This year it was my Grandmothers 85th Birthday. As per the tradition the whole family went on a trip overseas, this time to Egypt.

It was my first time to Egypt so it was a different experience. I can recommend that you take a read of the Travel Journal by clicking here!


Click here to see more photos from: Egypt 2004/Slideshow/Travel Journal

2004 was the year I started working for Captaris. One of the first things I did was to visit our office in Calgary to learn about our workflow product.

My visit coincided with the Calgary Stampede, so lots of cowboys in town, indians and rodeos. I also too a bus ride up through the Canadian rockies through Banff, Lake Louise and up to the Columbian Ice Fields.

Click here to see more photos from: Canada 2004/Slideshow

In 2004 Australia was being drawn into the war in Iraq. A lot of Australians were opposed to the war, but the politicians wouldn't listen.

On a nice sunny day several hundred thousand people gathered around Hyde park in the middle of the city to demonstrate and express their opinions against Australia entering into the war.

I was of the belief that the war was a mistake in the first place and was totally unjustified, so I was decided to join the demonstrations and at the same time see if I could take a few photos.

Click here to see more photos from: The 2004 Anti War demonstrations/Slideshow

Andy and Tink had their first baby...a little (and very hairy) girl names Mia.

This was also one of those periods where I was checking out what it would be like to have a beard.

My grandad passed away in 2003.

He was getting old and was getting tired of living so he decided to end it.

With EDI I went on a field trip to visit one of the big containerships in Botany Bay.

It was facinating to see the size of those ships.

I celebrated Christmas and New Year with my parents in Thailand.

We spent the time in the Northern Part of Thailand in the Golden Triangle around Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

We rented a car for a couple of days and got to see a lot including all the hill tribes that still to this day live in this part of Thailand.




Click here to see more photos from: Thailand/Slideshow

In 2003 Kenneth got married to Anica. I was asked to be the best man by Kenneth.

The wedding took place at a homestead in Sofala three hours drive west of Sydney.

It was a wonderful weekend surrounded by wonderful people.



Click here to see more photos from: Kenneths Wedding/Slideshow

Contents . . .

My photo collection is vast. Many of them are in my albums, others scanned as images here. I have tried to include the best of the best, and will keep doing so. Feel free to explore any of the links - it make take some time to peruse them all...

( We recommend viewing of the photos through MS Explorer )

AUSTRALIA - HOME
Cockatoos at Home	Narrabeen Beach	New car	My Jobs

MY FAMILY
Grandmother's 85th	Grandmother's 80th	Donkey Day Out	My Brother Claus	My Father

2001
New Zealand (Mt Cook)	South-East Asia

2000
Chilli Festival	Ecochallenge Borneo (Sabah)	Sydney Olympics

1999
Thailand (Bangkok)	Laos	Morocco

1998
Port Macquarie	Pete's Bite	New Zealand (Sth Island)	Denmark

Created: 11 Aug 2001 Last Updated: 21-jan-05

We went with Donna and Sandra up to Port Stephens to go Whale watching.

It was a great day (very cold) and we saw lots of whales.

Click here to see more photos from: Whale Watching/Slideshow

I went climbing with Andy in New Zealand. We flew onto the glacier at Pioneer hut with a skiplane.

We attempted a couple of peaks in the area but were mainly unsuccessful due to sloshy conditions and late starts. Andy eventually insisted going down after taking a bit of a slide after taking a bit of a slide. We did however get a little bit of climbing done.



Click here to see more photos from: Climbing in New Zealand/Slideshow

Believe it or not, I still have quite a few friends in Denmark. I would like to put photos of all of them here - unfortunately I do not have photos of all of them. If you are one of my friends and your photo is not on this page then please do not despair - I still consider you a friend, and maybe, the next time I go to Denmark, I shall have photos of you all!




Here is one of my best friends in Denmark. This photo was taken quite a while ago, before I came to Australia.

