Before 6

October 2, 2018

Morning my friends,

Hope you all had a great long weekend.

Last night I set up my alarm at 5:15am in order to be down the beach by 5:30am and watch the sun rising from the ocean. I know I’m a bit cray-cray but it’s always worth the show!

All the photos from this morning were all taken before 6am. By 6am, I was training hard down at the jungle gym in North Bondi (boring!) and by 6:45am I was heading for coffee and swim!

Have a cracking day my friends and chat to you tomorrow,

Amaury

New artwork by @emjayuc — New artwork by **@emjayuc**

North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club at sunrise

BOOM!

September 28, 2018

Morning my friends,

I know I tend to repeat myself a fair bit but let’s be honest today was just incredible! I woke-up very early, was down the beach by 5:30am and the sun was already rising from the ocean.

No exercise today, just spent time having fun: caught-up for coffee with the bubbly Caroline Hogh Groth (very cool chick!), then we ventured our way down the beach and stopped along the way to chat to the early birds. Perfect way of starting the day if you ask me!

Have a cracking long weekend, I will be spending most of my time down the beach.

Please don’t expect photos on Monday, I will sleep in and surf instead!

Ciao!

Amaury

Tots my style of photos! I would hang that one in my living room

Keiron Lewis thinking if it's worth getting back there

Coffee time with Caroline Hogh Groth — Coffee time with **Caroline Hogh Groth**

The Charlottes! No they are not sisters just good friends that lookalike...

Caroline didn't want to go for a swim but I still made her dip her toes.

BRIGHT

September 27, 2018

Afternoon peeps,

My apologies for the late update but I was busy strategising and discussing very important matters (not even joking!) That’s right, as most of you know, Morning Bondi is a good hobby that takes a lot of my time but that’s not my main activity. I do have a full time job!

This morning was very bright, like I desperately needed some sunnies bright. It was cold at 5:30am but perfect at 7am and the water is getting warmer! I’m actually thinking about shooting in the water tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to last more than 10 minutes, not like last time!

I can hear people thinking: “Stop talking Amaury, no one cares about your daily monologue, just go straight to the photos that’s all we want to see…” Hope that is obviously not what you think?!

Have a great arvo and chat to you tomorrow,

Amo

Eve wondering if she should go right or left

Epic!

September 26, 2018

Morning my friends,

If you woke up after 6am, you might have missed the most epic sky that we had for a little while.

Believe me, it was worth getting drenched and witnessing this beautiful light, the heavy rain and the incredible colours.

I only have four photos for you but they are pretty, I think!

Have a fantastic day under this rain and hope that everything will be back to normal soon.

#BOOM!

Amaury

Challenging

September 25, 2018

Morning my friends,

There are days with and days without. That was definitely a day without!!

Sometimes it’s easy to take “good” photos, you just need to snap away. Today, I did struggle to only take photos - they are not even good.

I will not bother you anymore today, have a lovely day nevertheless!

Ciao!

Amaury pronounced in French Amo-ree (just saying as my friend John was asking me this morning and realised that he was calling me “Amore” like “Love” in Italian for all these years! To be frank, I’m not fuss as almost no one in the last 9 years I’ve been here can say it properly!)

The photo of the day (for what it's worth!)

When you don't have a telescope lens, just use Uge's photo. Nice one Beau Walker!

Glorious Friday

September 21, 2018

Morning my friends,

Today couldn’t really start better than this: the sunrise was a cracker, the temperatures super fine (especially once the sun was up) and heaps of happy people all around making the most of their morning.

Woke-up early, I was down at the Icebergs by 5:45am to watch the sun popping up, then quick gym sesh down at the bars North Bondi (I had to get rid of the 5 beers that I had last night at the PRIME Awards) and then more photos and swim.

What a perfect start of the day, very hard to beat! Hope you had good one too!

Have a fab weekend and talk to you on Monday,

Ciao!

Amo

Fresh paint, cool light, beautiful pool!

