Get It Magazine - Skyhawk Photography

Get High on life
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Images supplied by: Jay Roode. Details: www.skyhawkphotography.com.
Photographer: Carolina Bedoya. Text: Caitlyn Storm Coles
Montgomery Park’s Jay Roode never planned to be a photographer, much
less an airborne one. Now she’s Africa’s very own eye in the sky.
S
he spends most of her time up in the air
flying thousands of feet over some of the
most beautiful views in Africa. Her job? To
capture these views and share them with
the world.
Most children sleep with their teddies cuddled
close, but for Jay Roode it was Keith Coates
Palgrave’s Trees of Southern Africa. For as long
as she can remember it had always been her
burning obsession to be a game ranger and
nature conservationist. Then she met Jan.
‘I was 17 and he was 22. We met by chance
through a mutual friend and I remember
looking at him across the table, thinking ‘I’m
going to marry this man’. And I did. We haven’t
been apart since. People have always called us
Dharma and Greg, like the 90s sitcom, because
he’s so laid-back he’s almost horizontal while I’m
this wild, tree-hugging hippie who plays classical
music to her plants.’
Although Jay did study environmental
management, she was too head-over-heels
24 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs August 15
August 15 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs 25
about Jan to follow her conservationist
ambitions and go globetrotting without
him. In the meantime, he also decided
on a career change ... to follow in his
late father’s footsteps and get his pilot’s
licence. ‘In his mid-30s, he felt like an
oupa at the flight school ... everyone
else was 18,’ laughs Jay.
‘Since we’ve been together, we’ve
travelled to more than 70 countries,’
says Jay, who didn’t study to be a
photographer. ‘We bought a camera
with Jan’s first paycheque and whenever
we travelled we took photos. The
more we did it, the better our photos
got. Then we started selling them.’
And so, with their combined love of
photography and flying, Skyhawk
Photography was born. A dream to
capture the beauty of Africa from above
came true. ‘One thing that’s changed
is that since Jan got his pilot’s licence
we really only travel around Africa, with
our two furry co-pilots, rescue dogs
Juno Andromeda Skydog and Charles
Lindbergh the Second.’
‘With the white beaches of
Mozambique, game viewing in places
like the Okavango in Botswana and
Namibia, which is one of the oldest,
most pristine deserts on our doorstep,
why would you want to go anywhere
else?
‘Flying around Africa has really helped
me with my conservationist leanings,
too. This has always been something I
really wanted to do – raising awareness
about what’s happening to our planet
and opening people’s minds to this
great wilderness that is Africa.’
When they don’t have their heads
up in the clouds, Jay and Jan enjoy
spending time in Joburg’s CBD. ‘I think
it’s one of the most electric places in
our city,’ explains Jay. ‘A melting pot of
cultures and creativity.’ This was the
couple’s main reason for starting 1
Fox, their most recent entrepreneurial
venture. ‘When we went to see it the
roof was caved in and we were knee
deep in pigeon poop, but the space
was just so beautiful and historic. Built
around 1893, it’s probably the oldest
industrial building in Joburg – one of
the original gold mining warehouses
of the city and now one of the most
successful new inner city events
venues.’ Between partnering with
conservation organisations to raise
awareness about the current state of
the planet and wildlife, showcasing
their work in galleries around the
world and picking through the pile
of requests they’ve been inundated
26 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs August 15
This picture, entitled Solitude, is of a
lone elephant welcoming the dawn,
surrounded by the crystal clear waters
of the Okavango Delta in Botswana
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Grandeur - the golden dunes
of Meob Bay twist and swirl along
the cold Atlantic shores of the
Sperrgebiet or Forbidden Coast
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http://jo ne.co.za
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getiton
Shimmer - swirling
sand meets the icy
Atlantic at Sandwich
Harbour in Namibia
This Tree of Life, a scorched but
preserved thousand year old camel
thorn tree, still stands at the tip of a
river in Dead Vlei, Namibia.
Nets of Banque - a fishing net lies
suspended like seaweed from a local
fishing boat in the shallow waters of
Baque island in Bazaruto Archipelago
with since being featured on CNN,
the couple is set to release a book of
their aviation adventures soon and
they’re looking into starting aerial
photographic safaris in the next year.
In the meantime, you can buy one
of the beautiful art prints from their
website ... a percentage of all sales
goes to the Endangered Wildlife Trust
and is channelled into their marine
conservation efforts to save the
endangered dugong species.
So despite not formally continuing
with her environmental management
plans, Jay’s love of wildlife still plays an
important role in her life.
Details: www.sky-hawk.co.za
Twitter: @Skyhawkphoto
A snap-it with Jay
What camera do you use? A Canon
EOS 5D Mark II. I have two of them – one
for a wide angle and one for my long
lenses. I love them. They’re not too
heavy and I get beautiful pictures out
of them.
And what are your wings? Our first
plane was a Jabiru J430 but we’ve also
got a Maule J6 which is a real bush
plane.
Can you fly? Jan taught me to fly a
little, but it’s quite difficult. I’m better at
navigation.
Would you ever try skydiving? Sure …
they’d just have to make sure the door is
wider than my arms can stretch because
I’d have to be pushed!
What’s the strangest thing that’s
happened since you started
Skyhawk? In Namibia a herd of wild
zebra attacked the plane while we were
away and chewed the propeller off!
Is there anything you love as
much as photography, flying and
conservation? I’ve always been into
botany since I was a child and I’m a real
birdwatcher, complete with dorky hat.
Who are your icons? In photography,
Mirella Ricciardi and Angela Fisher,
and in terms of aviation heroes it is, of
course, Amelia Earhart … so all your
woman adventurers really. I don’t like
fitting in to the norm and I come from
a very long line of eccentric woman so
I’ve always had this adventurous streak
which I think I inherited from my family.
The world’s largest and
most Ancient sand dunes
rise majestically off the
desert floor in Namibia
The Desert Sentinel, a lone
oryx, stands on the deep
orange dune fields of the
Naukluft in Namibia at dusk.
Nama Starburst, a photograph of the
remains of a discontinued navigation
system or radar station in Namibia and
its system of underground cables
August 15 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs 27