Kenneth is now living here in Sydney, on the beautiful Manly beach - only about a half hour away from me. Kenneth came to stay with me a few months ago. He was trying out a new job, and actually came back! He is going to give Australia a go, to see if he likes it like I do. No more biting winters, lots of warmth and sunshine, beautiful mountains and bush to explore... and I think he has discovered, there are lots of friends to make - especially the pretty fun-going ones with two legs and a skirt! *smile*

He is actually a pretty good cook. Whist he stayed in my apartment for a couple of months, he cooked pot roast with gorgonzola sauce, and also gave a wonderful 3-course dinner for a small group of friends here. About two years after I arrived in Australia, I returned to Denmark for a visit. On the day I arrived in Denmark, he threw together a party for me!









Here is Ester, another one of my friends.

She is a fashion designer and paints some wonderful paintings.






Naturally at parties, there was quite a large amount of beer being consumed (how can you not?? - not possible to have a party otherwise in Denmark.

It was nice to taste one of the annual Christmas beers from Tuborg.
Created: Jan 2000 Last Updated: 16 Sept 2001

Photo Gallery

I have placed photos here - those I could not fit on the respective webpages.



Schwedagon




Mandalay



Marionet




Volleyball



Created: 3 Nov 2001

I initially made plans to explore Burma and then make my way across the border into western China at Burma's only border crossing up north. I had not made any definite plans wanted to play it by ear... but in the end my trip consisted of Thailand, Cambodia and restricted areas to Burma.

I was away for a total of 5 weeks and must admit that parts of my trip really frustrated me - there were many restrictions in Burma and being in Bangkok at times stressed me because of all the tourists and crowds. I really only went to Cambodia to see the magnificent Angkor Wat - actually I really did enjoy being there. I think my most enjoyable part of the trip was the days I had climbing on the secluded areas of Krabi.

Burma (23 Jul ~ 5 Aug)	Cambodia (6 ~ 10 Aug)	Thailand

There were quite a lot of monkeys at Mt Popa.











The photo above in the middle, shows monkeys that look like they are playing around. They are actually fighting monkeys and can be very dangerous because they bite and also snatch things from you.

They were rather oblivious to me being there, until the flash on my camera went off. Then their attention was on me and they were ready to attack.

I adopted the “monkey mentality” - avoid eye contact and move away backwards - the only way to stop the monkeys from attacking is to not look at them.

Whilst I was up north, I watched a rather interesting game of volleyball.

I have never seen such dexterity and agility amongst the players!

It was amazing to see how flexible these guys were.

There is a monastry on Mt Popa - a hill located 50km away from Bagan.

When I was there, it was a cloudy day.



I ran into a woman selling petrified wood - quite silly really, considering the place was covered with it.




They must think tourists are stupid! *laugh* I managed to pick up a couple of small pieces to take back with me.

As you can see, there are stacks of them around.

And no... this is not a tombstone.
This is actually a road sign.



You would be surprised how big some of these pieces are - this piece below was actually about a metre long and 40cm wide.



Actually what I found interesting were the toilets in Burma.

My girlfriend tells me that squatting over a toilet is quite common in Asia.

In many of the city areas, they would have toilets as we know them, and they would also have a carved hole in the ground, on which either side, one places their feet on.

Toilets in the rural area are more crude than that - a hole leading into a gaping pit.

However, what I found interesting about these toilets were that recycled running water was used to wash away any excrement. The water is first used for washing one self and then used in the toilets.

As there were a few toilet cubicles a row, sometimes you would see the excrement from a toilet uphill go beneath you! *laugh*

Very clever and environmental system, I think!




Trying to grab a snooze... *smile*

Like Schweddagon, most of this is real gold as well.

And yes, there is a monkey sitting near my head.

If you click to the next page, you will see that I have taken a series of photos of the monkeys.

I saw the most interesting puppet show, known as the “Mandalay Marionettes”

There were 2 or 3 puppeteers out the front, with a live band of musicians.

Unfortunately, it was more of a show for the tourists, rather than the locals.

It cost 1,000 chats or US$2 per show.

I decided take a 20-hour train-ride to Myitkyinã *laugh* it took 20-hours to get there by train because there was only one track.

It was definitely faster to run next to the train than to travel in it!

We had to wait for the oncoming train to return before we could travel north.

At one point, we crossed a bridge that was so rickety that I thought it would collapse any moment!







