I am dreaming of faraway places these days and I came across a shoot a did in Miami a couple of years ago. I get a bit antsy and restless when it is around the full moon. Full moon will fall on Wednesday February 8th and its probably the reason why i am doing some hilarious imitation of wolfs’ howling to my daughter’ delight. Anyways, Miami is great and I would love to go back on day and stay again at the Setai which is so amazingly designed but this time spend time getting to know the real Miami.

So I realized that it is coming up to 20 years since I arrived in Dubai. I have for all of that time lived pretty close to the beach and it is one of the reasons I have been here for so long. Trying to surf when there are waves makes me feel free. Being up at dawn escaping the summer heat and laying motionless floating in a perfectly still sea gives me time to think. Now in the winter time busloads of tourists from all over descend on ‘my’ beach and Astrid, Mark and I  see some pretty funny things.

I was shooting at Zayed University’s new Abu Dhabi campus late last year. It was a marathon shoot over three days and because we had a tight deadline I could not wait for the cloudy days and so am itching to go back. The team at ZU is great and I love climbing around the roof with Osama seeing sunrises and sunsets. Nothing is ever too much for them and I love it when client pull out all the stops for photos. I will have a lot more photos of ZU on my website shortly.

I started editing  and retouching my photos from Bangladesh today. I still have not processed my black and white film and excited to find time to do so. Everyday day this week is a huge edit so very soon there will a whole new look to the website. The above digital image is from Old Dhaka and I happened to come across this child that works with raw sewage. He climbs into a tight space and fills a bucket which his partner then hauls up. It is heavy, toxic work.

We went camping on New Years Eve with a group of friends towards the Hajjar mountains and the Oman border. In the morning (early, as we had 7 kids and five noisy dogs) we woke. After breakfast I went and had a play with my xmas present a Canon 45mm tilt shift and spotted this Bedu camel herder lounging in the warm morning sun as his camels grazed. Happy New Year!

Tomorrow I leave new and old friends behind and travel back home. Photographers for Hope’s Bangladesh project is coming to a close and our exhibition “Bangladesh 40 years later” begin its journey from Drik Gallery on 16th of December 2011 on Victory Day. The mobile exhibition of rickshaws  with 45 prints will make its way to the Dhaka University area and be a part of the celebrations. Live streaming on www.drik.tv (1100 hrs Bangladesh time, GMT +6:00).  I am leaving early to go home to see my daughter Astrid  but everyone else will be here for the day and I will post some shots from the day. For now I will say farewell to my friends and leave you with this river image which was a day of new friendships and a moment of calm in the crazy wonderful city of Dhaka.

Yours etc

Riverfront in Dhakka, Bangladesh. Today me, Anna Wang, Captain Ben Moldenhauer, David Burnett and Apal went to play with our cameras on a very colourful river. I have, thanks to being inspired by David been shooting with my Leica M6 (results which will be not so instant and also on black and white film but will eventually show up here if I got the focus right) but it has been a joy to shoot film again and especially using the magical Leica. It has forced me to slow down and sitting on a river boat I looked and listened to the birds, the boats pass by and the riverbanks around us. It was calming after spending the last few days in some of the worst traffic I have ever seen.

Here however is a shot I did with the Canon 85 mm f1.4

We are arriving in dribs and drabs, eventually totaling 14 photographers that will spend the next week or so shooting various projects for Photographers for Hope. We arrived to a foggy landing with brick chimneys sticking up out of the fog and lining the river. I have just arrived back from a meeting with my NGO which is called Marie Stopes and I will follow them for the next five days. The ride there was with a rickshaw driver and I am quite glad I was a bit foggy myself with tiredness and so took it all in very Zen like and calmly. It is madness and I am very happy to be in midst of chaos yet again.

The Sound (locally known as Sundet, Danish, Øresund or Swedish Öresund,  is the strait that separates the Danish island Zealand from the southern Swedish Province of Scania. Its width is just 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) at the narrowest point between Helsingor, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden.

Political control of Øresund has been an important issue in Danish and Swedish  history. Denmark maintained military control with the coastal fortress if Kronborg at Elsinore on the west side and Karnan at Helsingborg on the east, until the eastern shore was ceded to Sweden in 1658. Both fortresses are located where the strait is just 4 kilometers wide.