Home away from Home

It's a strange feeling when your home of many sea voyages, expeditions and adventures suddenly turns up on your doorstep. Usually, when I join the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, it involves dragging multiple bags and cases through multiple airports before arriving somewhere at the other side of the world. This time, it was a 1-hour ride on the tube to Tower Hill.

So the Esperanza arrived in London, moored just next to Tower Bridge, and I had an opportunity to catch up with friends and crew members. She was in town for a week, and I must say I have missed the old girl - my favourite ship in the Greenpeace fleet, she has been home for months at a time, on every ocean, on more trips than I care to remember over the past 10 years. Nice to have had her so close to my chosen home, London. Here's a few pictures to go with the occasion.

Portfolio Candidates

It's over two years since I have added anything to the portfolio - so understandably, during that time, I think I have accumulated a few keepers. They were mostly shot on a range of assignments, from cover shoots to expeditions and neatly fall into the four categories 'Creative', 'People', 'Industry' and 'Places. Here is a gallery of the new additions, soon to be published on my redesigned website - watch this space.

London Boaters Story in Cicero Magazine

In the first few days of May, my wonderful colleague Jakob Horstmann and I worked on a story about London's canal boat occupants. The weather was nice, the people too, and the days passed quickly and productively. Yo hum.

 In this months' edition of Cicero Magazine, the story has been given a 10-page spread - haven't seen that in a while, so thought it's worth sharing. Happy summer holidays!

When the CEO shoots you...

Normally I'd be very tempted to comment with a health warning like "Don't try this at home", but in the case of Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan, the man knew what he was doing.

Whilst I was trying various angles during our 30-minute portrait shoot at the company's UK Headquarters, he noticed what lens I was using and commented that he also owned that particular piece of glass. An entirely unexpected conversation about photography ensued, during which he revealed that he is a keen amateur photographer interested in landscapes and trees. So without thinking about it too much, I handed him my camera with one of my favourite lenses, the Canon 24/1.4 II.

He took pictures of me and the reporter in the room, and more importantly, it broke the ice and made the whole shoot pleasant and more interesting. I must say that I liked Mr Cryan, appreciated his curiosity and cooperation, and last but not least, his picture of my ugly mug whilst I was setting up.

So - in purely numerical terms - I am guessing that my portrait at the end of this slideshow, taken by the man at the helm of one of the world's largest banks, earning a six-figure salary, has probably cost more than the entire shoot...

Turkish Delights

It's been more than a decade since I've worked in Turkey - and this time, amid fears of government repression, Greenpeace Turkey did a bold action rigging a giant banner on one of the country's dirtiest coal-fired power plants in Soma. And guess what the banner said? Well, on a play of words, it said 'Grey' and 'Dirty', which in Turkish is 'Gri ve Pis'.

Colleagues in the office may be excused for the funny in-joke, but we weren't excused from climbing the 280-metre high chimney. The international team of climbers was professional, energetic and delightful - see here: