Stop EPR

When covering Greeenpeace activists abseiling and hanging banners from a large crane at the construction site of a new nuclear power station in Flamanville, France takes you beyond the realm of normal reportage, it's always a personal and sometimes diffcult call.

To photograph the action, I had to become part of it, which meant getting onto that crane with a team of 4 climbers in order to be at the right place at the right time - in this instance in about 30 metres height at the end of a rope. Pictures and video footage needed to be transmitted from the site, as underneath us the inevitable police and security guards made a getaway impossible. The ensuing 1 1/2 days on top of the crane, with luxurious and generously spaced accommodation for a team of 5 inside a crane driver's cabin proved testing and entertaining at the same time.

Victory at the Lewes Arms

When a small local pub owned by a large brewery had its favourite beer withdrawn from the bar, the Lewes Arms' patrons went on the warpath. An organised campaign with boycott and picket lines forced the managers at Greene King to listen, and to reintroduce Harvey's Bitter, the stuff the whole bitter battle was about. We arrived just in time to see the managers capitulate and the locals celebrate. Cheers!

The Horse Whisperer

Not at all messy and with a good deal of domestic pride, bestselling author Nicolas Evans invited me for a grand tour of his spacious London pad, tea, pastries and er, portraits.

What a load of porkies

Now here is a funny story that literally shot itself - a pigkeeping course run by porker enthusiasts Tony York and Carron McCann at Paradise Pig Farm. Yes, really, these two have successfully run courses since 1991, and they haven't lost one bit of their virulent enthusiasm for all things porky...if you want to breed them for meats, or simply keep your four-legged messy companions as outdoor pets, they have all the answers:

Mr Mariott

If you ever wanted to meet an old school gentleman, a jovial interviewee and shrewd businessman at the same time, Ed Fuller, president and CEO of Mariott Hotels is your man. I photographed him for an upcoming issue of FVW magazine and was allowed to observe him during an interview at the Park Lane Hilton.

Testing my new EOS5D

Yes, I have taken the plunge; Yes, I have invested more money into buying yet another camera with yet more megapixels, and Yes, it was worth it. Although I had sworn that I would not buy another piece of equipment unless my clients asked for it and were prepared to foot the bill by way of compensating me with post-production charges, I had a quick decision to make whether to spend money on a rather scary tax bill, or invest it in toys instead...

Well, you know the answer already, and here are the results of my first day out with the Canon EOS5D, my new favourite in the kit bag. The small previews really do not do the quality of the images any justice as the dynamic range, rich colours, sharpness and detail in the Raw-files literally blew me away:

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale

A truly pleasant encounter was my portrait appointment with the Labour peer Lord Corbett of Castle Vale. A former Labour MP, Robin Corbett represented the constituency of Castle Vale housing estate in Birminham and oversaw large parts of the government-funded urban regeneration scheme. He had dressed for the occasion, made me fresh coffee and seemed a little perplexed as to why I wanted to photograph him in his usual domestic setting - as I imagined him being more at home at the House of Lords than in his cottage, I chose his conservatory where he usually reads his Parliamentary mail. The relaxed and serene scene probably speaks for iteself: