Nature’s Pic Images Blog

I supplied many images to outfit the Blenheim Information Centre, and recently got the chance to view the final result.

It’s always great to work on a project that uses images that make you proud, and this is one of them.

Pop in if you’re passing through Blenheim - it’s a great building with nice interior and exterior design.

Images were from my wide Marlborough District collection.  We do a lot of large image installations like this. For example, you’ll see my images used in Auckland and Christchurch International Airports.

Nice to be involved with the Department of Conservation / Air New Zealand joint venture partnership announcement.

Had one of my photos used as a giant backdrop to the Prime Minister of New Zealand’s announcement speech Friday night.  A large mid air panorama photo (big enough to be printed 7m x 3m) taken hanging out the door at 5000ft. For health and safety reasons the sexy black AirNZ plane filled with very rare bird and animals was added later…(yes, that’s a Kiwi in the cockpit).  Here’s the media for it on Stuff.

7m x 3m wide banner used as background to Prime Minister's announcement of the new relationship

More stunning Milford Sound, New Zealand images here if you’re after a bit of eye candy from an amazing place - just a tonic if you’re at your desk we think.

FLYING GREEN: Prime Minister John Key and Air New Zealand boss Rob Fyfe have confirmed a three-year commercial partnership between the national carrier and the Department of Conservation. Photo by HAMISH COLEMAN-ROSS/Fairfax NZ

That time of year when our calendar publishers unveil there collections.  Here are a few dedicated Rob Suisted titles and covers you’ll see in all great stores around New Zealand:

This year would be one of the best looking line ups of retail products we’ve done.  Rob is very happy with the quality - they look really good. The New Zealand Panorama title is especially delicious - full of his heartfelt favourite panorama images.

Michael Kerrisk contacted us for a cover photo for his new book.  He’s very smart, and he’s a Kiwi doing good stuff in a far off land.  Naturally we thought it great to have iconic kiwi image gracing his book cover and pitched a fresh fern koru image.

Michael loved the idea, in terms of what the koru represented, the clean fresh NZ link, and the obvious fractals pattern association (you’ll need a big brain to understand that apparently).
So here it is - a NZ connection to a new book on Linux Programming.  Judging by the spine, she’s a tome and a half.

Congratulations Michael.  It was a pleasure to help add the finishing touches of the New Zealand connection.

Michael Kerrisk's Linux book. Cover photo by Rob Suisted

Want to see more stock photos of New Zealand fern korus?

It’s that time already - calendars for 2011 are starting to appear in shops. It seems earlier and earlier each year.

Every year we work with many publishers, designers, companies and printers to create a large range of quality calendars.  Retail calendar have just started hitting shops, and samples are arriving (it seems to get early each year).  Here are a few just in, with one that we particularly like below:

2011 calendars by Rob Suisted, a selection so far

We particularly like the NZ Panorama title.  It was developed with John Sands based on the large collection of quality New Zealand panorama stock photos that Rob has created over the last few years. It’s a large calendar, and with metallic embossing on the front it looks great.
	Have a closer look. These should be appearing in stores mid August.

For your info, we have a massive collection of images perfect for NZ calendar production.  The calendars above are publically available in stores, but we also create numerous specific in house  titles directly with companies, such as banks, insurance companies, supermarkets, consultancies etc.  Please contact us if you have a calendar project in mind; they are a great full year promotional tool.

This just in from Wilderness Magazine.  Nice to be recognised by these folks.  Thank you.

Rob Suisted interview with Wilderness Magazine, click to read

Had a few covers of Wilderness to date:

Image Researcher!? We’ve worked with Caroline over the years - first crossing paths when she worked for the Guinness World Records when she needed an NZ photo, and now with her living in Wellington we’ve recently worked on the new Zealandia displays. Last week, while sitting enjoying a coffee on the deck here at Nature’s Pic Images we were discussing ‘Image Researching’ with Caroline, and felt the world needed to know of her work & unique profession. So, here’s a guest post from Caroline Thomas, Image Researcher Extraordinaire….

Love it or hate it; think it’s a waste of money or money well spent, the new Visitor Centre at Zealandia cannot be ignored. I spent a couple of hours at the Centre the other day, getting a preview of the exhibition as a result of the small contribution I made, through my job, to its creation.

The job I do could politely be described as ‘niche’; people often look at me nonplussed when I tell them what I do. ‘That’s a job?’, they think and, often, say.

When I first arrived in New Zealand to live, I was uncertain that I would be able to continue to work in the mysterious profession that I had been practising for several years in London. What is this esoteric activity you may ask? I work as a freelance image researcher, sourcing appropriate images for publication in books, newspapers and exhibitions. One of my more memorable contracts was for Guinness World Records where there was always a chance of meeting some extraordinary characters (pictures of the world’s most tattooed man anyone?) (ROB: Whoa, did you introduce him to your Mum Caroline!?). And one of the least memorable? How do you fancy spending all day seeking sufficiently interesting pictures of “nuts and bolts” for an educational textbook.

In the expectation that New Zealand was simply too sparsely populated to sustain a …
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We just got this, this morning, great to see Rob’s image of Meridan Energy’s West Wind wind turbines image on the cover of the Dominion Post.

Have a look at the image below and for more information about Rob’s helicopter shoot also check out Aliscia Young’s guest post as an assistant on the shoot.

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Out today in North and South Magazine, a profile piece on Rob Suisted, his travels, photography and new book Majestic New Zealand. Click for a read.

Update 22 Jan 2010: We now have signed copies of Majestic New Zealand available for supporters. If you’d like to consider a copy, have a look here.

