Nature’s Pic Images Blog

Some things stand out in my working photographic career; but having a photo tattooed onto skin, as a living memorial, has to be a remarkable compliment.

Nick Johns contacted me for permission to use a photo as a memorial to his brother.  Some things cross boundaries, and this does for me - creating an image someone feels is good enough to permanently etch onto their body in honour of someone they have lost, is very humbling. 

Nick wanted to tell everyone that his brother died as a consequence of drug addiction. ” We are all addicted to something in this life.  But the trouble with drugs for the addict is they progress, as Tim did from the so called harmless drugs, Marijuana etc to eventually the hard drugs, in Tim’s case Methamphetamine.  The only good thing to come out of this, is it has shown the next generation in our families how drugs will destroy lives. It destroyed their awesome Uncle Tim whom they all loved so very much.”

Thank you Nick for wanting to share this, and for creating a very humbling experience for me, from what is a very sad experience and loss for you.  We’d both love to hear your comments if you’d like to post any here.

You can learn more about how the image was originally captured for the cover of NZ Geographic Magazine, and how it was also used by a church with a great sense of humour.  There are more photos of this remarkable species, the New Zealand Falcon, here, and we’ve created a special quality canvas print.  Further, we selected it to be used as preface to Majestic New Zealand book because it’s a special shot that captures the essence of a remarkable but endangered creature.

Rob Suisted has photo guided from Pole to Pole, and a few places in between.  He’s never done it locally. 

He’s offering a casual, free, photo walk on the Wellington south coast on the morning of Saturday 10th Sept, followed by a group breakfast.

It’s great meeting new people, and sharing creative inspiration and knowledge. Coming into spring is a great time to get motivated!  Click here to read about it

It’s limited in numbers, so register your interest now. Pass it on.

Wellington's wild south coast

Rob Suisted photo guiding, Greenland, Arctic. Join us in Wellington

My day was brightened with an email from room 12 of Marina View school in Auckland.  They wrote explaining they were studying artists, and this week for photography were using my photography as inspiration.  They sent me some of their work, and today proudly gave me permission to share some of their photos. 

The pupils are year 3, which means in NZ they’re 7 year olds.  I’m impressed.  Thanks Room 12, and thanks for recognising me. 

 My favourite is the palm fronds because it has a really nice strong design, but I think you’ve all done very well.  Keep up the great efforts.  Who knows, I might just see you out and about photographing nature one day?

Thanks, Rob

A couple of weeks back I spoke to Evan’s Bay Pre Shool.  Not my normal speaking audience, but it turned out to be a rich experience.  I got more than I bargined for.  The clincher was when Courtney said that “the kids often played at what you do for a job”.  It keeps giving; the kids just delivered me a thank you card. Thanks to you all; I now have it hanging in my office.

Thank you card from Evan's Bay pre school

Have a read about my visit here. It’s got a couple of cute photos and I wrote about why it was such a nice morning.
Rob talking to the kids	The kids ran their own photo competition and are proud of the results.  Here’s a nice comment.	Kids photo competition

I’m judging the NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year Photo Competition, alongside Andris Apse and Arno Gasteiger. 

Entries are open now, there’s $6000 and a bit of fame up for grabs, and entry is free & online.   No excuses not to enter.  Closing date for entries 10pm, Tuesday 21st September, 2010.  Get into it.  Hopefully I’ll be viewing your work soon!  Good luck.

“The only way to divine happiness is by helping others” is a saying I heard years ago.

Last week I was asked to talk at a pre-school. My initial thought was that I didn’t have time to prepare and do it, and anyway, being used to speaking to adults, what would 3-4 year olds get out of it? 

Courtney from Evan’s Bay Preschool said, “these kids love playing at what you do for a job - they’d love you to visit”.  I remembered the saying above and reconsidered; and was very pleased I did.

I took along my polar outfit and… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

I shared dinner with the first man to walk to the South Pole and the North Pole last week!  Robert Swan is a remarkable man in many ways. I want to share a bit about him, his 50 year project and what this meeting meant to me. I can’t believe my luck.

Robert Swan, South Pole

Robert Swan walked to the South Pole in 1986. At 33, he walked to the North Pole (1989). He’s earned a spot in history alongside the heroic explorers of old, becoming the first man to walk to both poles. Incredible. He doesn’t do things by halves, and he’s taken on some Herculean tasks since.

Robert Swan was in Wellington last week and I was invited to a small dinner.  Robert gave a pre-dinner slideshow that set the scene for an inspiring evening, and touched many chords for all of us. 

