing her dogs and parents.

We were on public property so we could have told here that we wouldn't leave and that we were in our rights to be there, but sometimes it is better to not push the issue, especially when you are just visiting the area.

Instead we found an area with some trees...alright, but not that interesting and by that time the Milky Way had started setting in the horizon.

Next morning we met up with Sacha (he's driven up from Sydney in the morning) to go and visit another couple of vineries (We bought more wine).


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And Aiden loved all the attention and new locations.

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On the way home we were planning to stop at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow. As we drive into the city we passed a couple of police cars. I was going a few kilometres over the speed limit and hit the brakes as soon as I saw them. A couple of kilometres further down the road the cars came up behind me with their lights on and I thought..."Damn, I got busted", but I was really surprised when they went past me without stopping...I was even more surprised when they pulled over Chris in front of me.
He was busted for driving his car without a valid registration (he had forgotten to pay it a few weeks earlier), given a fine and they told him that he was not allowed to drive any further without a valid registration.

After the cops left he quickly went on the internet and renewed all the paperwork online so we were able to keep going.

The blast furnace is an old iron smelter dating back to more than 100 years ago when a lot of iron was dug out of the surrounding area and processed here to produce steel. It is interesting walking around the old ruins of which much of the building foundation still exists.

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We also used this as an opportunity for some more fighting jump shots.

After this it was back to Sydney...

7. October 2011 07:17
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden 16 Months

7. October 2011 07:17 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

aiden 16 months


Aiden is now 16 Months and he is now able to crawl and stand up. He is slowly starting to walk (a few metres at a time) when supported by a walker but he is still not able to walk unsupported. He also likes sitting on this little car we have for him, racing around the lounge room.


He favourite foods are Strawberries, Mango, Durian and Yoghurt.

We did another photo shoot the other day with his favorite teddy called 'Scout'

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25. August 2011 03:30
by Rene Pallesen
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Zagreb Inner City - Croatia

25. August 2011 03:30 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

zagreb part 2 croatia


The next day was spent exploring the inner city itself. Surprisingly there are not a lot of turists in Zagreb. Most of the places were went to seemed to be mostly locals. It is not loke other capital cities where you see a lot of tour groups etc. Here we sometime had the feeling that we were the only tourists.


The In the morning we explored the horse shoe shaped parks and all their buildings. These parks are have a lot of buildings such as the University and the National Theatre located in them.

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This is the National Theatre with the Fountain of Life in front of it.


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One of the statues is of St George slaying the dragon.


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We also had a look at the Dolac market in the middle of the city.


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In the afternoon we also explored some of the churches although some of them were closed for us to visit inside (Maybe because it was Sunday).

This is the St Marks church. The roof tiles show the coat of arms of Croatia and Slovenia. The church also has the Croatian Parliament located next to it so a lot of police and security looking at me suspeciously while setting up my tripod.


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We also made it to the big cathedral which apparently is under constant renovation.


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We also went to the Stone Gate that contains a status of the Virgin Mary that micraculously escaped being destroyed in a fire. All the locals would come here to light a candle.


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In the late afternoon we went to the Strossmayer Promenade. This is a place where the local artists sell and display some of their work and also contains a rather special statue.


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Aiden was very facinated by this strange man sitting on a park bench.

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...And next day it is time for the long journey back to Australia.

24. August 2011 04:31
by Rene Pallesen
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Zagreb Park, Zoo and Cemetry - Croatia

24. August 2011 04:31 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

zagreb croatia


Before heading back to Australia we spent a couple of days in Croatias capital Zagreb.

Kim had found us accomodation at the Best western which was centrally located very close to the centre of Zagreb and just across one of the big parks.

One of the advantages of this hotel was that there was plenty of parking at the hotel and it would have been difficult/expensive to park on the street otherwise.

Driving in Zagreb was a real challenge. It was full of one way streets with lots of road works. There were lots of bicycles and there were trams everywhere.


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After arriving we went for a walk across to the park and square and along the way we didn't see many restaurants so I stopped at a tourist information to ask them where we should go to find a selection on places. When we went to those places later in the evening there were hardly any restaurants. There were a lot of bars serving drinks and the places were packed, but they were not restaurants.