Chris Jamieson and +1 going for an early dip

Brooke Monahan and Liv Phyland and their Softlites

Prints

September 20, 2018

Morning my friends,

On this stunning morning (for my overseas friends, it’s been pissing down rain all night) I thought that I should share some bright and sunny photos.

After posting yesterday’s photo and the different Stories, a few people have reached out to tell me that they had no idea that was selling prints. Fair enough, it is not something that I communicate too much. Most probably because Morning Bondi is first and foremost a hobby that I have been doing for the last 7 years.

I started Morning Bondi by taking photos with my phone and posting them on my personal Facebook. It’s only after a few months of lovely messages from my friends being amazed by the different colours of the sunrises that I decided to create the Facebook Page and share the goodness with more people.

People that I obviously didn’t know and so I had to become a bit more sophisticated in my approach, so quickly moved on from taking photos with my phone to compact cameras and then from compact cameras to full-on DSLR - the real deal, you know! ;)

All this beautiful story to let you know that I do sell prints, I even take care of framing if you wish and can even send overseas. More info HERE. Yesterday’s photo is going straight from Bondi Beach to São Paulo. How cool is that to know that the lovely Camilla will have one of my photos printed and framed on her walls. I personally feel very honoured so thank you Camilla!!

Enough talking, here are some of the photos that I’ve recently added to the gallery page. I have terabytes of photos of Bondi that are not featured on the website so if you ever see one on Instagram or Facebook that you would like to see printed and framed just contact me at hello@morningbondi.com or bonjour@morningbondi.com or hola@morningbondi.com… - they all go straight to my inbox! ;)

Have a lovely day and hope that tomorrow will be back to normal,

xoxo

Amaury

PS: Sorry for the sales pitch but I thought that it was necessary, now you know everything! #ad

PS2: Looking back at some of the names that I gave these photos, I’m clearly not a copywriter but don’t worry I only sign my prints “Morning Bondi” and don’t put the name of the photo - unless you really want to! ;)

Morning Bronte

September 19, 2018

Morning guys,

Once again this morning my body clock woke me up at 4:30am - how delightful! ;(

I made the most of it and ventured down to Bronte at 5:30am to take some photos and go for some laps in the pool.

The first activity went pretty well, have a look at the photos, quite happy with the result to be honest. The latter didn’t go as well, I kept on having water leaking in my goggles so after 5 laps of stopping at the end of each, I decided to gave up and go for a warm shower instead. Much wiser and warmer!

Then I joined my friends at Chapter One for a much needed coffee. That was fun with all the little ones!

Have a lovely day peeps and stay cool!

Amaury

Pretty much what I see when I wake up at 4:30am in the morning

Phil Mcqueen about to go for his daily walk

Morning dilemma. Which photo do you prefer of the tower? This one #1. Comment below!

Morning dilemma. Which photo do you prefer of the tower? This one #2. Comment below!

Morning dilemma. Which photo do you prefer of the tower? This one #3. Comment below!

Morning campers!! My very good friends: Finatos on the left and Cruickshanks on the right!

Helga is back in town with the kids, so David is happy!

early

September 18, 2018

Morning my friends,

How ironic! I woke up at 4:30am this morning, took my first photo at 5:30am but I’m late with my blog post. I always try to get you the morning update before 9:30am but sometimes I fail.

This morning was just incredible! For some reasons, I was awake very early. When I looked at the sky from my kitchen window, I could sense that it was going to be a cracker and I was right!! There must have been a bush fire somewhere… It was smokin’!

Such a great start of the day and all the crazy colours were gone by 6am. You sleep in, you lose! ;)

Enjoy the photos and chat to you tomorrow,

Amaury

PS: Thanks for all your Balinese suggestions - some very good ones! I knew that I could count on ya!

Smokin' (Can you see the smoke above North Bondi?)

Summer bodies?! The North Bondi gym gets very busy these days.

