Australians don't have pennies

My first day in Sydney I noticed that everything I bought was sold to me at a rounded-off price. $3.96 for a train ticket only cost me $3.95. Or $9.43 for some food, and they only asked for $9.40. I sort of noticed it, but just thought people were being generous.

Nope, it turns out that Australians don't have pennies.

If you're paying cash, you're paying by some increment of 5 cents. That is their smallest coin. I even asked the bank. (Not really, but I forgot to take a picture of their money)



My Sydneysider sis informs me, though, that if you're paying by credit card, you can expect to pay the actual (cent-derived) price.

Moreover, their money bills are not only the brightest colors you've ever seen (hot pink, lime green, purple, etc.) but they come in various sizes. Makes it very easy to pick out a $5 bill versus a $20 bill!

You can check out the entire slideshow of my week as a Sydneysider (yes, that's the actual term for Sydney residents) in which my sister and I tried to pack as many things into 5 days as humanly possible.

My trip started with an unexpected 24-hour layover in San Francisco. Plus side was that I got to visit Mandy and Justin! Cousin and highschool classmate, respectively.



After a (sigh) ...long... 15 hour flight straight to Sydney, Moke and I

hit up Sydney Harbour to see Harbour Bridge at sunset...



...and do a tour of the famous Opera House



And even though it was winter, we made it to Sydney's famous Bondi ("Bond-eye") Beach, where signs that warned "Dangerous Currents... no swimming" didn't deter dozens of surfers from hitting the frigid water.



Other Sydney highlights can be seen in the slideshow!

Fireworks at Auditorium Shores!

Got to attend Austin's "official" 4th of July event at Auditorium Shores yesterday. Reports said that over 100,000 were in attendance! As usual, the Austin Symphony Orchestra played and the Texas National Guard delivered their Salute Battery with the shooting of the cannons during the 1812 Overture.



Very patriotic, very Austin, very-very hot. A kiosk near the symphony displayed the following temperature information as the night wore on:

Wind Gust 02 MPH
Humidity 30%
Temp 105 F

Yipes! 105-degrees at 9:30pm! And to think that the orchestra played non-stop for an hour.

But, backing up, that morning our neighborhood held a 4th of July Parade and neighborhood celebration. We got to enjoy red-and-blue snowcones...



(the syrup is still red-and-blue at the molecular level)

...a balloon lady who made a cutlass and hip holder for lil 'lution...



(You might notice that the cutlass even had finger holds. Great attention to detail, balloon lady!)

...a moonwalk with no wait-line!...

...and meeting lots of neighbors.

That afternoon, Jessica and I rode the bus to Auditorium Shores to meet some other dear ones. The festivities kicked off at 8:30pm with the National Anthem.

That lady in red was feeling especially patriotic, heh:



Mary and Jeremy:



And thousands of others:



And the crowd kept growing:



We couldn't get too close to the Symphony, due to a chain-link fence surrounding them and due to millions of people all up in the way (see above picture for reference), but here they are! Playing mightily in 105-degree humid heat. News 8 Austin later reported that the Symphony said the event is its gift to Austin for the support the community provides throughout the year. What a wonderful gift!



And finally, the show began. It was larger than life...







You may notice the fireworks being reflected off of a building to the right. I believe it's Spring Condo's that are currently under construction. Cheapest one is $500M if you're interested. You'd have a great view of next years fireworks show...







The finale:







Evening ended with a veggie burger at P.Terry's with the Kingdom's:



Notice the traffic!

End of a long evening. Happy 4th of July, Moke. Sorry you missed the fireworks. Aussie's don't care about our silly American freedom celebrations.

Testing a new lens

Considering buying this new lens. Have actually been considering it for several months, but finally got around to renting it! Will be using it for work tomorrow, but this afternoon, took some shots in my backyard to get familiar with it. This thing weighs almost 5 lbs! For comparison, the actual camera body weighs less than 1 lb. You can't imagine how lop-sided this rig is!

But it lets in lots more light! These photos were taken at 8pm and look how bright they are!

Luna loves baseball!


I was trying to get sun glare here, and I saw it in the viewfinder, but the lens took it out! I guess that's a good thing for most situations, but not when someone is WANTING glare...


Texture.


This was actually taken last week at night time. I have never seen the bug that leaves these exoskeletons everywhere, so I had to snap a shot. This little creature was drying off after his recent metamorphosis, I suppose.


Ok, back to the backyard. Here's the rope for the tree fort. Loving the short depth-of-field. Also loving the bokeh in the background.


Ahh, love relaxing in this hammock!


Lens is pretty sweet, no?

What the what?!

What is this? Someone, s o m e o n e, please explain what this is. Is this a joke? Surely some enemy of mine has left this as a joke. It's real? Are you sure? Did an animal leave it there for me? My dog didn't do it, she was inside all day. How could something like this happen on accident?

I came home from work, nothing on porch. I ran to the store and came back to find this:


I'm thinking to myself. "Sweet, someone left me a surpri...oh gawd! what is that!"


You can see in the picture above that Luna is just as confused as I am. Did this bird fly into the window to kill Luna and meet an untimely death itself? If so, why is it perfectly perpendicular to the doormat? Does a flying bird not ricochet off of glass at some angle? Is it scienfically possible for it to fly into glass at such a velocity so as to kill itself and then deflect directly backwards?



Now, about getting that thing removed...?

On another note, is this a Mockingbird or a Dove?

Welcome to the World, baby!

A couple of weeks ago, Sam and Vanessa asked me to do some family portraits before new baby was born. Today... after a long wait, baby arrived, making this trio a quartet! Welcome to the world, baby! This is what your family looked like before your grand entrance.

We took these shots at sunset along a nearby creek. The setting sun made for some nice backlighting.

Here, Benjamin gives baby sister several kisses. Here's one of them...




The Yu's on the front porch.


Vanessa loved this hat. So do I!






Benjamin was cracking up! I wish I could remember what was so funny. I think Vanessa was tickling him.


Sun sets on the Yu trio. I love that they were all holding hands...


Today a new Yu changed everything. Congratulations ya'll!