Darling cut the crap

Last night I had the pleasure of working for my favourite environmental organisation again. This time, Greenpeace projected a message onto Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London.

At approximately 3am, on the eve of the government's pre-budget report, Greenpeace added to the mounting calls to re-evaluate Trident replacement by sending a 100 foot high message to Chancellor Alistair Darling, projected onto Big Ben. The projection reads 'Darling….Cut the crap' with an image of a Trident missile with its £97 billion life-time price tag.

Back into the corporate world

I've barely returned from far too long in a tiny village in the hills in eastern Europe, and I am ushered into one of the world's largest media companies HQ. The brief: a clean, sympatico portrait of its editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger of ThomsonReuters.

It's a small world. Ten years ago, I worked for the then wire service Reuters News Pictures, and David ran the Americas operations. Now I am freelance, and he is the overall boss and a committed journalist with an open mind set towards the future. We traded some names, I found out about some of my old colleagues' whereabouts and David was kind enough to give me the email address of my former boss. Saying hello cannot hurt, and I must admit that a certain - albeit very slight - nostalgia has crept in somewhere. After all, this is the place where I learned my trade, and I am forever grateful for that opportunity.

So yes, back to the picture. The room was practically dark, but the background of the photo had to be crisp white. So applying a little trickery in the form of a new photoshop layer could not be avoided, no matter how over the top I set the background flash bouncing off the white wall behind David. The shoot was uncomplicated, speed and accuracy was of the essence, just like in the old wire service days.

From autumn to autumn

Believe me, it was necessary to take a break. After the Canada trip, I briefly stopped in London to catch up with some admin and submission work before heading for the hills in Vysocina, Czech Republic. It was a good opportunity for a respite, and a chance to deepen the research for my second book project.

Incidentally, I arrived just as the colours were changing to their autumnal hues, the leaves started falling and cold winds began to chill the country. A perfect time for some quiet landscape work, although I must admit it felt like deja-vu in short succession after the Boreal forest assignment. 

Anyway, I am very pleased with the results - they are by no means exhaustive, and there were far too many opportunities missed during my trip, but a respite means just that: letting it be, at least a little.

Autumn in the Boreal

Folks, life is beautiful sometimes...

After the rather hectic series of actions, I have had the unique opportunity to travel for five days around the Peace River area of northern Alberta. I am accompanied by Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a woman of the Lubicon Cree First Nation as we photograph her homeland. We had already met during my visit in the summer, and this time our mission was far more personal to her: documenting parts of the Boreal forest that are threatened by the encroaching tarsands developments. In essence, our aim is to show what is here and worth protecting.

The Peace River region holds significant tarsands deposits and large tracts of land have assigned (oil company) owners who hold exploration rights to their respective 'blocks'. Thus the gradual destruction of the forest is a fait accompli, however it has yet to happen. So this was a good chance to roam around, venture off the main roads and see for ourselves what sights the forest had in store for us. Our hope is that by showing its beauty, we may help persuade people to help preserve it.

The weather was not being too favourable with us: most days, it snowed, skies were overcast and sunlight only maked rare appearances. As a result, the moments during which it all came together were even more magical, as the beauty and richness of tones and colours sprang to full view only during those few sunlit moments. Here is a selection of images...

Tarsands actions

Hey folks, apologies for the long silence - I've been to Alberta again ! Not that this actually explains very much, but things were a little hectic there, and now I've had some time to upload a small selection of images from recent Greenpeace actions on the tarsands industry. Most of them were shot by either hanging out of a wobbly helicopter, or from the perimeter shooting with a Very Long Lens. A slideshow should run underneath this text...