Wildlife photographer Jane Webber is pictured in Bramford.

JANE Webber has been interested in the natural world since being an “outdoor” child in Somerset.

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But it was only relatively recently that she started in any serious way to “capture” birds, insects and plants on camera.

“Up until two years ago I’d only had a little instamatic sort of camera like many other people. I took pictures but they never seemed to turn out very well.

“Then my partner bought me a good camera for a trip to India which I went on with a friend. I took loads of pictures of animals, including tigers and monkeys, and the wild flowers inside the protected reserves.

“When I got back from the trip I started to take the camera with me whenever I took the dog for a walk, but last year I gave up work and then I got really into photography – I now take the camera everywhere with me,” she said.

Jane, 45, has obtained some wonderful shots of wildlife on her own doorstep – the River Gipping and the riverside meadows between her home on the outskirts of Ipswich and the villages of Sproughton and Bramford.

We sit and talk beside one of her favourite stretches of river, near Bramford Church. The river, adorned with water lilies, is wide at this point but there is little obvious flow. There is absolute silence all around apart from bird song – I can’t even hear the traffic on the A14.

Jane’s memories of childhood in Somerset are of playing with other youngsters in the woods and a local quarry, and seeing all the things there – “the flowers, the bugs, the birds and all the other animals that were around”.

“When you were kids in those days you never used to go home until it was dark.

“Even when I got older and stayed in to watch the TV it was always the wildlife programmes I watched, not the soaps,” she said.

Her first job was with the civil service and her work has always been in offices although she often yearned to be out in the countryside.

The nearest she got to a life working in the great outdoors were short spells, first on a farm run by the Royal Veterinary College, and then in a garden nursery.

“They were probably the best two jobs I had in my life. I suppose I would have preferred a job in wildlife conservation but it was quite hard to find anything but office work in those days,” she said.

Jane, who married while in her 20s and divorced two years later, lived in London for many years and came to Suffolk three years ago when she met her partner via the Facebook website.

By that time she had already arranged to go to India with a friend but she also went with a precious gift - a good quality camera - which was to spark a renewed interest in both wildlife and photography.

“I spend a lot of time beside the river but I also go to the Ipswich parks – Holywells, Bourne Park and all the rest – there’s a lot of wildlife in them,” Jane said.

She has the patience to sit quietly while she waits for the best shot of an animal.

Jane posts her photographs on the internet, including the BBC Springwatch site, and is a member of several groups which look at each other’s shots.

“I don’t have any great ambition as far as photography is concerned - I enjoy taking the pictures and I enjoy people looking at them,” she said.

Photography can be a solitary activity, especially when waiting is involved. But Jane and her partner do have a joint dream of going to Africa – he to simply watch the wildlife and she to photograph it.