Locals working in the rice fields.






Locals using water-buffaloes to plough rice fields.





The train travelled along the Jrrawaddy River.

It would have been nice if I was able to travel to Mandalay via a riverboat down the Jrrawaddy River.





It was amazing to find out that people live “on” these lakes, by building houses on stilts.

This sort of housing is quite common in many parts of Asia, especially areas where monsoons quite frequently flood an area.

It is also very environmentally-sound, I think, and hurts the land less.

Most of the houses are made of wood.







Myitkyinã is pretty dismal in rain!



There is a huge drug problem in Burma, especially through the crossings into China.

I have scanned a copy of a recent newspaper article about this problem in Burma.

It is the 29th February and the last day of the bet I had with Kim....and believe it or not, but Aiden started walking by himself today.



We are very proud of him and I am double proud of him as he delivered the goods just in the nick of time...one day later and I would have been cleaning the house (lucky that this year is a leap year)!

Aiden is now able to stand up by himself.

He is now 20 months and should have been walking ages ago, so he is a bit behind on that front. Hopefully I can get him to take one step before the end of next week...I have a bet with Kim going whether he will walk before the end of February.

Today we went to Centennial Park to take some family photos. I had been complaining that I didn't have enough (good) photos of myself and Aiden so Kim offered to take some.

We found a nice spot in the park and managed to take a couple of shots before my camera ran out of battery...and unfortunately I had forgotten my spare at home.



Kim just came back from a business trip to Singapore a couple of days ago and it is really nice to have her back. I missed her but I am not sure Aiden missed her as much as he is such a daddys boy. When she was back he just turned away and would rather stay with me.

Also the little tiger is now 20 months and he is still not walking...what is going on?

Last night Kim and I went to the Ronan Keating concert in State Theatre in Sydney.



Kim is a long time fan of Ronan and really wanted to see him live. I am to be honest not really familiar with his music but had a good evening nonetheless.

The warming up band was Sharon Corr (from The Corrs) and I really enjoyed her both playing and singing...she is pretty talented on the violin.

Chong brought his Tinny (Australian slang for boat) to Tomakin and every morning the guys went out fishing for a few hours (I only went out one morning because 1. I had to look after Aiden and 2. I am not a morning person).





We caught lots of fish, but none of them were worth keeping as they were too small.



Just as well we didn't keep any, because on one of the days the fishing inspection gave us a visit.




In fact the only thing we caught that was above the size limit was this blue swimmer crab (and he was allowed to live another day).




We also had a visit from two massive sting rays (about 1 meter in diameter).

The house we stayed at had a table tennis table in the garage. We had enough people to form three double teams and we spent quite a few hours playing each other.





Kims dad is 78 years old and is still going strong...he loves playing games.

On the last couple of evenings we went to the beach to do some nice sunset photos. Tomaking is very onique in that it has some beaches that are facing west so you can use the nice light in the evening.

We did some family photos (some of which are on the previous blog post) as well as some of just Kim, Aiden and I. Kim still looks as beautiful as the day I met her.











I also did a rush job taking some long exposure shots of the ocean and the cliffs (not sure if I like the post processing...may have to come back to it some other day).

This years christmas family trip went to Tomakin on the NSW south coast (about 5 hours drive south of Sydney).



We rented a house with four bedrooms (for 9 adults and 5 kids) very close to the beach and fishing in the river. Fun with this large a group of people.





As usual we spent some time at the beach and I was showing Aiden how to build sand castles again.



He is still not walking so we had to hold his hands walking on the beach and in the water.





Right next to the house there was a nice litte organic coffee shop serving really good coffee and scones.



One morning we went to Mogo to have a look at the shops. There was a lot of art and crafts shop that Kim was interested in. The town had very conveniently created facilities for husbands as well.

Christmas day we spent at Bondi Beach with Sacha and Mavis and their daughter. We met up at the kids pool at the end of the beach to let our kids have a splash in the water.



Aiden couldn't get enough of walking around in the water with myself and Kim holding his hands (he still can't walk by himself), he is very fond of water.



Sammi, Sacha and Mavis' daughter was wearing a flotation suit which was causing her a few problems as this photo series testifies.