For me, having been to both polar regions, having some idea of how epic his walks were, and being a student of polar heroic history, it was a big treat sharing his tales, elbow to elbow, at the dinner table.

Robert Swan's final message to us

Robert was inspired by Antarctica and the heroic explorers when he was 11.  He dodged Oxford Uni (much to his father’s chagrin) and in his twenties decided to raise $5,000,000 for an expedition, bought a ship, convinced 25 volunteers to give up 3 years, and set sail to Antarctica, to walk to The Pole.  It took him 5 years to get 1000 sponsors and enough money, before setting sail in 1984 - meeting Capt. Scott’s last surviving expedition member Bill Burton in Lyttelton.  He tracked down original sponsors of Capt Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition, e.g. Shell Oil supplied petrol to Captain Scott and again supported Robert’s attempt. It’s worth mentioning that Robert had never even been camping at this stage!

The short story is that he walked to the South Pole in 70 days without radios but, upon arrival, discovered that… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Recently we launched my latest book, Majestic New Zealand, in Conservation House, Wellington, NZ. The Director-General of Conservation, Al Morrison, kindly did the honours and hosted the evening.

Just prior to his speech, Terri Ripeka Crawford and Mere Boynton performed a completely impromtu song and dance performance of ‘Te Kokako’ - a composition by the late Hirini Melbourne, in honour of my book. I want to share this with you.

It was amazing, completely unexpected, very spiritual and moving for people (yes, we saw tears). For me it was a great honour and a moment of complete presence and clarity in the evening which created good memories. Thank you very much to both of you.  I hope my blog readers will enjoy watching the performance, as we did.

‘Te Kokako’ represents the dance and… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

I’d like to wish you all a very happy festive holiday and the best for the New Year. 

It’s been a tough year for some.  Let’s hope 2010 is a great year for all. 

I’d really like thank the people I’ve worked with and for this year.  We’ve done some great things and this year has been a beaut.

I was lucky enough to visit Santa’s homeland this year. I’m standing beside his postbox. Seriously, this is where all letters go that are addressed to Santa in Greenland.

In Greenland, I also managed to visit a spectacularly scenic little town called Uummannaq on the west coast of Greenland, and walked overland to a remote bay where Santa has his summer house, a little sod hut maintained by the locals. Be assured that I put in a good word for you all, and if you’re of the Christmas persuasion, you’ll be blessed with the season’s best.

Kind regards,
Rob Suisted

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.

‘We’d like you to mentor a ‘Young Gun’ photographer’ was James Frankham’s request from New Zealand Geographic Magazine.  The ‘Young Gun’ was Spiderman Bryce - a keen young chap from Hamilton who has a penchant for bugs, especially big spiders. Bryce was super keen, and while spiders are not one of my fav critters, I’m always up for an interesting challenge, giving  back to a good cause and something different.

Cook Strait Giant Weta female climbing onto Bryce's hand (Deinacrida rugosa, Stenopelmatidae). Endemic endangered New Zealand insect. Wetapunga. Island gigantism

NZ Geo magazine have just started a programme where they pair promising photographers with seasoned pros (not sure what my seasoning is yet though). We chose to take Bryce to Mana Island, a Scientific Reserve that is an island sanctuary for some of New Zealand’s rarest animals and plants. Currently Mana is being restored to a pest free island status, which means that the lack of introduced predators gives the local fauna a chance to recover - especially the giant weta and lizards. Kindly supported by the Department of Conservation (DOC), we were collected in the DOC boat and whisked across to Mana Island from Paremata.

Party trick. A common Gecko licking its eyeball while hanging off branch hunting at night (Hoplodactylus maculatus, Gekkonidae)

We spent the day checking out Brown Teal, Kakarikiand other creatures (not to mention the volunteer creatures planting trees for DOC) on the before the rain arrived. Sue and Frank, the DOC Rangers on Mana, were very accommodating, pointing us in the right direction to find species and things of interest. Frank took us to a known spot to look for McGregor’s Skink, one of the rarest Skinks in the world. Our luck was in, finding several of these beautiful lizards as the rain set in proper….. MORE…
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I suspect Rob knows that I am a bit of a townie!! Before he left for his latest adventure he handed me the transcript of the diary of Mr A Sutherland, well known in hunting circles for his “early exploratory trips and hunting of the Wapiti herds of the Fiordland area” in the earlier part of the 20th century.

Alpine Tarn above the Glaisnock River Valley

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