Nature’s Pic Images Blog

Chase Jarvis Studio Party, Seattle. Sept 2009. Chase Jarvis is a legend in commercial photography and social network marketing, and I just had the chance to meet him with a beer in hand. It’s not surprising then that Chase throws a Seattle street party with three bands (some you’ll know), feeds and waters the hundreds of guests in his studio and street outside, all the while trying to keep the party secret from the thousands of fans that follow him. I was travelling back from the Arctic to NZ, staying with friends, Angela Nelson and Andrew van Leeuwen, in the coffee city by chance when I was given an invite. Some said it was to be the party of the year and Chase didn’t disappoint. It was a great balmy late summer evening with the city lights of Seattle glowing behind. Partly because of the Wellington developed 42 Below Vodka that lined the racks, a lot due to the band “The Presidents of the United States of America” with their energetic display, and mostly to the open social style of Chase Jarvis, we all had a top night. Chase and his wife Kate had just flown in from a film shoot in New Zealand, and it was great to talk about his love for our place. A carefully managed social networking strategy using twitter, facebook, youtube and blogging etc has seen him gain a worldwide following. Check out his work, both with the camera and his blog - very inspiring.

Andrew van Leeuwen, Angela Nelson, Alex Hillinger, Chase Jarvis, Rob Suisted. Chase Jarvis Studio and Street packed with happy people The Presidents of the United States of America in full swing, with Seattle behind.

For two months I'm working as lecturer and naturalist on an expedition ship heading to Svalbard (bet you don't know where that is), Greenland, Iceland and the Canadian Arctic. I'm blogging, and also carrying a satellite beacon that gives my real time location. So, add us to your favs, sign on for the RSS feed, or follow me on twitter and I'll do my best to take you along for the trip.

LATEST UPDATE:8 September 2009 - Greenland & Canada. We got to Nuuk, the captial of Greenland. Of course Santa Claus is a tourist thing here, with his 'headquarters' in the tourist office. The national museum was worth the visit. On display are 4 of the famous perfectly preserved Greenland Qilakitsoq Mummies from around 1475AD. Several days later we were to visit Qilakitsoq, the actual burial site, just across from Uummannaq town. Uummannaq is very scenic, and the recent wind had choked the harbour with large icebergs enhanced the view. Lunch was served with a collection of local foods - esp. fin whale meat and much dried fish at the local hotel. Afterwards we hiked over the island for an hour to a back bay where Santa Claus has his summer house. He wasn't in when we arrived , but Christian one of our team (with authentic white beard) was on hand to pass out sweeties! The traditional turf house was furnished with his belongings. And yes Janette (my able bodied Business Manager), I did leave a note for you saying you'd been good. Ilulissat - now that's a spectacular place in Disko Bay. Jacobshaven Glacier has the highest output of water (ice) in the northern hemisphere. It's calving more ice in one day than New York uses in water in one year apparently. The huge bergs take 2 years to travel down the fiord and out past the town. It is truly impressive, and little wonder why this is the heart of Greenland tourism, and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It produces very tall bergs as they roll around in the fiord, and these litter Disko Bay and the surrounding Davis Strait. We had 2 days there, seeing a fantastic sunset on departure, humpback whales amongst the bergs and generally just staring in awe from the various hiking tracks at the scale of things. Next was the Davis Strait passage across to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. We spotted a hundred or so Pilot whales, but within sight of our first landfall, a tiny lonely piece of ice floated past with 2 polar bears eating a seal, 20NM from land. Welcome to Canada! We called at Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. Had a look in the Government's Legislative Chamber which was festooned with indigenous icons, art, narwhal tusks and meaning. I enjoyed seeing this, and the strong connection still with nature, the environment and the strengthening culture. Then across to Lower Savage Islands to drive zodiacs amongst them looking for Polar bears. The first bear literally popped up in rocks about 30 metres from the Zodiac I was driving. Fantastic! Sadly, in Canada, (unlike Svalbard) Polar bears are hunted, have a great fear of humans, and generally high tail it quickly. But, we saw another 11 polar bears before heading to Resolution Island and spotting another two. 13 polar bears in one day and the Aurora borealis (Northern Lights) playing overhead to end with - what a day!! Then a visit to Lady Franklin and Monumental Islands (both names connected to the famous missing Franklin Expedition in the North West Passage). Had another few polar bear sightings before the largest one I have ever seen decided to lie and/or prance on a rock very close to the coastline with very little concern (wee below right). This was a highlight. A visit to Akpatok Island was curtailed due to high winds, but I spotted a lonely bear walking the cliff top about 800 feet above us. This morning we called into Hopedale, a tiny mostly Inuit town of 600 in Labrador. A beaut setting and historic place with Moravian church and Mission arriving from Germany in 1782 and being possibly the oldest building in east Canada. The local kids were out in force and we spent the morning giving them joyrides in the zodiacs around the ship. We were the first outside ship to call here this year and the smiles on their faces said it all. The kids certainly made the visit enjoyable for all of us. Leaving Ilulissat IceFjord, Greenland, at dusk! Very large Polar Bear on Monumental Island, Canadian Arctic Polar Bear mother and cub on Lady Franklin Island, Canadian Arctic.