Lundi à Bondi

September 17, 2018

Morning my friends,

How was your weekend? Despite Saturday being my 35th birthday, mine was very chilled. I’m getting old you know! A few beers in the arvo and you are falling asleep around 8:30pm and in bed by 9pm, not even joking!

On another exciting note, we have just booked airfares to go to Bali over Easter. We know that we want to stay 5 days in Ubud and 5 days in Canggu / Seminyak. That’s pretty much it for now, we are looking for accomodations and all the rest of it. Do you have any recommendations of places to stay, restaurants, cafés or even cool places to visit? Please feel free to send your suggestions right HERE. Bonus point if you know a house to rent in Canggu / Seminyak with a beautiful right-hander in front of it. Yes, I’m a bit picky but I just want to spend the best holidays!

Other than this, if you were in South Bondi to see the sunrise like Claudia from Bondi Surf Report your day started pretty well. If like me you were pretending to exercise in North Bondi, you pretty much missed it all!

Here are the photos, not that impressive but that’s all I got for today!

xoxo

Amo

PS: Lundi à Bondi means Monday in Bondi

When I lack inspiration, I take photos of my friends. They love it! (My apologies for the offensive gesture)

R U OK?

September 13, 2018

Morning my lovely friends,

Today is R U OK? day. To prevent depression and suicide, today is a dedicated day reminding people to ask family, friends and colleagues the question "Are you OK?" So ask around you!

Hope you are all OK. If not, please tell your family or close friends about it. Mental health is way too important and no one deserve to suffer in silence.

In a few instances during my life, I felt a bit down and I was very happy to chat about it with my family and close friends. They were the first ones to help and make me see the brighter side. So please don’t feel ashamed about it!

I think that this would be it for this morning, enjoy the photos and take care!

Lots of love,

xoxo

Amo

Three Bondi legends celebrating R U OK? Day (Liv Phyland, Finn Little and Harrison Reid)

When you want to make sure that your bum crack gets a tan! (Sorry, that made me laugh!)

Summer vibes

September 12, 2018

Morning my friends,

What a magnificent start of the day!

It definitely felt a lot like summer. The temperature outside was perfect (16 degrees at sunrise) but inside the water was a different story. The southerly brought the cold water… but as I always like to say, going for a dip in the ocean is the best thing to do to kick-off your day!

What else can I say? Probably that once again it’s a bit of a late update. Soz cuz but I’m busy ya know! ;)

Enjoy the photos and if you do like this daily dose of Bondi Beach, share it with your mates. Don’t be selfish!

Have a cracking day!

Amaury

Adam Lindsay, the clever brain behind ekoWorx. Side note: If you are wondering how to get these arms the size of my legs, you just need to start your day with 160 burpees in the sand. Not even joking! — Adam Lindsay, the clever brain behind **ekoWorx**. Side note: If you are wondering how to get these arms the size of my legs, you just need to start your day with 160 burpees in the sand. Not even joking!

They clearly missed the brief! I said let's do the next GQ cover not DNA?!

Sun-sational

September 11, 2018

Morning my friends,

What a sun-sational morning! (Yes, this time around, I’ve made a conscious decision to make a typo - I know that it should read “sensational”)

This morning when I woke up, I have to say, I didn’t have much hope about the sunrise but when the sun popped up above North Bondi, it was just magnificent! I’m very glad that I was proven wrong.

This morning, for a change, I delivered prints to a lovely lady that in exchange gave me a great bottle of Jacob's Creek Le Petit Rosé - double winning! Thanks Magali! I can’t wait to drink it, apparently it’s almost as good as a French rosé. I don’t believe it but as I put earlier, I like to be proven wrong! ;)

The light was incredible, sepia like, so I kept on shooting. Therefore, I had more photos to choose from and edit, plus I had an early meeting hence the late update. Talking about work, since my post of last week about my crazy schedule, I’ve had a few enquiries about some social & digital advice. Always keen to help, alternatively, feel free to join this three-hour long social workshop that I’m presenting in a month time.

Enough bla bla… here are the photos.

