This story was first posted as a blog on the Greenpeace Climate blog in August 2009 - while I was on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, off the coast of Greenland as part of a four month expedition investigating climate impacts in the Arctic.

 

There is something unnerving about watching reality bend before one's eyes. There is what one "knows" to be true, and that which one can see through a telephoto lens or binoculars - with Fata Morgana, the two are difficult to reconcile. Something is happening on the horizon. Icebergs twist and change shape, move, disappear, elongate. Islands rise from the sea. The earth warps.

I'm very, very pleased. Ecstatic! "Solar Energy Versus Fossil Fuel" has received a "Highly Commended" in the "Changing Climates" category at the 2009 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition.

I was fortunate enough to be in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland on June 21st 2009- midsummer's day, when Greenland celebrates its National Day. There was further cause for celebration - following a referendum last year, Greenland has decided on 'self governance' and on June 21st moved from 'home rule' to a new state of autonomy from Denmark. Here's some of my images...

Just heard from my old pal Steve Mack, leader singer of That Petrol Emotion, who has just featured my photographs of their Electric Picnic 2008 performance on the band's website. It's all part of the excitement building around their upcoming performance at Oxegen 2009.

 

Well, the nice people at Photoshelter have featured my website and my hourglass dolphin image on their front page for all of June! Amazing... (under the 'images' tab on the frontpage slideshow). Photoshelter reckon that 40,000 photographers use their service, so it's very cool for them to be pushing my work. I feel very honoured - thanks to everyone at Photoshelter...

My photograph (above) showing the winter sun setting behind Poolbeg Generating Station, has been chosen for the National Union of Journalists Photography Matters exhibition, opening in London, UK on May 18th 2009.

Here's some pages from Photographer magazine, Ukraine/Russia Jan-Feb 2009 featuring my Iceberg images from trips as blogger and press officer to the Southern Ocean and Antartica on board the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in 2007 and 2008, to find the Japanese whaling fleet. The text is in Russian, btw...

Believe it or not, some of my photographs of New Zealand were used in in Series 2 of the HBO TV Series Flight of the Conchords - as the rather misguided New Zealand tourism posters on the wall of Deputy Cultural Attache Murray Hewitt's office. You can see the posters and my images here...

Ok, it helps if you read Spanish for this one - I've had an article published in the Spanish Lonely Planet magazine, thanks to Luis at Granangular. It's based on my book, Haunted Dublin, published in October 2008. The article is basically a summary of many of the things in the book, with tales of black dogs, phantom cats, headless horsemen - even bodiless heads - and the murderous black pig that stalked the streets around Christchurch cathedral (above).