In the Indian Ocean

For the past four weeks, I have been on board the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in the Indian Ocean. We left from Colombo and made our way to the northern tip of Madagascar, skirting the high risk piracy area extending east from Somalia on the lookout for fishing activities along the way.

Now in the Mozambique channel, I am assigned to document fishing practices here - mostly by purse seine vessels originating in France or Spain, but also the odd asian longliner. Whilst the weather is a dream with temperatures of around 30 degrees and plenty of sunshine, spotting schools of tuna or boats scooping them up has proved quite hard and time-consuming. Our daily search flights with the helicopter have turned into a repetitive daily routine; time in the inflatable boats has been rare: so far, we have examined a FAD and come close to a purse seiner hauling its catch.

One can only speculate about the reasons why this part of the Indian Ocean is fairly quiet for fishing: is it overfished and are fish stocks correspondingly low, or perhaps we've been looking in the wrong areas? Only time and more data analysis will tell, so for now I'll leave you with my first impressions from this trip below:

Back to the Beach

No folks, it's not summer yet, at least not for those of us living in the northern hemisphere. Anyway, that didn't stop us from making a short trip to the north frisian island of Sylt in the North Sea.

Ok, I admit, it wasn't warm, and the sun didn't really make any appearances, but a long sandy coastline during winter also has its charms. I hope you agree.

YouTube's NextUp!

In December, I've spent two days shadowing young talent being trained in turbo-charging their video skills at the YouTube Space at Google's London HQ and on location. It was nice seeing young filmmakers, presenters and video artists collaborate with so much enthusiasm and flourishing creativity, and I'm glad I was able to look behind the scenes - and some very funky scenes they were:

The full article was published by my client BILD here.

A magic day

As the year draws to its inevitable close, a few very good friends took me on a day trip to the north sea coast at the German spa town of Sankt Peter Ording.

The weather was harsh, but the vistas were great. The beach had disappeared during a spring tide, and we took shelter from a hailstorm inside the 'Arche Noah' bar & restaurant at the end of a long boardwalk. A few drinks later, the weather had cleared and we were treated to a rather nice sunset. I feel blessed to be holding a camera, surrounded by loving friends & family.
What a nice way to transition into the new year...

November Leftover

Time flies. I almost forgot these pictures taken in early November on a drab Sunday around Shoreditch. One camera, one lens (a 50/1.2) and an eye for the curious, funky aspects of the new hip side of town. There is so much street art, graffiti and all sorts of creative stuff lining the streets, it's truly worth going to have a look. Oh, and a coffee in one of Brick Lane's countless cafes.