Teamed up with Editor of NZ Geographic Magazine, James Frankham, to do a feature on nocturnal Mana Island.  Photography of wildlife can be tough, but doing it alone, in the dark, fitting between southerly cold fronts and short timeframes makes it all the sweeter for me when it comes off. I enjoyed this one, and working with James in a can-do style.

The story is contained in the 100th issue of NZ Geographic Magazine (a great milestone for James and the team).  How about getting a copy as it’s a beaut read - in fact it’s so good I can’t think of a reason not to.  Better still I think you should subscribe).  Here are a few of the frames selected for publication and a bit of info behind them.   I wanted to show rarely seen wildlife living on this special island, but contextually it’s so close to our capital city (hence I wanted the light pollution illuminating the skies beyond). The shot above was taken after sitting motionless in the dark for 2 hours in camouflage clothing waiting for the diving petrels to return to their burrows after dark. I was ready to leave when a lone bird landed nearby amongst the flowering native ice plant - what a stroke of luck. It sat there preening while I careffully took it’s portrait.
Above is one of the island’s geckos. At night they all come out hunting insects and …. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Saw the new arrivals hall inside NZ Customs, at Auckland International Airport, when I got back. I’d supplied a special shot made of 10 high resolution digital files merged to make a very large photograph.  To see a shot of mine welcoming us over the threshold onto NZ soil is a great feeling.

NZ Customs got a bit excited when they saw me taking photos in this area, but I’d already asked, and they joined me with a nice compliment. The shot represents ‘Aotearoa - the land of the long white cloud’. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Nice work just in from Tanya and Norris at Mission Hall Creative here in Wellington, using our images to create a stunning range of 2 metre high ‘pull up’ branding banners for use by the NZ Department of Conservation. We reckon they’ve done a top job and would recommend their services if you’re after creative professionals.
Seeing my own work used to create quality output

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We’ve another really nice cover with my photo to show off today.

New Zealand has the rarest Sea lion breeding on our shores.  In my previous conservation career I was the national marine mammal advisor to the NZ government….. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Fresh in from Auckland today:
I did a range of shots of our rare New Zealand native Falcon recently that I’m really proud of. M&C Saatchi and St Matthew’s Church teamed up and used one of my shots to impress upon Guinea Pig owners (and other pet lovers) the importance of pet blessing.
No Guinea Pigs were hurt in this design! The full technical story of this film shoot is recorded here. Other falcon photos can be seen here. But please check out this shot below - one of my favourites. A click will show it in full size glory.

Had a few nice covers this month to get home to.

First up another cover for Wilderness Magazine, following the winter 2009 cover we did. This one is of sea kayaks pulled up at Abel Tasman National Park. Check out the great shots I got here this year.

Then it’s calendar release season, and you should see about 15 calendars this year of my work - many exclusive. Here are two that just arrived on my desk (one for the Tide Tables, and one a desk diary.

And to finish off, here’s a cover for a kids Maori language journal from the Ministry of Education on the Miro Tree.

It was a privilege to work with the rare and little know native New Zealand Falcon this month… New Zealand Geographic Magazine were running a feature on the rare NZ falcon, but didn’t yet have the wow shot to sell the story, so asked if I’d have a crack at it. Knowing that these birds are amongst the fastest on earth, very cryptic, and not particularly large meant that a challenge lay ahead.  I love a tough assignment that pushes thinking beyond the norm; the satisfaction of success is very sweet.  Here is part of the result:

New Zealand Geographic Magazine Cover this month

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Just wanted to share with you a use of one of our images we’re proud of. For 46 years the United Nations Handbook has been printed as the only comprehensive guide to the United Nations system, and how it works. It summarises all UN Organisations and provides essential info on their aims, structures and memberships.

The Handbook is used by all those who operate in, or with, the UN. And currently they have a Rob Suisted photo on the cover! And one of our iconic images at that. We’re pretty stoked about the many thousands of copies globally, some of which are being thumbed by some pretty important folks!

Wow, we’re pleased with how Wilderness Magazine has reproduced a favourite image this week…….

Just arrived in the mail from the publisher. This image was taken on a particularly cold winter’s night on the flanks of Mount Ruapehu - apparently the coldest of the year. As conditions were so clear I spent most of the night working on this image. At 35+ minutes per photo (plus similar time for the noise reducing dark photo phase) you don’t get too many photos for your labours, but this one came out a cracker, and I’m proud of the quality of the final results. Thanks guys. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Sitting having breakfast near the tent, high in remote Fiordland…..a surprise visitor made a magazine cover this week… Chomping on our muesli, getting ready for a day climbing over the range above camp, I looked up and saw movement in the distance. Discarding breakfast, we grabbed camera equipment and snuck up the ridge to intercept this wild young wapiti bull before he cut our scent.

The look on his face captures the moment that he became aware of us.  If you look closely you’ll also be able to spot the effect it had on his bladder…. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

We just love this photo of a cheeky little Kea investigating

What's for lunch?

a tramper’s pack, and are delighted that it has earned itself a place in postcard history. Craig Potton Postcards has added this image to its high quality range of postcards and we couldn’t be more pleased.

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Another nice cover printed with our photography…this time the cover of the Biosecurity Magazine….

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Got the mail this morn.  Again the postie bought a nice surprise with several photos I’d done during a commissioned photo shoot for the Regional Council appearing in a discussion document on the 10 year Regional Plan.  I’ve spent several days commissioned shooting recently adding to a series we’ve done with the Regional Council profiling their different operational departments.  Very satisfying work meeting a variety of folks connected to the land and their obvious great pride in the jobs they do. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

The postie just dropped off a copy of Andrew Crowe’s latest book with our image on the cover.  It’s great being involved with quality projects like Andrew’s, and even better when you get to showcase a little known New Zealand native plant. Andrew Crowe has written over 40 titles so far so it’s great to be involved again……. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >