Eurotunnel travels

So we decided to go away for the weekend, destination Belgium. What easier way to get there than to jump in a car, get the Eurotunnel and come out at the other end, ready to drive wherever takes your fancy. Just the wait, the sheer boredom of being sat inside your car in a moving train carriage - I just could not sit still for very long. So I started playing around with my new G10 - a solid improvement over the G9 which sadly was stolen while on assignment in Genoa.

So I will post a few images here which were done whilst experimenting with the new camera. There is also a second reason for this post: since my archive provider Digital Railcrash has gone out of business, I've been looking around for an alternative, and settled on PhotoShelter. So this is an opportunity to experiment with their embeddable slideshow feature. Fingers crossed...

Teachers this way...

No slouches the TDA - a day after Citibank announces 10,000 job losses and the city has been rocked by collapsing banks, government bailouts and job cuts, these guys run a seminar illustrating paths to retrain - conveniently located in the docklands. So any bankers with a conscience who have had enough of the uncertainty are most welcome. Ok, salary cuts and missing bonuses aside, retraining as science and maths teachers is made easy, indeed being sponsored by the Training and Development Agency for Schools. So we went along (not for lack of career prospects I should add), but to meet some of those interested in becoming ex-city employees.

Nana

We met outside a west London tube station for a quick portrait. Background to the article is the credit crunch, and how deflated property prices leave sellers high and dry, often in negative equity. So presenter Nana Akua finds herself in exactly this situation, and decided not to suffer in silence.
The picture happened in a quiet residential street nearby, for no good reason other than it shows houses...and a vanishing point.

The Healer

Naturally sceptical of alternative therapy methods and self-proclaimed healers, I was somewhat taken in by Dr Ali who operates a practice near Marylebone's famous Harley Street. He generously explained his approach to fixing people's ailments - from back aches to sore shoulders, migrane, indigestion and weight issues. Despite the esoteric feel of his practice, a lot of what he said made perfect sense and just perhaps the next time I have a knee problem, I'll try him rather than the NHS.

Meeting Leonardo for a - wait for it - "Interview Proof Picture"

Yes, really. The good folks at Warner Brothers are no longer content with their stars being photographed for promotion of new movies, now they insist on dictating to the press how their stars are to be photographed. So in this instance, it involved a rather long wait at the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, coffees and protracted discussions on where/how/how long I would be allowed to attend the interview with the big man. The alternative was to walk away and give my client no pictures at all - a bad negotiating position to start with.

In the end I was allowed to set up lights, chose seating and shooting position, get ready, only to be allowed back into the room for the last minute - yes, that's right folks, the last minute - to shoot my interview proof picture. Warner Bros PR folks didn't want me to shoot any pictures of great Leonardo alone, it absolutely had to be with the gentleman interviewing him, or nothing. So the inevitable outcome of being in the room with Leo for less than 60 seconds is this, and yes, only this. Sad, but true...

Cityboy is real!

Ever read that hilarious column in the Londonpaper freesheet? Each Friday, ex-city trader Geraint Anderson vents an anecdote, tirade or rant about life in the underbelly of the beast. Greed, insider trading, booze, cheap girls and fast cars all feature prominently in Cityboy's former life as a banker in London's financial district. And in case you wondered - yes, he is real, he really does exist and his stories are (mostly) true, according to him.
After he finished exposing the dark side of the city, he now has published his second book - topically on how to survive the credit crunch. We met the man in - guess what - the city!

Coal à go-go

I know - I've had coal coming out of my ears by now, but after my brief stint on the Rainbow Warrior in the UK (which is also campaigning against coal), I thought I'd post a few generic pictures of the stuff to round it all off. These were taken in the port of Gijon in northern Spain, a major terminal for overseas coal imports to the country.