This year we celebrated Christmas eve with the boys.

5 days before Christmas I still hadn't taken our annual family photo even though I had the concepts loosely worked out in my head.

I knew that I wanted to do one in the kitchen and one evening when Kim decided she wanted to experiment with cooking brownies I decided to set it up and talked her through the concept and what I wanted her and the kids to do.
It worked out better than expected.



Kim also wanted one of us unpacking gifts.

This one was a lot harder to set up as the light was critical.




The last family photo we did was a simple one taken in the morning at Maroubra beach.

In one of the shops at Eastgardens I found a wall full of these inspirational notes for 2015.

A couple of days ago the kids were playing in the park at Kims dads place while a big storm was approaching.

The light was beautiful so I couldn't resist snapping a couple of photos with my phone.

Kim has never learned to ride a bike. One day at the park she borrowed Kaylas bike and gave it a try.

She did pretty good considering that she's never done it before.

Here is some quick snaps of some public artwork that I find really cool.

This artwork I found in the Macquarie centre.







It is thousands of plastic balls suspended from the ceiling.

And this grafitti is from Redfern...I wish all grafitti was this well done.

One day we went with the kids to the opera house to experience a play called "The tiger who came to tea" which is based on a childrens book of the same title.

We had borrowed the book week before and read it to the kids so they were very excited and the play was really good fun and well made.

One of the sad events of the year was the attack on the Lindt cafe in Sydney where a lone gunman took the patrons as hostages. He was eventually shot by the police after killing two patrons.



All of Sydney laid flowers in front of the cafe as Martins place.

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.

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: 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


Model: Jessica Garcia

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.

Good news everyone...we are expecting a baby and the stork should be delivering around mid June next year.

I guess most of you guys already know by now....for the rest of you...Surprise!!

It is not unexpected as we were trying.




Now there is a busy time ahead preparing for the baby. Kims wants the baby room painted (Even though in my opinion the baby doesn't care what colour it is).

We will also need to get hold of stuff like prams etc. If there are any baby items that you can spare (especielly items such as car baby seats, pram and changing table) then we would be very grateful.

We don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet (We should know by the end of January).

yesterday it was Kim and I's one year anniversary.

We actually celebrated it on Saturday with a visit to one of Sydney top restaurants called Bilson's.

Yesterday we instead planned to have a nice evening out watching a movie in the evening. Kim was apparently waiting for me to deliver something to her office (or so her colleague said) but after work I was waiting at the car with a bunch of flowers. Kim was so excited to go out in the evening that she forgot to get off the train at our station with the result that she by accident ended up in Parramatta (western Sydney)...it took her one and a half hours to make it to the car...but fortunately the flower still looked fresh.

When we got home I spend some time experimenting with some photos and some lighting of the flowers before we went out, and here are the results. The Macro photos are taking using a 35/50mm lens reversed. The light comes from a single strobe reflected of a mirror.














The movie was really good and entertaining. We saw 2012...and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Every year in October & November there is an exhibition called Sculptures by the Sea. The city exhibits close to 200 sculptures on the stretch of coastline between Bondi and Tamarama. The public can go for a walk and have a look at the sculptures and vote for their favourits...if they are able to find parking that is.

Some of them are really good and some of them at just plain weird.

Here's some photos I took of my favourites.

It has been raining almost constantly for the past two weeks (since the dust storm really) and Andy and I had organised to go climbing in the Blue Mountains together with a friends of his (Dan) who's never been on on real rock before.

We looked a the forecast and it didn't look promising for the mountains so the night before we decided to go to plan B and go to Barrenjoey instead.

The quality of the climbing is more limited, but at least it is a shorter drive and walk-in in case you have to bail.

We arrived up at Palm Beach in the morning and the roads were still soaked in water from all the rain the night before. We therefore decided to stop at a cafe and have some breakfast and let the cliffs dry out a bit before walking in there.

While eating breakfast we were having a look at the latest radar pictures and we could see that it was pouring down in the mountains and we could see rain approaching the Sydney area.

After breakfast we were trying to decide whether we should bail or go climbing. After much procrastination we decided to climb and went to the carpark. Andy pulled out the insect repellent and started rubbing it into his genitals (or so it looked) saying that it would keep the chicks away (which I'm sure his wife appreciates)...or was it ticks.



For Dans benefit we started out on one of the easiest climbs around there called Jezebel. Andy did the first lead and as he finished we could feel the first rain drops. I then did the second climb and once I reached the top the rain became heavier. The plan was to have Dan follow me up so that he could try an absail from the top. Once he reached the top it really started pouring and all of us became drenched while setting up the absail and clearing the gear.

Dan made it down in good style (although nervous) and once I'd made it to the ground as well we quickly packed our gear and headed back home for a nice warm shower.

