Wild Orphan photos support environmental journalistic freedom

Almost a decade after some of the Wild Orphan images were originally created I am proud to say they continue to resonate and draw the attention of editors and publishers. Most recently four of the photographs created were selected to appear in the latest edition of the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres), or RSF, annual fund-raising publication, Nature: 100 Photographs for Press Freedom. Read more about it in my posting 100 Photographs for Press Freedom.

Wild Orphans 2 - a new journey

Their are multiple reason for starting a separate Wild Orphans blog. Over the years I have receive an incredible number of emails from people who purchased the original Wild Orphans book and were as touched and moved by the photography and words as I was by the babies and people who made the story possible. So this Wild Orphans specific blog is for all of you, my friends, my former staff, kind people who attend my speaking presentations and want to hear more stories, more thoughts - perambulations - about the babies, and more photos and sounds, my snippets of an experience that becomes more amazing as I grow older and realize how lucky, genuinely special and rare it has been. This blog is also the initial step along with the partner Wild Orphans website to update the story a decade later. Please if you have any questions feel free to contact me at my Wild Orphans specific email - gerry@wildorphans.net

This blog and the other digital sharing technologies that are available now also make it possible to share the upcoming journey in a way not possible in 1999 when I began the initial Wild Orphans project. I will being using as many of these as possible to share with all of you who care to join on the ride what its like to return to East Africa, reconnect with the babies and the people, and experience their lives anew.

And finally it, this want to say more, is inspired by a fellow earthling - a creature I share little and everything with - her name is Natumi. She is a African elephant, now going on 10 years old, and living happily in the arid wilds of Kenya's East Tsavo National Park. She was the cover girl of my 2001 book Wild Orphans, the four year story of her and seven other orphaned babies struggle to survive and the amazing effort of the folks at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside of Nairobi Kenya to keep these little floppy-eared alive. Over the next few months I'll post a collection of previous writings and new thoughts on Natumi and those days and what I think they mean now - a decade later.

Finally, I want to dedicate this new project to my dearest friend and guardian angel over the past couple decades working and traveling in Africa - Davida "Bunny" Shaw. Bunny died recently and my heart still hurts. I will have few friends as kind, as dear, and straightforward as she. I will miss you never so much as the next time I touch down in Africa - this new work is for you Bunny.