sonny photos

Lisbon > Dubai > Male

Lisbon airport, so after yesterday's surf lesson, it's of to the Maldives today with a very excited crew and we are off flying over Portugal into Spain

woauw, check it out, dam on top of mountain ? this is looking familiar, yes, it is Gandia, half way between Javea and Valencia and yes, there we have it, the distintive mountain Montgo de Toscamar and Javea woauw, looks so small from up here, can see the main beach, and the area my parents live leaving Sapin behind oh, but first the Island Sant Francesc de Formentera that sits alongside Ibiza ( can't see Ibiza as we are right over it ) looks like we won;t be getting many more photos now we did fly along the coastline of Algeria and Libya, so I got to see some of it , but too dark to take any photos we landed at Dubai at 4 in the morning, so now, 5 hours later ready to take of to our destination, the Maldives, exciting, never been Sharjah, just suburbs north of Dubai group of man made islands of Jumeirah, Dubai, which will look like a map of the earth once done, so if youhave the money, you can literally buy a country as an island aaah, Dubai Jumeirah beach and the famous Burj Al Arab outer suburbs of Dubai crazy how much development goes on here sand dunes turned into mini cities, complete with high rise building and villa's with lush green grass and another sub divisionm ready to go but looks like some time has passed between asphalt and first brick road to Oman near Hatta coast of Oman flying over the Arabian sea for a few hours and then we should be there and yes, after a few hours first Atoll sighting woauw, Atolls everywhere, and the colours amazing even in overcast and rain wonder if that's our boat for the week fast forward landing, customs control, baggage collection, meeting Jacqui ( yes, she flew over from Sydney day before and met us at airport ) buy sim card and now we are on our Dhoni boat to meet up with our boat for the week everyone is excited to get onto our boat, but we are all also very tired, the anticipation is keeping us awake and there she is clouds start to break up in time for our first sunset, we were all a bit dampened by the arriving in a downpour of rain, wondering if we would see any sun on this trip, but this sunset is a promising sign

Tommy Hilfiger SurfShack Gone Surfing

So who are these people, why am I in Portugal and why at such a nice hotel Well, these folks, have won a competition from Tommy Hilfiger to go on a surf trip to the Maldives, yep, you heard right, the Maldives. So we meet in Portugal so they can have a surf lesson, fun times we'll be keeping you updated via the Tommy Hilfiger Instagram
The lucky crew after their first surf session

Grande Real Villa Italia, Cascais, Portugal

Staying in the wonderful hotel called Real Villa Italy, called this, as it was the residence of King in Exile , Humberto, from Italy, after Italy voted to become a republic in May 1946 now it is a fabulous hotel just across from the sea and a minute stroll to the port of Cascais lovely

After a day in Belgium is off Again, Brussel > Madrid > Lisbon

leaving the darkness behind

after an hour of big blanket of cloud, Spain loving the patterns

nearing Madrid and look, June, summer time, and still snow on mountain tops near Madrid









I'm not sure that this is usual for this time of year 30 min at airport and off again, Lisbon bound flying west big nose spain portugal border Setubal and Setubal bay, just south of Lisbon

Lake Albufeira Kite Surfing at Caparica beach looks like some fun waves down there mouth of the mighty Tejo river Port Of Alges, Lisbon old aquaduc, wonder if this is roman ?

about to land
Lucky for me, client landed 30 minutes before me from Amsterdam, so we both rode to hotel together.
But must say, there is something about Portugese, they love to play tour guide and give us all the explanation and history, at first it was great, but then it became too trivial especially when we wer trying to have our own conversation lol

Helsinki > Brussels

an hour later and off again woauw, check that Island out looks more like in the tropics than scandinavia

Denmark Oslo Albert Canal , Antwerp The ring around Antwerp A12, Kontich Zengat in the distance E19, Rumst

