In 2015, I spent three weeks in New Zealand photographing the beautiful fauna and flora of my native country. Here are just some of the images I took from bees collecting honey from deep inside the Pohutukawa flowers in Taranaki, to my favourite birds – the peeping Oyster Catchers – appearing to comically stare at their own reflections in the sand in Raumati, just north of Wellington. Hope you enjoy! SaveSave
This is Louis the Tui. He followed me all over my parents’ property in rural Taranaki (Naki), New Zealand last Xmas, singing, grunting, wheezing, coughing and popping like a mechanical toy (Tui’s have a very active and noisy vocal range!). At one stage he even landed on the grass near to where I was sitting which is the first time I’ve ever seen a Tui on the ground. My parents were convinced that Louis was threatened by my Nikon camera and large zoom lens possibly thinking it was another Tui invading his space. I like to think he was in love with me and[…]
I’ve always wanted to visit Costa Rica and last October spent just over three weeks on the trip of a lifetime riding horses through the rainforest, surfing in warm waters, white-water rafting past the most beautiful landscape, zip-lining across the rainforest canopy and seeing some of the most incredible and exotic wildlife I’ve ever seen. My plan was to experience as much as I could of this beautiful country and so booked a week in a ranch in Guanacaste, four days in a luxury eco-lodge in Limon near the Caribbean coast and then ten days at a beautiful resort on[…]
When I was young, around six or seven, my parents rented a bach every Christmas on a remote island in the Coromandel, on the east coast of New Zealand. The half-moon shaped island, which had a postage stamp-sized sandy white beach, was called Motupohukuo Island or Turkey island in English. We loved that Island as though it were our own. Our bach had no electricity, no running water, no mod cons and the toilets were scary long drop loos, the tall wooden kind, set far in the bush. We bathed in the sea, fished for snapper off the reef and ate raw[…]
I get such a buzz seeing foxes running around the streets of London and this little sweet fella (girl?) which I photographed standing on the porch of a house in Holland Park this morning is no exception. There are a staggering 10,000 urban foxes in London and while they’ve been immortalised in books, movies and even as TV personalities (think Basil Brush), most Londoners are ambivalent to these orange coloured urban dwellers and barely give them a second glance. But not me. The first time I ever saw a fox in the flesh in London was my very first night[…]
My interview about my Montana riding adventure in May 2013 – has just been published in the latest issue of Your Horse!
In 1939, my grandmother, Eileen Gedge (pictured above with my grandfather), met a wealthy Lebanese Law student called Ahmed Tewfik Bey Al-Khalil at Cambridge University where they were both studying. They became firm friends and according to family rumours, Ahmed fell in love with my grandmother – a tall, fine boned, beautiful woman, always impeccably dressed and an exceptional tennis player. Sadly my grandmother was forced to reject Ahmed’s advances as it was impossible then for her to marry an Arab. In those days, inter-racial marriages were frowned upon in High Society. After university, they lost touch, but not before[…]
By Jane Wynyard November 2013 I certainly lived up to my Calamity Jane moniker on a recent visit to Kerala, South India. in the two weeks I was there, I was severely stung by jellyfish, shat on by a giant sea eagle and slapped by a temple elephant. I also swallowed a mouthful of polluted river and spent more than a week in bed in the UK with gastroenteritis. But don’t let this story of nature’s retribution put you off. Despite a series of unforeseen calamities caused by a combination of heatstroke stupidity and bad luck, Kerala is definitely worth a visit. Kerala[…]
By Jane Wynyard September 26 2013 I was so saddened in 2013 to read about the Romanian courts agreeing to cull thousands of stray dogs after one of them fatally mauled a four year old child. The horrific death of any child is hard to comprehend, but the senseless extermination of thousands of homeless dogs in retribution is even harder. It was the State, after all, that forced Romanians to dump their beloved pets on the street during the communist era – the awful legacy of a brutal and oppressive political regime – and now it was the State[…]