We eventually found a place and the food was very nice, but this was pretty much the trend for Zagreb, lots of people going out for drinks, but very few people going out dining. I am not sure if this was a cultural thing or just because of the costs associated with going out.

Next day we did find the one of the old streets had loads of restaurants but still nowhere the variety we had seen elsewhere on our travels.

Next morning we decided to first visit some of the places that were on the outshirts of the inner city and required us to have transport. We first went to the Maksimir Park which also has a zoo. The park itself doesn't have much in terms of scenery and facilities although it is nice enough.

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The building for the cafe (Kiosk) in the middle of the park was was in bad need of some maintenance with large pieces of rendering and paint falling off the building.

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The Zoo was pleasant and they had a large selection of different animals. It was really hot in there so the zoo keeper were spraying them with water to cool them down a bit.

The most exciting specimen in the park was this lot of Homisapiens...very rare and irreplaceable.

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Next was the Mirogoj cemetry. This is the oldest cemetry in Zagreb and is absolutely amazing in terms of the graves there. Some of the graves belonged to old families and I counted some that had 15 family members buried there dating back to the early 18 hundreds.

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The place was huge, the really old section would have been at least 500 metres long as was very beautifully set up.

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The following day we decided to explore the inner city of Zagreb. at the hotel we had picked up a "Zagreb Step-by-step" guide. This turned out to be the best tourist guide I have ever seen. It was very comprehensible and provided us with a very logical route to follow. It was so good that I was able to provide ongoing commentary to Kims video. I brough back a copy of the guide which I intend to send to NSW tourism when I am done with it.

23. August 2011 02:04
by Rene Pallesen
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Lubjiana - Slovenia

23. August 2011 02:04 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

lubjiana slovenia


On the way back to Zagreb in Croatia we decided to visit Lubjiana the capital of Slovenia as we had to pass through here anyway.

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The old city was pedistrians only and was very nice and very clean and with small canals running through it.

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There cathedral there has these amazing bronze doors.

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There were a number of water water fountains and I let Aiden have a splash to the point where he was all soaked, but fortunately is was really warm so he dried quickly.

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The butchers bridge is a new bridge. People who are in love put padlocks on the sides of the bridge to symbolise their unbreakable love for eachother (I wonder if they keed the key just in case or whether they throw it the river).

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The Bridge also have some really special art pieces.

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It is a fairly old city, so I expected a lot of stairs and a lot of carrying Aiden up and down. I was surprised as there were ramps everywhere and I didn't have to carry him once. I think it is because a lot of people use bicycles (they have a free bicycle system similar to Copenhagen).

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The Tivoli park area was a really nice and relaxing area with a cute little 'Mansion' in the centre.

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One of the things that amazed me was that they had a fantastic outdoor location for a permanent exhibition of photographs and artwork from different artists. When we were there is was a Serbian artist exhibiting his works and there were some really good pieces there.

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22. August 2011 11:52
by Rene Pallesen
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Vintgar Gorge - Slovenia

22. August 2011 11:52 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

vintgar gorge slovenia


Second day we went to a place called Vintgar Gorge. We weren't quite sure where to find it apart from it being listed on a not very detailed map. We punched in the closest town on the GPS and hoping that we could 'wing' it from there.

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When we arrived to the town we were unable to find any any signs towards the gorge, but we did find a fign with a drawing of a car pointing left and a man walking pointing right.

We were sitting in a car so we decided to follow the left sign. This took us down this gravel logging road for a couple of Kilometres (Kim saying 'This is scary') and eventually we came to an open area with a set of stairs leading up to a building.

There some people coming down the stairs and we asked them if we were in the right place...yes we were.


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Once we got up the stairs I was worried that this was going to be horrible getting Aiden through...so we asked some hikers coming out of the gorge and they said that most of the was was pretty flat and we shouldn't have too many problems with a Pram. I went a few hundred meters ahead to have a quick look and confirmed that it didn't look too bad and that there indeed were a lot of waterfalls in the area.