Singapore > Helsinki

somewhere over Arabia

oil fields, with burn off glowing in the landscape here comes the sun  


big lake near Pskov


near Pskov





descending down to Finland and a lot darker looking going down to darkness, woauw what a change


just of Helsinki

Sydney>Singapore part 2

I'm having a ball taking all these photos. Normally this flight departs at 4 ish in the afternoon, but Qantas changed the schedule, so now it is more of an afternoon flight so instead of half the flight being in darkness, all the way to Singapore is in daylight Timor sea

I have a feeling this is East Timor YEs, Timor, and this is near Wini, West of Dili looks very lush down there pretty cloud over the Savu Basin

Flores Region, Indonesia and looks like surf down there looking across Flores and East Nusa Tenggara, lots of dormant volcanos down there woauw, look at that Isalnd looking at the active Volcano of Pulau Palu and this is apparently Pulau Sukun desa Semparong Kabupaten Sikka, with Sukun lake, like to add a visit to this island to my bucket list

love those tropical cloud formations



mucking around with the curves on this shot :-)



Kuala Pembang





as you can see, I am really enjoying this flight with all these wonderful sights to photograph

awesome colours Bintan beach off Singapore landing on sunset, perfect timing Singapore Strait how I keep tabs of where I am when I take the photos ( and google earth )

Sydney>Singapore

taxing Sydney runway, with Sydney CBD in the background and off we go
busting through the greyness just beyond the blue mountains it clears and it clears more once more in the outback loving all the shapes in the landscape





looks awesome

looks amazing

there's water down there, Rifle Creek Dam, near Mt. Isahmmm, salt works in the north queensland outback ( possibly Northern Territory ) found it, just not in view is the town of Mt. Isa could not find anything on salt works in Mt. Isa, but it sure looks like salt doesn't it rossing into Nt Territory

getting tropical that'd be Darwin River Dam





and then we have Darwin brings back memories from when I was here in 2006
to the west, north west of Darwin, just nature , no cities, or cosmopolitan landscape like you have at other capitals, just bush ( and crocs, lots of crocs ) leaving Australia coastline behind international waters

Qantas New Uniform Launch Fashion Show, Sydney, Backstage

The M.A.C. are taking a liking to Captain Jake :-) The only models booked for the show, the Captains ( they were too busy to be called away from their duties of flying planes to model a new uniform, and rightly so ) the anticipation and nervousness on all these pretty faces loving the symetrical cut on these uniforms, and the colours this guy is full of energy and ready to go Mrtin Grant checking some final finer details on the uniform

The other star of the show ( Uniforms are the star in case you did not guess that ) coming along to help a hand and a Qantas ambassador, the lovely Miranda Kerr

Let's start the show Captain Woauw, what a roar of applause and approval coming from the crowd

Following the footsteps of Miranda Kerr, how stoked would you be, she was so nervous about walking out straight after Miranda, but now look at her, love it, yew !! So much good energy here and an even bigger applause coming from the crowd when they realise all the models are actually Qantas staff. The energy back here now is electric, as you know, I have covered all the major shows backstage in the world's fashion capitals, but never have I experienced this positive energy coming from the crow, amazing, well done

go girls :-) and boys













J'Adore loving the uniform by the way, the colours used and symetrical cut Happy people

well done J'Adore

Qantas New Uniform Launch Fashion Show, Preparation, Sydney, Backstage

Exciting, Martin Grant launches the new uniform for Qantas, and what I like about it is that Qantas and Martin decided to use Qantas staff the model the new uniform in a fashion show as opposed to hiring models, so as you can imagine, there is a great vibe backstage And the M.A.C. team are doing make up today, so staff in good hands rehearsal time





J'adore
looks who's here to give a hand for their runway debut , so much positive energy, bound to rub off on the runway newbies :-) Pro hair team as well, golden treatment


Martin Grant going through the final run through

Martin illustrating the correct way to tie the scarf I like this shot of Martin I like how he is so involved in all aspects of the collection Character :-) J'Adore. Catherine Baba has been brought in to style the collection.
(click on J'adore to see Catherine's video )