Christmas Eve this year was celebrated with Kims family. Normally we do this on the 25th like all other Australians, but this year we decided to do it the day before like in Denmark to avoid a lot of leftover food before going down south on out family trip to Tomakin.



Later in the day Santa Claus arrived to hand out presents for the kids.



For the lunch I roasted two ducks and Kim baked a chocolate ganache and made a salad.





Aiden was very excited and played with all Ethand and Kaylas toys.

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.



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.



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.



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







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 . . .


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.










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





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.



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.




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.




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.





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.



The temples at Schwedagon were really impressive.






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








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







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.






You can really see the magnificence of these temples!



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?












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 ) . . .




This is the city-centre of Rangoon. Rangoon is the capital city of Burma.

It is actually a pretty big city if you compare it with other parts of Burma on a map.

Most of the buildings are from the old colonial period when the British occupied Burma. Unfortunately they have not been very well-maintained.

Can you see the green bits on the clocktower?





If you are thinking it is vegetation growing on it, you are right! There is quite a bit growing on most of the buildings in the city.







There were so many pigeons!

I managed to catch a pictures of a pigeon flying mid-air - can you see the blurred grey thing near the tree in the middle of the photo?



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Created: 22 Sept 2001

I took part in a photo competition in November 2001, using one of the photos I had taken during my trip to Mt Cook in January 2001. This photo was of Kevin, the alpine guide from my group in the technical climbing course.

The following photo and comments appeared on the Planet Fear website, in the Front Line Photography Competition - not long after I was notified that I was one of 20 winners, and I was even more surprised to find out that I had come third!

The comments above the photo were my comments that I had emailed to them when I sent the photo. The comments below the photo were (one of the judges) comments about my photo.

