Lucas is now 6 months and is enjoying the easy life...

On the weekend we went down to La Perouse to do these creative shots of him at sunset.

I always said that I would take a photo of him and put it in a frame...but not sure if this is what everyone had in mind.




It was pretty good fun trying to set it all up. A lot of other walkers on the beach were wondering what we were doing.

I have been planning this photo for a while.


The frame I had picked up from a garbage collection day last month outside a block of units with this particular photo in mind.

The chair and table are bath aids and foot stools from home.







It was really cool to see everything come together in the end. Unfortunately we missed just the end of the sunset as there were a few clouds on the horizon.


A lot of lessons learnt came out of it. Even though the photos came out almost as I had envisioned...I still had a few things that I could have done better....just small things such as two flashes to light frame and Lucas independently, CTO gelling the flash to match the ambient, using an umbrella to avoid hard shadows, bringing a mid range zoom to have more composition options and be able to get a bit closer, use black string to hold up the frame instead of white, bring a pillow to keep his head up and then stripping his clothes and then bring my light meter to check the setting to start with instead of chimping.

It was the first time I've used the D800 for this (in the past I've been using my D50 with a different shutter system) and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to balance out the ambient with the flash and still stay below the sync speed...but it worked out like a charm...or maybe I was just lucky!

Last night Kim made a very nice Creme Brulee...Yummiiiii!!!!

She asked me to take a couple of photos which I think turned out quite nicely.

On the weekend we went to the Sydney Wildlife Park at Darling Harbour.

It was good fun to show Aiden all the different animals (Although he was pretty tired by the end).

The highlight of the exhibition is the 4.5 meter long Saltie (Saltwater Crocodile). He is such a darling and he loved his girlfriends so much that he had them over for dinner (Ha Ha).





Aiden wasn't sure about the crocodiles and definitely wasn't happy with the big mouth and all the sharp teeth...



...Daddy came to the rescue and threw himself at the monster.



He was a bit more happy with the smaller cuddlier animals...



Such as the wombats...



...the Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies...



...or even the Tasmanian Devil.



The start of the exhibition is pretty amazing as you wank through a large enclosure with lots of butterflies flying around.



And besides from that there is of cause a lot of lizards, frogs and snakes on display.

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!

Over the new year we went with the family to Malua Bay Beach down south.

The house was beach front with great access directly to the beach.







The big wrap-around balcony was great for the kids to play on and they spent hours running around.





And it was great for the family to be together.





There were also lots of chicadas and Ethan found a dead one.

Aiden got a new bike and helmet for Christmas. He was very proud as it was the biggest present under the tree.



The helmet is a combined bicycle and climbing helmet (cost more than the bike) so will see if I can also find an opportunity to take him climbing in the new year.

As usual we celebrated Christmas Day with the whole family.

There was a lot of Christmas presents this year, so the kids must have been good.




Even Father Christmas paid us a visit...



It was a big group this year.

Every year I do a family photo. This year we decided to use the gingerbread village and the tree as a backdrop.

Merry Christmas.

Over the Christmas period Aiden and I have been building a Gingerbread village.



It has been good fun for me to put the houses together and for Aiden to help with sticking on the kandy.

Tonight I did some more photos...



The plan was to get a photo of Lucas and Aiden together wrapped in christmas lights. It turned out to be impossible to get especially Lucas to sit still, so we eventually gave up and tried to do some individual shots...the photos below are the best of the lot...not great but will have to do. To be honest the best shot of the evening is the one above of Aiden which I took after we gave up with the chain.

Lucas is growing up really fast and him and Aiden are now best mates doing almost everything together (including fighting).

The other day I found this in our garage.



I had to look it up...but it turned up to be a blue tongue lizard but without the stumpy tail we normally see.

I asked Kim if the kids could keep it...but she screamed and said no, so I released it into our garden.

You can tell that Christmas is approaching when Banana's in Pyjamas is wearing a Christmas hat...oh and then there is the cute Santa's helper.

Yesterday it was Kims dads Birthday and we celebrated with a big lunch party with cake and good food.








And Kim was beautiful as ever and Lucas was very handsome...