sonny photos

Iek & the cockatoos ( sounds like a rock band )

as you know, here at Jac's we get the odd wild life pop by, and see-ing as we just had Iekeliene over for a few days, I just had to introduce her to Cockie only thing missing is the rainbow lorrikeets we usually get visiting as well
need the sound to get with this, very loud birds :-), loving the slow shutter speed blurring the cocky in flight

A day in Sydney

car interior ( leen recognise where I am ?? ) me, as seen by Belle
driving around looking for a pressie for Jacqui after all that driving in the heat, quick late afternoon dip, and look at it, no waves, flat as a pancake kids love it , when it is lake Avalon time to head back home, look how deserted the beach is, day before xmas, everyone is out shopping ( plus there's no waves )

Swim just before the storm hits

get back in time for an afternoon storm, but check the storm that's coming the gang runss down for a swim me & the girls turns out this is the cold front responsible for the snow in the mountains

Next location, tomato farm in warriewood

just come to check it out, I saw this a while back, but never got round to shooting here lovely little run down glass house ( wouldn't mind one of these myself actually ) so much texture and character here yep, we like it

Captain Todd

So after all that shooting and flying, Todd takes a few of us out on the boat for a harbour cruise, and oh yeah, Todd you are taking me wakeboarding with this puppy !! Oto & Iek, dressed more for an autumn day, than a summer's day. We been having crazy weather here, it just snowed in Thredbo, and westerly winds are keeping temps down So, weather was looking a bit dubious for today, but Todd has someone looking after him, as 20 min before departure, after raining all morning and afternoon, the clouds parted and the sun came out , just as we left the marina life on a boat ! Brooke and Meredith from Shop Till You Drop come to enjoy the sun on the boat ride as well back at the marina. ( so yeah Todd, Jacs the kids & I are ready for me to go wakeboarding naytime ok :-)

Shooting in the Park

And you can't go wrong shooting Iekeliene, and look at me, shooting without flash for a change, nice, refreshing, and fun ( not to mention faster ) to shoot with just available light, I'm enjoying this And we have a video crew watching our every move today, so Trav and I are talking about all the cute boys in Milan here ( :-) hehehehe, in your face. But this is the future, this will be happening more & more I think Christina on duty with the laptop, downloading as we go ( I don't like shooting tethered ) and we are about to wrap

Iekeliene Stange in Sydney ( finally, only been telling her for years she should visit )

After airport pick up we drive around for a bit as we are too early to check in to the hotel. After an hour in the car, we get some fruit and head for the park while we are here, I'm sourcing some locations as well for a shoot later in the week :-) bunny girl welcome to Australia . . .  awesomeness !

Need lunch after that

so we hit the local Italian restaurant, well it was part of the local Gledswood winery ( we weren't expecting much, but it was actually quite good ) Still buzzing, and have this feeling like my feet aren't really back on the ground yet :-)

Birthday flight ( or birthday roll . . .aerial roll, loop )

So for my birthday, Jacs & the kids managed to surprise me yet again, with a drive out to Camden Airport for a joy-flight, well, no , an aerobatic flight, last chance to see me in one piece, best take a photo as I sit in the back , strapped in tight ( Belle looks more excited than anyone ) Jacs ( wearing Michael Angel ) telling the pilot to make sure he brings me back :-) The pic Jacqui just took off me, as we are ready to go
and we're up, never thought to visit Camden, but looks like a nice area and nice bush walking potential in the background there but that's not why we are here we are here to do some aerial aerobatics, woooohoooo, fun so for starters, he takes me into a hard left turn, so we are nearly vertical to the ground, buzzzzzzzzz !!! so that was just to get the feel of it, pilot tells me I just experienced a G force close to 2. So we do another one to the right this time, and he tells me to lift my hand in the middle of the turn, and yeah, your hand feels heavier , because of the G force :) aah shit, pilot has just passed out on me, now what do I do false alarm ok, now we go up for a full loop, and when we come out of the loop straight into a roll oh my, that loop was intense, and now the roll nearly upside down too cool look at that totally upside down and coming back around intense, thrilling, exciting, fun this is fun, and I highly recommend it now we go up for a "hammerhead" or "engine stall" turn which means going straight up reaching straight up for the heavens so we are 90 degrees and still climbing up and basically we keep climbing up till the engine starts to stall ( why does it do that ? ) and plane wants to fall back down does not fall backwards though sort of keels to one side , well, yeah , it does go backward for a few seconds at first I guess and then pilot has option of left or right :-) but with the sound of a spluttering engine to go with this view makes it all very exciting here we come ( wonder how fast we are falling ) GGGGGGGGGGGGG force babiiiiiiiiiiiieee just add your own roaring engine sound now !! well , that was fun, up there with my parachute jump Jacqui got me as a surprise pressie 2 years ago.
After this, we just flew back to base and landed, which, after these twists, loops and rolls, was rather boring so did not take any more photos.
Thanks Jacs, Girlfriend of the year !

Pub of the future, as envisioned back in 1965

thanks to be retronaut