Mandy has been a keen photographer for most of her life. Having been able to travel globally for the last ten years, she has captured many different cultures and scenery.
She started out in Greece following the trail of white clad buildings with sapphire doors, blue seas and boat trips, capturing photos of the odd turtle, as it was season when they came ashore to lay eggs in protected zones during the night.
She found Spain to be a place not so different to England, just with more sun. So there were lots of sea waves and rocks to capture in pictures, with the odd orange or blue crab and a vast variety of marine life.
Mexico’s back streets were filled with vibrant life and colour, with their free roaming lizards, palm trees, unusual flowers, unique seaweed and sea life.
Off-road, there was a multitude of houses and buildings with interesting architecture, local marine life and churches, market streets and by chance catching the annual street parade of car buggies, dressed up in all manor of guises on the Isla Mujeres !
Barbados, the home of white sands, blue seas, stunning unusual flowers and their easy-going happy culture. There were turtles to swim with, ‘invisible’ noisy, transparent frogs and stunning greenery for miles with all kinds of floral creations.
Boat trips far and wide explored the underwater world and see dolphins .
Egypt was one of Mandys favourite places on earth, due to being an avid historian. She found this era particularly fascinating, from its pyramids to museums with royal mummys in transparent glass tombs. Stunning architecture , camels, poverty and prosperity live side by side with the vastness of the Sinai Desert. Their underwater world was full of amazing life from sharks to lion fish. With the help of a super powered telescope set up in the middle of the Sinai, Mandy got some real close-ups of the moon out on a night desert trip with the Bedouin people, where the stars are the most vivid ever seen. Breaking bread with the locals was an experience of a lifetime. Ancient Egypt was an era of such great powerful leaders, medicine, culture and art. There was a stark realisation of the sheer size of the pyramids and what it must’ve took to build; slavery, death, blood, sweat and tears. Emotions pour out of every tomb, corner and boulder.
Antigua had coves of heavenly calm blue sea and white sands. There was bird life of immense numbers of species, from white storks to tiny yellow bellied beauties. Greenery spread across acres of land. From barracudas to sting rays, the seas were full of exciting new underwater adventures. How important the coral is, to prevent the islands being flooded out. Their strict policies on Green Peace and saving the planet were clearly adhered to throughout the island.
The Dominican Republic was a mixture of Spanish and Caribbean cultures. Their unusual God idols were on every corner: The Sun God being the most friendly looking.
On adventures out to cotton plantations and local family-run cocoa bean factories culture was at its finest.
Banana trees to fig trees adorned most roadsides en route to the mountains. Lizards lived alongside man and bird life was much like Antigua.
There were Boat trips to see and swim with sting rays, sea lions, sharks and adorable dolphins.
Coming back to the UK
Having spent her youth by the black mountains in the valleys of South Wales, she has streams of photos of wild horses, roaming sheep and miles of land as far as the eye can see. Devon, Cornwall and Bournemouth are her favourites In England.
Mandy likes to live on the edge and catch that all important unusual shot from a very trying angle. She has completed a few wedding portfolios to add to her huge collection.