James Kydd Photography

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James Kydd Photography Photographer and Private Guide His photographs have won international awards and have featured in numerous publications including National Geographic.

James has spent 15 years in the field across five continents working as a professional guide, wildlife photographer and bespoke travel planner. His strongest passion is around big cats and the art of tracking, leading him to guide trips beyond Africa and into the Pantanal for jaguars, to Patagonia for pumas and to the Himalayas for snow leopards, where he filmed the first complete snow leopard hun

ting sequence. He is the photographer for National Geographic’s Okavango Wilderness Project, for which he recently undertook a 2400km canoe expedition of the Okavango Delta in a bid to secure protection for its headwaters. He is the founder of Rangerdiaries.com, a portal for nature guides to share their wildlife stories globally and connect people to conservation in a positive, visual way. You can follow his journeys on Instagram

Sometimes I wake up to news so good that I genuinely wonder if I’m dreaming. Four days ago the EU made the long overdue ...
29/10/2018

Sometimes I wake up to news so good that I genuinely wonder if I’m dreaming. Four days ago the EU made the long overdue move to ban single-use plastic. It’s a vote so grand it’s enough to give the hardiest skeptics hope for the survival of our wild planet.
And then there are days the news is so dark that I could wish I hadn’t woken up at all. This morning China lifted its 25-year-old ban on rhino horn and tiger bone.
What kind of world are we going to leave for our grandchildren?
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Macaroni penguin, Cooper Bay, South Georgia. Please sign and share the petition to secure the largest protected area on ...
27/10/2018

Macaroni penguin, Cooper Bay, South Georgia.
Please sign and share the petition to secure the largest protected area on Earth (link in bio).
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It has been a month and a half since the young swift broke through her shell and clung to the sheer cliff face behind th...
24/10/2018

It has been a month and a half since the young swift broke through her shell and clung to the sheer cliff face behind the falls. All she has known of this world is the mossy rock in front of her, the thunderous curtain behind, and the daily changing of the dappled light. Every day her parents have vanished and then re-appeared from a world beyond the water, returning with mouths full of insects. Except today. Today the parents have returned without their bounty, and instead they call encouragingly to their hungry youngster: it is time.
The swiftlet opens her hitherto untested wings: curiosity overcoming the mountain of caution, instinct overriding the dragon of fear, and - she - lets - go. Gravity sucks her tiny body like a missile exploding through the roaring water and then there is a moment no human could ever truly comprehend: she has her first real experience of sky, sun, rainbow, the gargantuan falls and flight all in the same second.
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The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish wh...
20/06/2018

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
- Wendell Berry.
It’s hard to believe we were at the source of the Kembo over a month ago. Follow the team as they near the confluence of the Cuando and continue their epic journey towards the Linyanti and the Okavango.

Perhaps there will come a time where we preserve great tracts of land not because of their economical, social or even sc...
19/06/2018

Perhaps there will come a time where we preserve great tracts of land not because of their economical, social or even scientific significance, but simply because they are wild, and that is something we value beyond measure.

Our first contact with people on this expedition were with Danny, Donny and Mattheus, three young Tshokwe fishermen with...
17/06/2018

Our first contact with people on this expedition were with Danny, Donny and Mattheus, three young Tshokwe fishermen with stick rods, a hand axe and their tilapia catch dangling from their wrists. They giggled and followed us for a couple of hours, bemused by the strangers in their forest that mulled over the animal tracks and testing the water in their lake. A young buzzard took off from the reeds ahead of us with an egret in its talons, only to drop it mid-air. The boys excitedly crossed through the shallows to claim their unexpected prize.

More expedition stories on

Imagine a world where all of our rivers were as clean as this Kembo River that is looking out over. Where we could cup ...
15/06/2018

Imagine a world where all of our rivers were as clean as this Kembo River that is looking out over. Where we could cup our hands into any flowing fresh water and drink deeply from its life force. Rivers free of plastic, pesticides, and pollutants... and full of life... the way they should be. This should not be hard to imagine, and is not an impossibility; but it does require action from every one of us. As consumers we can say no to pesticides and herbicides by purchasing organic foods. We can say no to plastic on a daily basis: no to water bottles, no to the lids on our takeaway coffees, no to those senseless shopping bags. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s not bad for the planet. We can take ownership of our waste creation and disposal. The time has come to stop pointing fingers and waiting for solutions which are already here. Let’s invite nature back into our cities.
Follow as the Kembo team get closer to the confluence with the Cuando River.

12/06/2018

As we round another corner of this serpentine water I shout back to sitting a few metres behind me that a tree blocks our right channel but that we have a small gap on the left. He replies “Copy!” and lines up the mokoro as precisely as he can as we prepare for the next turn in the river. What appears rushing towards us makes our hearts sink even though it is the tenth time this day and comes as no surprise. “Full blockage! Two trees from either bank - let’s try left of the water-berry!” Chris swears and apologizes for the beating we are both about to take.
He angles us to try and pe*****te through the first wall of branches with enough momentum to avoid a capsize. I pull what I can over the corners of the solar panel while Chris fights to keep us upright, the branches scratching and piercing as they rake over us and eventually bring us to a grinding halt. “I’m still on the paddle! We need another metre!” he shouts over the fast flowing water as I frantically try to fold back enough of the smaller branches to wield the machete. “I need another 30 seconds!” I respond as a wasp stings my wrist in protest.
We manage to pull the nose in another metre and stabilize ourselves enough to start forging a proper tunnel. It will be an hour before we are through and about five minutes until the next blockage. It has been like this for over a week.
It is beautiful under the canopy: some of the boughs are heavy with mosses and lichens and felling them causes as much pain to our hearts as it does to our arms. We cut as delicately and apologetically as we can, only enough to squeeze the mokoros through safely, and leave with the promise that we will give our all to protect this water and all of its inhabitants. Perhaps one day the elephants that once kept these channels open will return.
footage by

Our distant ancestors might have begun harnessing the energy of fire around half a million years ago, one of our greates...
12/06/2018

Our distant ancestors might have begun harnessing the energy of fire around half a million years ago, one of our greatest natural technological advances. Not only did the fire provide us with warmth and protection, it allowed us to cook and preserve our food, resulting in a massive boost in our calorie intake. The flames helped to forge our weapons and aid hunting strategies, and together with the warmth allowed for the large scale geographic dispersal of humans into colder environments. Somehow, preparing dinner on the flames of a wilderness campfire seems to connect us to this ancient partnership and a time when we lived more harmoniously with the natural world.

For more stories from the Kembo and Cuando Rivers follow

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