3. Rene Pallesen The attached photo was taken in New Zealand on the main range near Mount Cook. The valleys to the west are filled with clouds formed by the moisture from the forests underneath. The snowcovered mountains in the north are visible through the Home 14. November 2004 01:45 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Karnak - "the Most Perfect of Places" - Part 1 14. November 2004 01:45 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet karnak the most perfect of places part 1 Share 14. November 2004 01:44 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Temple of Horus - the Most Complete of Its Kind Part 3 14. November 2004 01:44 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet temple of horus the most complete of its kind part 3 Share 14. November 2004 01:40 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Temple of Horus - the Most Complete of Its Kind Part 2 14. November 2004 01:40 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet temple of horus the most complete of its kind part 2 Share 14. November 2004 01:39 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Temple of Horus - the Most Complete of Its Kind Part 1 14. November 2004 01:39 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet temple of horus the most complete of its kind part 1 Share 14. November 2004 01:38 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Horses 14. November 2004 01:38 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet horses Share 14. November 2004 01:37 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Temple of Hatshepsut - Egypt's Only Female Pharaoh Part 2 14. November 2004 01:37 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet temple of hatshepsut egypt s only female pharaoh part 2 Share 14. November 2004 01:36 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Temple of Hatshepsut - Egypt's Only Female Pharaoh 14. November 2004 01:36 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet temple of hatshepsut egypt s only female pharaoh Share 14. November 2004 01:34 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Pyramids of Giza 14. November 2004 01:34 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet pyramids of giza Share 14. November 2004 01:07 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Bedstemor's 85th Birthday Fest - Part 3 14. November 2004 01:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet bedstemor s 85th birthday fest part 3 Share 14. November 2004 01:01 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Bedstemor's 85th Birthday Fest - Part 2 14. November 2004 01:01 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet bedstemor s 85th birthday fest part 2 Share << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 ... 92 93 Older posts Home 2. October 2012 07:19 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Auburn Botanical Gardens Picnic 2. October 2012 07:19 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet auburn botanical gardens picnic Share After our escursion to the park last week the family decided to go there for a picnic on this Labour Day (public holiday). I was soooo tired after having food poisoning the night before...and wasn't able to eat anything...but the others were having fun. Here is Kims dad with the four daughters. What I didn't realise was that this was the park that KC and Chong got married in. The ceremony was in this spot where I took this photo of Kims dad with most of his grand children (the two youngest missing). I also did some more peacock photos while we were there. Afterwards there was cake and KC and Chongs place (it was his b'day a couple of days earlier)...but we were too tired to join them. 29. September 2012 05:57 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Photo Competition 29. September 2012 05:57 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet photo competition Share For the last couple of years work has has an annual photo competition. This year the theme was 'connected world' and I decided to participate. Not an easy task coming up with an idea and doing a project like this with a new kid. With bit of brainstorming I came up with a couple of ideas and with Kims permission to doing a night shoot in the city I decided to put one of the ideas to life. I am not sure if it is a strong enough photo to be a real contender, but it was fun trying to put it together. The photo was taking at the Domain in Sydney with the highrises in the background. 28. September 2012 08:39 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Auburn Botanical Gardens 28. September 2012 08:39 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet auburn botanical gardens Share Yesterday we made the trip to Auburn Botanical gardens which is located about 25km from where we live. I am paternity leave at the moment at this was a nice opportunity to get out of the house with Aiden and the newborn and also take some photos. The garden contains a Japanese section full of Cherry blossoms in spring...unfortunately it is no longer cherry blossom season, but I did find some apple trees with flowers on them as well as other flowers. There was also a bunch of peacocks around the place...one of them kind enough to show us its pride. 24. September 2012 07:45 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Newborn Photos 24. September 2012 07:45 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet newborn photos Share During the last couple of days I have been doing my first series of newboarn photos with the little one (still no name). So far he is behaving like a typical newborn...wants a feed every couple of hours and sleeps a lot. He is doing his best to keep Kim awake at night...I try to get a good nights sleep and then look after Aiden during the daytime and get him out of the house (swimming, shopping etc.) so that Kim can get some additional sleep without too make additional interruptions. Anyway...back to the newborn photos. I wanted to take these cute high-key photos with the newborn wearing a hat. It turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected...both due to the little one not behaving as desired, but also because there were a few adjustments that had to be made underway. In the end we ended up doing three sitting where the last sitting was the most successful one. I knew that I needed to raise the head from the body to get the right pose but I found out that it was a mistake using pillows as they were too soft. After this I tried towels and linen but they were still too soft. In the end I used a hard camera suitcase with a towel on top which turned out to be perfect. Over the next weeks I will get to take some more photos, so stay tuned... 