Enjoy my friends,

Amaury

How it all started... a bit dull. I do like the father & son vibe though!

Keiron Lewis not sure about his new board!

Pure Bliss.

September 10, 2018

Morning my friends,

How was your weekend? Any exciting stuff?

You can tell that Spring is here, Bondi Beach was packed yesterday. I was actually aiming to go and check out the Festival of the Winds with my daughter but couldn't be bothered with all this crowd. Sorry for being posh! ;)

Talking about my daughter, I went down the beach with her this morning and we hanged out with my friend David and our furry friend Jimmy. Very cute!

Such a stunning and warm morning and the sunrise is so early these days (6:15am) - so if you live locally, there are no more excuses not to go down the beach before work.

Have a lovely week,

Amo

My good mate David Finato and Jimmy having a snooze

Surf was not great but it's always worthwhile

On the loose. Taking photos and looking after my daughter all at the same time can be a bit challenging

Reading or Stretching. Why not doing both?!

10 minutes.

September 7, 2018

Morning my friends,

10 minutes. That is the amount of time I've spent in the water this morning. I didn't have my full wetsuit on and it was freezing cold but I'm so glad that I went in.

This morning, for a change, I decided to dedust my Olympus underwater case and take it for a swim with me. Taking photos in the water is next level complexity and it's actually very hard to know if you've nailed the shot until you've upload it on your laptop. Sometimes just a droplet at the wrong spot can ruin your photo.

Anyhow, here are the photos and have an amazing weekend folks!

BOOM!

Amaury (you can call me Amo, as most of my friends and colleagues do!)

Rexy, recently asked me why are you never putting a selfie. Here is why. Not pretty!

Heaven

September 6, 2018

Morning my friends,

How's everyone today?

Today was just heaven. The sunrise was a cracker, the light pretty incredible, the temperatures outside and inside the water getting warmer. Very hard to compete with a morning like this!

After a pretty epic night with some good mates ten of us at Bondi Hardware (see the selfie that I posted in my Instagram Stories), I needed a strong coffee and a swim so badly. And that's exactly what I did...

On another note, the fine guys at Tscudo wrote a great article about The Ripple Effect and used the 'First in, first ripples' photo. Go and have a look HERE. Thanks Simon, appreciate the kind words!

Have a lovely day team,

Ciao,

Amaury

Samuel, Nathan and Jonnie - Good blokes!

A bit far from the action... Dear Olympus, I would love to try one of your telescope lenses pretty please!! ;)

Misty Morning

September 5, 2018

Morning peeps,

What a glorious misty morning! I spent the majority of my time down in Bronte Beach and very glad that I did. Bondi's little sister is stunning too!

This morning I couldn't be bothered to train and I ventured down to Bronte instead. I have to say, watching the sunrise from Bronte pool is pretty spectacular.

Here are the photos.

#BOOM!

CLOUD. This is typically the type of photos that I wouldn't mind hanging on my wall - simple, yet beautiful!

If you stay behind this car for to long, chances are that you are going to get a tan in no time!

Back in Bondi and misty AF too! (Oops excuse my French!)

Work

September 4, 2018

Afternoon my friends,

In the whole history of Morning Bondi (almost 8 years), I think that it is the later update I've ever done. Almost 4pm?! What's wrong with me? Well life, or should I say work? That's right, Morning Bondi is not my primary activity but just a good hobby that takes a fair bit of time in the morning from 5:30am to 9:30am most days. Wow, that long?! How come? I can hear you saying. Well, I wake-up at 5:30am, 6am at the beach to train with friends, 6:45am for coffee, 7-7:30am photos and swim then it's shower, brekkie, selection of the best photos and editing. Then, when you think you're done, you still have to write a very good blog post (not like this one), prepare the newsletter (please subscribe to it so it's worthwhile), pick the best photos for Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook and Twitter. A lot to squeeze in before I even get to work!