While there I also did some photos to be used for HDR - High Dynamic Range:

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The Gorge was really nice and cool in the morning and there was a fine mist forming over the waters surface. The waterfalls, the river, the gorge and walking track itself was really amazing. There were people there, but it wasn't crowded and despite the track being really narrow it was easy enough getting through.

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We walked for a fair bit to make sure we have seen the main falls (someone coming from the other direction said that the falls were fairly small after the point where we turned back) and by this time the sun had started entering the gorge and it was getting really warm.

We therefore decided to drive to lake Bohinj to go for a swim (see previous posting).


22. August 2011 03:31
by Rene Pallesen
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Bled and Lakes - Slovenia

22. August 2011 03:31 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

bled and lakes slovenia


Our first impression of the area around Bled was that it was very Austrian looking (whose border is very close) with all the surrounding mountains.

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Bled is this really beautiful little town at Lake Bled. The lake has a castle sitting high on the hillside and in the middle of the lake there is beautiful little island with a monastery on it. It seems that most of the area along the lake has been reserved as a public space and there is a really nice little walking track all around the lake.

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Kim had found a very groovy little place for accumodation called Alice House. It was very modern and it was obvious that the owner had put a lot of thought into the looks and feel of the place.
It had this really little pleasant garden and it was really nice to just sit down and relax and have Aiden play with the pebbles and eat the strawberries.

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After we had settled in the first thing we did was visit the castle (getting a bit lost along the way). I was pretty buggered after driving all morning, so when we arrived to the castle and saw all the stairs I asked Kim to check out the castle while I would check out the park in front of the castle with Aiden (Kim came back after a while and said that there wasn't that much to see in there).

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After this we went around the lake and found this nice little spot with a beautiful view of the lake, the island and the castle.

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When we were there they were getting ready for the Rowing worldcup week after, so the town was swarming with muscly atletes. There were a large number of Australian rowers and Kim was pretty keen to have me take a photo of some of them in case they won and were famous (I asked her if I should ask them to take off their T-Shirts too so she could better perv at them). It turned out that some of them did win gold..congratulations Aussies!!!

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The Day after we went to one of the other lake Bohinj and went for a swim with Aiden. Aiden was very excited that he could be splashing without getting salt water in his eyes.

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Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

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21. December 2020 13:03
by Rene Pallesen
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School award

21. December 2020 13:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

It is not often gets an award from school, so he is super proud when he gets a little encouragement.
It is not often gets an award from school, so he is super proud when he gets a little encouragement.


16. September 2020 16:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Pool and Beach Photoshoot

16. September 2020 16:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

At Boracay I did another shoot with some beautiful models. It was a fun shoot on the beautiful beach

At Boracay I did another shoot with some beautiful models. It was a fun shoot on the beautiful beach and at the hotel pool.












26. July 2020 10:07
by Rene Pallesen
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Gold Coast 2020

26. July 2020 10:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Early in the year we made an extended weekend trip to the Gold Coast in Queensland. Main attraction
Early in the year we made an extended weekend trip to the Gold Coast in Queensland. Main attraction here was for the boys to visit Movieworld and Seaworld.




















19. July 2020 13:07
by Rene Pallesen
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Indoor boudoir with Kateriina

19. July 2020 13:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

These photo are from a workshop I did with Kateriina as a model.It was mainly studio with fixed (hot
These photo are from a workshop I did with Kateriina as a model.

It was mainly studio with fixed (hot) lights instead of strobes which I am more used to.

Advantage of the fixed lights in a workshop setting is that it is easier to see what the light is like before taking the photo as well as having multiple photographers shooting at the same time.





















21. June 2020 17:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Aidens 10th Birthday

21. June 2020 17:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Aidens birthday was during the covid lock down.Fortunately we were still allowed to have a couple of
Aidens birthday was during the covid lock down.

Fortunately we were still allowed to have a couple of his school friends over for a little celebration (his school was still open anyhow).

We decided to have it in the garden with a fire pit with roasted marshmellows, sparklers followed by cake.






5. March 2020 20:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Shooting - 800m range

5. March 2020 20:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Recently I had the chance to visit the shooting range at Malabar headland with a group of friends.I
Recently I had the chance to visit the shooting range at Malabar headland with a group of friends.