13. September 2012 04:34 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments 9 months project 13. September 2012 04:34 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet 9 months project Share During the last 9 months since Kim became pregnant I've been doing this project with a monthly belly photo. 12. September 2012 07:20 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Baby Brother for Aiden 12. September 2012 07:20 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet baby brother for aiden Share On the morning of the 12th September 2012 at 6.10am our little boy arrived to this world. He was keen to get out and as expected (pretty much) he arrived two weeks early. Labour actually started more than 24 hours earlier and was just dragging on with Kim getting contractions every 30 minutes or so...not close enough to quite panic about, but still with the knowledge that it is close to going to the hospital. At the time the little one arrived Kim had been in labour for more that 24 hours so she eventually ended up with another c-section. Fortunately there were no complications with the procedure, the only downside was that everyone else in the whole area decided to have babies on the same day, so the hospital natal section was completely full. This meant that for the first three nights Kim and the little one were put in the acute section of the hospital. Very noisy and hard to sleep, but the good thing was that there was a 1:1 carer ratio and they don't normally see little newborns there, so both Kim and the newborn got a lot of attention and assistance. After 5 nights in the hospital Kim and the newborn (still without a name) came back from the hospital. The little one actually looks a lot like his older brother...same mold I guess. 9. September 2012 07:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Darling Harbour 2012 9. September 2012 07:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet darling harbour 2012 Share Last night I went with Kim and Aiden to Darling Harbour for dinner. We wanted to go somewhere where it was also nice to go for a walk. We ended up just buying a kebab and sitting on the steps outside eating it while Aiden had fun imitating the sounds of the seagulls trying to get to our foor (in the beginning he was a bit scared of the birds). I had brought my camera along and took a couple of panorama shots of the harbour...love it, love it, love it. I was able to crank up the ISO and take this handheld with no problems and because of the high resolution it is amazing what I can do with it back home in terms of stitching photos together etc. The end result is a 100 Megapixel image so very big. Afterwards we had coffee and tiramisu at Guylians...coffee was nice but had better cake before. 9. September 2012 02:29 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Pregnancy Photos 2012 9. September 2012 02:29 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet pregnancy photos 2012 Share We are now 8 months into expecting our new little baby boy and we expect him to arrive any time within the next two weeks. We did some pregnancy photos the last couple of days to make sure we have some nice ones as a family. 6. September 2012 11:13 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Fathers Day 2012 6. September 2012 11:13 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet fathers day 2012 Share This Sunday it was Fathers Day here in Australia. Aiden had painted me a very nice picture at Daycare as a fathers day present. In the morning he took me out of for a buffet breakfast at the Crowne Plaza in Coogee...and afterwards we enjoyed a the very nice warm and sunny day at the beach where he got to play in the sand. 25. August 2012 08:55 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Sunrise at Sydney Opera House 2012 25. August 2012 08:55 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet sunrise at sydney opera house 2012 Share This morning Sacha asked me if I'd like to do a sunrise shoot with him at the Opera House. I'd wanted to try out the new camera for landscape so said yes. This was the very first photo I took and after that the light went pretty bad. A very nice morning, but I am not sure if I'm cut out for the early starts (had to get up at 4.30am), especially not now that we are going towards summer. Kim and Aiden stayed at home sleeping and they were still sleeping when I returned at around 7am. << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 ... 92 93 Older posts Home 21. August 2012 12:03 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments The Entrance 2012 21. August 2012 12:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet the entrance 2012 Share This weekend we went with the family up to the Entrance 150km North of Sydney. We stayed at a small resort in the middle of The Entrance close to the water and restaurants. When we arrived on the Friday night it was really windy and cold...I had left behind my jacket in Sydney rushing out the door but fortunately I had enough jumpers to still stay warm. We were staying close to the bridge across the Entrance and underneath the bridge there were some nice lines that I quickly rushed out to capture before sunset. Next day we spend around the local area looking at the market, playground etc. In the afternoon there was pelican feeding which definitely was worth seeing. One of the birds had a fish hook stuck in its neck and the feeders quickly caught it to try and pull it out. They also have this insanely long jetty going into the lake. I wanted to do a sunset photo but the conditions weren't great...no spectacular clouds and the water was full of seaweed that had been blown in with the wind. 21. August 2012 10:14 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Norah Head Lighthouse and Milky Way 2012 21. August 2012 10:14 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet norah head lighthouse and milky way 2012 Share During the day at the Entrance we made a quick trip up to Norah Head light house to scope it out. Later that evening I headed up there in the dark to take some star photos. The conditions were perfect with the Milky way clearly visible and I good some great shots. Here is one pretty much straight out of the camera that requires just a little more processing. As I walked from the gate to the lighthouse (about 700 metres in pitch darkness) with my torch all hell broke loose suddenly when I rounded a corner. I heard people scrambling in all directions through the bushes falling over branches. I used my torch to have a look and saw these 6-7 kids running away...obviously they were sitting there smoking weed and got a freight. Later in the evening they walked past me as I was taking photos and one of them said 'Man, you gave us a freight...we thought you were a cop'! 