I actually have a real job - not a 9am to 5pm but a 9:30am to 6:30pm to be precise and that is to look after all the social and content for a group of agencies called The Haus. This is not a shameless plug but just so you are aware. Funny enough, a few people recently asked me if Morning Bondi was my full-time gig. It is not and I will never be looking at making it a full-time thing. I'm very happy to keep it as a hobby and I'm way too passionate about my day job anyway!!

Oh yes, that was a long blog post to just introduce you to the photos of this morning. It was much better and warmer than what was forecasted!

Have a lovely evening (so strange to say this and my apologies for the delay in getting this to you!)

Amaury

PS: Call me if you ever need some help on the social or content front! (haha) ;)

Obsessed by this morning reflection on the Bergs

The Crabbe Hole, this has to be one of the best views to enjoy your latte.

Be aware of these signs and boards, they are not just pretty!

Monday Moody Monday

September 3, 2018

Morning my friends,

What a morning! To be honest, I almost didn't make it to the beach but i'm actually glad that I did as it was pretty interesting.

I was just too warm in bed and couldn't be bothered to face the cold but in fact it was surprisingly not that cold and not raining neither! Did I ever tell you that you should never trust the weather forecast in Australia? Well, now you know! They seem to be always wrong. Is that because we live in a massive island surrounded by oceans and therefore it's hard to predict? Dunno?!

I guess that's it for today. Have a lovely day and if the weather forecast is not wrong this time around, I might stay in bed tomorrow morning!

Ciao,

Amaury

Golden North Bondi (BTW, Waverley Council when are you fixing these bloody showers?!)

Harris Carroll & Jesse Polock setting up the beach

Messy

August 30, 2018

Morning my friends,

Wow what a wild morning! First of all, it was freezing cold and second of all it was messy as...

It was apparently 6 degrees at 6am and trust me we could definitely feel it in our boardies! As every Thursday and actually most days now, we were at the jungle gym with Paul, Bertie and Julius. Then, we were joined by Lockie & Simon at the coffee shop. Then the usual photos and swim. Probably not the best idea for this morning but I still believe that it is the best way to wake up and feel alive!

Have a fantastic day folks!

Ciao,

Amaury

The other nutcases that swam this morning - Good work Lucy, Dave & Rexy!

Bertie just picked the wrong day for his first and last winter swim!

Les archives. Another day, another rainy day… As I could see it was not raining, I ventured down much later than usual, around 6:45 am. I just arrived and a light drizzle started. What are the chances?! I joined my mates for a quick dip in the ocean and coffee at Chapter One (my unofficial gallery, they have five of my prints on the wall). Still worth going out, if you ask me… Have a great day my friends and stay warm as it’s a bit nippy at the moment. Ciao, Amo PS: I’m going camping this weekend with a bunch of mates but pretty sure I don’t have the right equipment to cope with the cold. I only have a summer sleeping bag… It’s going to be fun, they say. 🤦🏽‍♂️🥶

Rainy days. Do you know what rainy days mean? It means archive days. Here are photos from the past couple of months, most of them were my second favourite ones so you wouldn’t have seen them before. As you know, I love doing my Morning Bondi routine but it actually takes so much time. I’m talking about the photo bit especially. At the moment, I take photos from 6:30ish when the sun is up for roughly 30-40 minutes, then selection of the good photos for 20 mins, light edit the best ones for 10 mins, then write the morning blurb for 3-5 mins (I tend not to overthink this, as you can tell), then upload of each individual photos on the blog for 10 minutes, then newsletter for 5 minutes, then Instagram for 3 minutes, Facebook 3 minutes and Instagram Story 3 minutes. Basically, around 1.5 hours on average. So yes sometimes, I’m glad when it’s raining as I’m saving so much time. Have a beautiful day, despite the weather, and chat with you tomorrow, Xoxo Amo