I used to do a lot of shooting in my younger days, so I was curious to see if I still had it in me.

On this day we were shooting on the 800 meter range (which is a very long distance) with 7.62 NATO rounds.


The distance means that you cannot see where you hit, so they have an electronic readout next to the shooter. The two circles in the middle are about 25cm in diameter at the far end.

Below is the group of shots from my round.


This photo gives a better idea of the distance we were shooting at (It was also a very windy day)




Apparently I shot the best round of the day including the regulars...


Conclusion is that, yes, still got it and I may pick it up as a regular activity some time in the future.

20. October 2019 19:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Boracay Phillipines

20. October 2019 19:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

With Kim having a few weeks gap between jobs and badly needing a break she wanted to go somewhere re
With Kim having a few weeks gap between jobs and badly needing a break she wanted to go somewhere relaxing and where the water and weather would be warm.

After a bit of research we settled on a week to the Phillipines to an island called Boracay.

This is a small island with the most beautiful beach we have seen anywhere outside of Bora Bora (interesting that both have the name 'Bora').









The boys (and adults) managed to get a mighty sunburn already on the first day.


The island also has the most amazing sunsets at the beach.










Also lots of activity on the beach in the evenings whereas during the day is is mostly empty.


We stayed in a large resort built around a golf course. It had seven swimming pools and we spend a lot of time here relaxing with the boys and sipping cocktails.










It was really nice in the evenings to sit in a bar listening to cruisy music. Most of the restaurants and bars would have live entertainers on in the evenings.


One day we went on a snorkeling trip around the island. The boys are well accustomed to snorkeling now and love it. Unfortunately I didn't bring an underwater housing on the trip, but I can say that the coral reef looks to be in a good shape although a lot of the larger schools of fish and large predatory fish seems to be scarce.







We also did a day trip to the main island where we went through one of the local caves.



The cave was full of little bats and also had other creatures that were attracted to the bats and insects such as a snake and spiders I've never seen before.
We even spotted a large hermit crab (size of a hand).




We also went to a local river where there was waterfalls and also rafts for the boys to have a play with.




The food in general was pretty good although we only tried a couple of local dishes (Phillipines is not famous for its food). Especially some of the seafood was really nice.



The way we got around the island was on these small tricycles. There are two types, the old ones pulled by a small moterbike and then the new ones which are all electric. The government wants to have all the old ones off the roads by 2024 which is very sensible both environmentally and economically as even the locals say that they make more money on the new ones.






The main road however is horrendous. In late 2018 the island was closed for 6 months to any visitors due to them sorting out a lot of issues with the sewage system. This means that they have dug up the entire road to install large pipes along with a road widening. A lot of this was still ongoing with the main road being full of holes, but given that it is such a small place it was alright to still get around.




10. October 2019 20:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Karate

10. October 2019 20:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This year the boys started doing Karate.It was something that I've always wanted do do with them, so
This year the boys started doing Karate.

It was something that I've always wanted do do with them, so we looked around for a place where initially they could join some kids classes and then along the way I'd join as well.

Initially they got their red and white stripe belts (automatically)


And then later they went up for grading to get their Red belts.


They love training with some of the equipment that we have at home for it.




Late in the year I joined as well once the sensei established some adult classes and I have now after 20 years (I did a bit of karate back in 1998) finally received my Red belt.







Even Kim has taken a couple of classes - maybe she will even grade on of these days.



1. October 2019 20:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden Holy Communion

1. October 2019 20:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Aiden as part of his school had to do his holy communion.He looked very handsome in his little suit.
Aiden as part of his school had to do his holy communion.

He looked very handsome in his little suit.




10. September 2019 21:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Canoeing with family at Royal national Park

10. September 2019 21:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

One weekend we went to the Royal National Park (half an hour south) to go canoeing with the Family.I
One weekend we went to the Royal National Park (half an hour south) to go canoeing with the Family.

It was a fun day out and fortunately we can still fit the boys into a single canoe unlike Chong who had to get a rowing boat for his family - they are a lot harder work.