15. August 2012 03:13 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Cherry Blossom Season 15. August 2012 03:13 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet cherry blossom season Share The Cherry Blossom season is about to start here in Sydney (does that mean spring is here) and the first flowers are out. Yesterday I brought my camera along when picking up Aiden from daycare and managed to take a couple of photo along the way. I may try and take some more photos over the next week or so. Kim mentioned that she would like to hang one of the photos on the wall. We are in the process of doing some large prints...I have already ordered the first one which is a glass print which should arrive next month. 8. August 2012 10:12 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Love the new camera 8. August 2012 10:12 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet love the new camera Share I love the new camera...it performed abosolutely amazing on the weekend when I did a photoshoot with the family. The 36 Megapixels mean that every detail such as pores in the skin, hairs etc. is visible and sharp. This photo below shows one of the photos of Chong and Emma zoomed in at 100 percent..the small photo on the left shows the original photo. 8. August 2012 08:37 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Emma 8. August 2012 08:37 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet emma Share A couple of months ago Chong and KC had a new addition to their family. Last week they asked me if I'd take some photos for them. It was a good chance for me to have a play with the new camera as well as some light setups. Emma was very good and only had one 'accident'. It was also a good practice session for when our next addition arrives in a couple of months. I love the new camera, the details are absolutely amazing in the studio and the autofocus is accurate now after I had it fixed by Nikon. 31. July 2012 10:06 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Satellite Tracking Facility 31. July 2012 10:06 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet satellite tracking facility at belrose Share Yesterday I went to a work conference where at the end of the day they offered us to do some site visits. I was fortunate enough to visit the satellite tracking facility in the Northern part of Sydney. The company I work for owns a number of satellites (at a cost of around $400 million each) and they will be launching their 10th satellite later this year...the 'O10'. This photo is from the control room where they look after all the locations, transponders and media broadcasts from the satellites. It was interesting to be able to see the raw/unedited broadcasts from areas such as the London Olympics, the conflict in Syria etc. The actual electronics was equally impressive. I even found the box that currently is receiving all the media broadcasts from the 2012 London Olympics. This is the Satelite Dish controller...On the display you can see the current position of the dish (and from that you could probably calculate the location of the actual satellite). Outside was the array of dishes. Most of the satellites are being launched from French Guyana by the European space agency. 30. July 2012 07:34 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Big Birthday 30. July 2012 07:34 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet big birthday Share A couple of days ago it was my birthday...I wish it was my 27th...but it wasn't! Kim took me out for dinner on the day itself to a nice place at Circular Quay...very nice, but absolutely freezing and windy in there. Day after we went out for dinner with the family to a Japanese restaurant and they ordered a shameful amount of food! After the dinner we went back to our place for cake. 15. July 2012 12:26 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Thomas Trains and Warragamba Dam 15. July 2012 12:26 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet thomas trains and warragamba dam Share Aiden is a big fan of the Thomas Trains, so a few weeks ago when Kim saw some vouchers for the Train Shed she bought some tickets. This morning we went out there with the whole family to go riding on the trains. Aiden was very excited...to the point where he didn't want to get off the train. The kids had 5 rides each and they also had lunch and scones provided for us. Aiden had to check out anything that remotely looked like a train (looks like he is taking a wee here). It was also a good day to try out the new camera (just came back after 5 weeks in the repair shop for recalibration). Kim was using it most of the day and said she loves it compared to my old camera. On the way in I had seen a signpost towards the Warragamba Dam. This is where 80-90 percent of Sydneys drinking water supply comes from. 8. July 2012 10:57 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Duck feeding at Centenial Park 8. July 2012 10:57 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet duck feeding at centenial park Share This morning it was a beautiful winter day here in Sydney and we decided therefore to go duck feeding in Centenial Park with Aiden and Dylan (I was supposed to have been doing a course, but it was cancelled). Aiden eventually figured out that it was fun to tear off small pieces of bread and throw it in the water for the ducks and swans to eat. I showed him how to hand feed the big swans with a flat hand, but he still didn't like them much...and even less so when one of them stole his bread after sneaking in from behind. Stupid Swan!!!! But eventually the swan apologised and he was happy to feed the smaller birds. Also the pond is full of fat eels (and on one occation I have seen turtles there). Some of them would surface to try and steal the bread from the ducks. 10. June 2012 09:37 by Rene Pallesen 0 Comments Emily's birthday party 10. June 2012 09:37 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments Tweet emily s birthday party Share Yesterday we went to Emily's birthday party in Centennial park. We were there on time at 10.30 on a very cold morning (it had been 7 degrees overnight) but there was no-one else there...the host and the birthday child turned up two hours later (I cannot stand people who consistently have no respect for other people time). We had brought Aiden tri-cycle that he got as a birthday present from his grandma last year. We also spend some time exploring the forest next to the playground. << Older posts Newer posts >> Newer posts 1 2 ... 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 ... 92 93 Older posts