Golden Sea. Slow start this morning, it was pretty average unless you could wait up to 8am (I couldn’t) to see the sun popping out behind the curtain of clouds. It was all about the golden reflection of the hidden sun on the water. Gold 24-carat for a few minutes. I don’t have much to tell you today except that if you live locally and love ‘Shark Tank’ TV show, you will love the local version of it. It’s called the Bondi Innovation Shark Tank organised by the @bondichamber and it’s next Wednesday at @hotelravesis You can find all the deets in the media release and book your tickets on the blog. I’m going with my awesome business partner Mary Proulx and supporting Sam Cust, one of the sharks (I think that’s what we call them). If you come down, let’s have a beer and break bread (what I love the most about our business name is that the puns are endless). I loaf you! (see) Amo

Nothing to worry about, it's just a tornado off North Bondi, ... 🌪️😲 I took this photo this morning around 9:30 am. I was shooting with @versefinejewellery in South Bondi when we saw this waterspout tornado coming out of nowhere. Scary much? Look closely and you can see the person around Ben Buckler's cliffs running for his life... That's all folks!

Pure Heaven. What another beautiful start to the day! While yesterday was all about big waves, today was all about the mad reflo on the sand - absolutely stunning. I was sitting just next to Morning Bondi HQ and was snapping like a maniac. Have a cracking weekend and subscribe to the newsletter if you want to see the photos earlier in the day - new Morning Bondi formula. ;) Xoxo Amo

Bombastic. OMG, what an incredible morning! It's a very late update as I had a pretty busy day and didn't have a chance to post before now. The newsletter was out around 10am though, so subscribe to it if you want to see the photos before everyone else. It was honestly one of the best mornings we've had for a little while. The light, the waves and the surfers braving the waves. Xoxo Amo

Low-tide goodness. What a stunning morning! Today was all about the low-tide gold reflection. It was just the perfect conditions for photos. The problem, only a few people out including two metal hunters. I was with fellow Frenchy @dianeperreau all morning. I reckon she’s the most popular French person in Sydney. So many people are stopping her every morning to have a chat and take a selfie with her. Have a lovely day my friends, Ciao, Amo

Into the wild. What a cracker of a morning! For a change of scenery, I ventured down to Bronte this morning. I reckon I made the right choice, it was just an incredible show. I was with my mate @paolocattaneophoto for the entire morning and we were just looking at the waves rolling in. Bronte Pool was the best place in da house. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen the very rare video of me talking to the camera. With @bread_agency, my agency, I recently started working with the team from @in2thewild.aus, the best tiny houses business around. In order to have a better understanding of the experience, the client kindly invited me to go for a couple of days with my wife and daughter. Real legends, best onboarding! The whole experience was amazing - especially for someone like me that is pretty hyperactive. I just ‘re-wilded’ for two days. Even though the network was working where we were, I put my phone in airplane mode the whole weekend and made the most of the experience. The tiny house was kitted with all the things that you need, all the products in there are premium and sourced from ethical brands. Let’s be honest the firepit and outdoor bath were the highlights for me. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you are like me and struggle to switch off. They are running a Winter Campaign which is all about swapping your usual beach days for days in the wild. You can book one of the 46 cabins all around Australia using the link in my Stories to get up to 20% off this winter OR alternatively try your luck entering the simple giveaway that they are organising on their Insta. You can thank me later! Xoxo Amo

Monday Madness. This is a very late update compared to usual but busy day today. This morning was just nuts down the beach. I only took a few photos before having to rush to an early meeting in the city. The swell should still be here tomorrow, so go and have a look if you can. Xoxo Amo

FriYay. How’s everyone today? After two days in Melbs (Melbourne for the hipsters), I’m back in the hood. What a morning! Incredible light, the surf was ON and the Icebergs was packed - perfect for photo ops. This morning I caught up with my mate Ben, a fellow Frenchy that I haven’t seen for years. We hung out around the Bergs and finished with a swim in South Bondi - how original. Enjoy your weekends my friends. Mine is going to be pretty epic. I’m going into the wild, literally. That’s right, I’m going to one of @in2thewild.aus’s tiny houses. More on this subject later. Stay tuned people! Have a cracking weekend, Lots of love, Amo

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