Aurora borealis, Northern Lights, Greenland Humpback whales amongst ice Iceberg near Uummannaq, Disko Bay, Greenland Santa's summer house, Uummannaq, Greenland Rob at Ilulissat, Greenland Nunavut legislative chamber, Canada Long finned Pilot whales at sea Lady Franklin Island, Canadian Arctic

The Google Map below is a rough overall view of the trip. Zoom in and move the map around.

View Rob's Arctic 2009 trip in a larger map
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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:

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Had a challenging, but fun, photo job last week in Rotorua with the rare native New Zealand Falcon (really exciting photos coming very soon! Sneak peek below). While there I managed to shoot down twice to a great spot on the Waikato River where I’d shot during summer, as I thought comparision photos would be very interesting. I couldn’t wait to prepare them alongside each other, and share them with you. So, here they are - a nice little study of interest I think. Nice when a simpy idea comes off like that:

The last shot below was taken in -3 degree celsius frost. While it’s hard to see here, there was a tremendous hoar frost forming on the trees from the freezing fog along the river. Not as epic as our Central Otago hoar frosts, but always stunning to see. I’ll have a few waikato hoar frost shots up in my library in a few weeks….MORE…
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‘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.

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.

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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Write up of our 2009 Fiordland Expedition posted originally titled as “Where’s Wally? Live satellite tracking of Rob’s remote Fiordland expedition for 2009” post.

The trip was fantastic. Lost about 5kgs/12lbs from sweat and toil…would have been more if the weather hadn’t done its best to muck us up. So, what was the trip all about? Once a year a ballot is run to allow folks to chase Wapiti deer in a remote part of Fiordland. We happened to get lucky in the very popular ballot, so set off into this seldom visited part of New Zealand, seeking in the least to get some great photos.

A unique part of the trip was that I carried a new SPOT personal satellite tracker unit that allowed people to follow us in real time on google earth, as well as an emergency backup with our mountain radio set. We had quite a following after our original post. So, here’s the write up about the trip…..

Below you’ll find the final annotated GOOGLEMAP of our trip you can play with, filled with our satellite transmissions and photos of the locations.  Waypoints are numbered so you can figure which way we went (#1-266). Click on the camera icon’s for photos and further info.  Zoom the map below in to see everything and more photos (use ‘+’ or ‘-’ on top left), and drag map around with your cursor…..

Click to View Fiordland Wapiti exped 2009 in a larger map. *Recommended
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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 > > >

JOB: Once in 100 year event, 3-5 seconds to get photo, commissioned work for client, weather iffy, precarious platform…. Are you up for it?

Always in for a photographic challenge, here is an anatomy of an interesting photoshoot, and the creation of a very satisfying image that will live on……

The 100yr Hapuawhenua Viaduct shoot - "a nervous wait..."

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Had a top season in Antarctica this year, visiting the Peninsula side from Argentina for the first time instead of the Ross Sea. As usual I saw some great spectacles, so as I process shots from the many taken I’ll upload a few here with a short story. This one is the tale of the poor Gentoo Penguin chick whose parent wasn’t the sharpest penguin parent. A Skua collected and killed it, before a great skua fight with terrific flight skills. The camera just happened to be handy…. Read on to see the rest….

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Starting out with a favourite image taken especially for my next book project. 

Twas taken on the coldest morning of the winter, after a chilly night in the tent perched on the side of Mt Ruapehu….   

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