Mostly a non-climbing day really...but Andy did get his sugar-hit with the pancakes.

Saturday evening Kim and I went with a couple of friends to the Capitol Theatre to see the Broadway play called Wicked.

The play is about how the Wicked witch became wicked in 'The Wizard of Oz'.



The play very cleverly provides the background for the Wizard of Oz.

This was Kims birthday present to me earlier in the year...satisfied the criteria for presents: Must be an experience or a consumable.

It was a really nice evening and the play was very funny...especially the Wizard of Goodness (a real blonde)

The last 24 hours has been the most freak weather I've (and anyone else) has experienced in Sydney.

Yesterday we had 30 degrees during the day and in the evening a huge thunderstorm descended upon Sydney with massive rainfalls and very high winds. Kim found that water was dripping through ceiling and my first though was "This ain't good" and rushed up to check if there was a hole in the roof tiles or in the plumbing (if you see one of the previous posts then you'll notice that we've installed Solar hot water and this system is positioned above that same bathroom).

I could clearly see where the water had come in, but it wasn't through any gaps and it seemed that the strong winds had pushed the water backwards and upwards under the tiles...whew...but I'll have another look next time it rains.

Then this morning I woke up and looked out the window and everything was covered in a bright red and yellow haze and it was blowing a gale. I had a look at the forecast and stuck my head outside the window and it turned out that all of NSW was encapsulated in a massive dust storm with fine red dust coming from the Australian outback.



Everything outside is now covered in this fine dust, cars, windows...everything.

One of out friends too the following photo from his balcony:



The area covered by the dust is huge and apparently it may even reach New Zealand.

This weekend we invited a group of my friends over for BBQ.

The official excuse was for my recovery after my Hernia surgery (which is still causing me some grief some days).

It was a beautiful spring day with 31 degrees in the shade and luckily I had put up a gazebo outside to cover the area and provide a bit of shade.

Most of the day I was attending the BBQ cooking Lamb Cutlets, Fish, Prawns, Vietnamese Sausages and Chicken skewers.

The last batch of chicken skewers I forgot on the BBQ with a very predictable result.



In the evening we had Kim's family over for dinner/BBQ, so a repetition of the afternoon.

This weekend we went to Sasha's and Mavis's wedding.




Family and friends were invited to attend the ceremony at Greenwich at 10am. The location they had chosen had a stunning view of Sydney Harvour and skyline.

When we arrived neither the groom or the bride were there. Approximately 20 minutes later the bride arrived, but still no groom, so she did another round in the car.

Finally at 10.30 Sasha arrived with his dad after having been stuck in traffic, shortly after Mavis arrived in her beautiful wedding dress and the ceremony could get under way.



It was a beautiful ceremony, beautiful location and beautiful weather.

After the ceremony it was photo time.

The reception was at a restaurant called Occilate Wildly in Newtown. The food was nice and at the end of the afternoon everyone went on their way.

During the trip Kim took a number of videos using her compact camera. Here are the best ones (Click on the links to download the videos):

Denmark:

Knights Fighting
Firing Weapon

Italy:

Verona
Aida the Opera 1
Aida the Opera 2
Aida the Opera 3
Aida the Opera 4
San Gimignano
View of Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre from the boat
Driving to Portofino
Portofino
View of Lake Como
Lake Como from the Boat
Driving on mountain roads
Cow (Dont kill the cow)
Switzerland

The week before we went away on holiday I experienced pain in the pelvic area. I quickly got it diagnosed with ultrasound to be a hernia. Furtunately it could wait until we came back from holiday to be fixed although it was giving me some problems along the way carrying suitcases etc.

As soon as we came back I went to see the specialist and he told he that it would have to be fixed with surgery and that he could schedule it for the following week.

In the morning of the surgery I had to be at the hospital at 6.30am in the morning. Surgery started at 9am and by 11am I was awake again released at 1pm.

So it terms of the surgery it was very smooth...but it was very painful afterwards. I had problems standing up and sitting down.


This photo was taken two days after the surgery:



The cut is 13cm long and at this point I am still very much in pain.


The feedback from the doctor was that this was an Indirect Inaugural hernia and apparently the type that can cause a lot of problems later on if not fixed.

Unfortunately part of hernia surgery is that they have to cut some of the nerves so that they don't get caught in the mesh they use to repair it with.


This means that now two and a half weeks after the surgery there is still a large area around the cut that has got no sensation to touch or pain and some areas are hyper sensitive with the result that even the lightest touch is painful.

I hope the eventually all the sensation returns to normal (apparently in 25% of the cases this doesn't happen). I also hope that the scar won't be too bad and will mostly disappear long term.