Best Family Photos 2012

Best family photos  2011

.

Merry Xmas from JJ

Thanks for the photos, Jo.

Action Heroine

Dani's pastime and passion - outrigger canoeing.  It's taken her all over the world.  Not easy, as they are not that stable - especially in the swells outside the heads.  I haven't given it a go yet, but have a feeling paddle skiing is on the easier side.

Mattias Klum at the Opera House

Wow, what an amazing day.  For my birthday, Dani treated me to a presentation by Mattias Klum - a renowned National Geographic Photographer.  His images were absolutely sublime - including extraordinary close ups of Asiatic Lions, a 5 metre long King Cobra inches from his face, soul seering portraits of Orangutans, birds of paradise, meerkats and a Kinkajou  - the cutest nocturnal critter you've ever seen that lives only in the high canopies of the Amazon.  

To get his photos, Mattias has climbed 50 meter tall trees using only vines with 30 kg of lenses on his back, dangled from a rope attached to a hot air balloon over the Borneo rainforest and spent months getting meerkats so used to him that they perched on his camera lens.  

Not only were his photos incredible, but he was also the most entertaining, inspiring and humorous presenter imaginable.  He kept us all mesmerised.  

And it gets even better!  It all took place in the Opera House which I've seen and photographed from the outside countless times but never actually entered before.  Attending an Opera House gig has been on my bucket list ever since I came to Sydney.  So all in all, I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my Sunday afternoon.  Unforgettable.

All dressed up

Inside the Opera House

... and scenes from outside