Nature’s Pic Images Blog

A science background made shooting the BRANZ Annual Review an interesting undertaking.  Meeting and capturing the work of many of our top building and materials scientists dealing with applied real world issues in the building industry was fascinating, and working alongside an experienced and capable team of in house designers, writers and publishers was satisfying.  The final report we crafted has just been released here.

Below are a few example pages and a brief explanation of the design and photographic themes involved… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

We licensed our third photo for tattoo use recently, and our client shared the result, committing the photo to skin forever.

Original file is here, and the other tattoo photos are here.

We just received photos of another of Rob’s amazing iconic native NZ Falcon (Karearea) photos committed to skin permanently. We’re blown away how this tattoo has come out, and honoured to have Nick Aston consider using it.

Fieldays 2018 was on Rob’s agenda this year, and well worth a stop in. It was awesome to see so many of our photographs printed as large murals.

We have a large selection of stock images that work well at massive sizes (shot on medium format digital and professionally stitched into massive files) which are suitable for quality exhibition backdrops, and branding displays.

Rob does commissioned photographs too, and we did a couple of massive murals for Honda Power & Marine this year. Can you spot the celebrity in one of them?

NZ’s first man of fishing checking out boat’s while Rob checks out a mural we created to sell outboard engines to commercial users

Nope, not Clark Gayford, although Rob let him know he wasn’t stalking him, he happened to be in shot of one of the professionally stitched panorama’s we did for Honda. Kate the Corgi made her debut appearance, a little know fact outside the breeding clubs, Corgi’s are a cattle herding dog breed.

Kate the Corgi – Rob’s fearsome cattle dog was added to the frame – a great distraction for kids while mum and dad talk gear, at Honda Power and Marine’s Fieldays stand

NIWA’s stand was very eye catching with their clever use of one of our large panorama files:

NIWA’s simple but beautifully designed stand created with an image we created to fit dimensions. Simply cropping a photo to shape and enlarging just ‘doesn’t cut the mustard’. Here we worked with the designer to create a huge image file to fit ratio specs – thereby minimising cropping and maximising output resolution

We had some great feedback from The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), who were very happy with the quality and feel of our images. It was great to work with Adam from Station Creative on the MPI stand this year, he’s very much into quality too, so a successful Fieldays for 2018 across the board.

Check out feedback we’re recieved from some of our mural clients.

Jamie Steer questions the status quo around introduced species to New Zealand. Its fair to say his views are controversial, but he’s willingly made a target of himself.  I was commissioned to shoot his portrait.

Playing around with the idea of hunting introduced species, and how Jamie is happy to be a target for debate, this is the work I did to make a very strong literal ‘story portrait’ to illustrate the interview for NZ Geographic Magazine:
And here are a few of the options supplied for the editor to consider:

Research shows* natural images, especially nature landscapes, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure and increase feelings of well being in people.

Our need to connect with nature is inherent in us (Rob gave a talk about this recently at the Environmental Defence Society’s annual summit – video linked below).

Our health industry clients recognise this, and we’ve worked with them to bring NZ nature scenes to people who need the benefit of nature in their facilities.

The Auckland DHB have just used around 30 of our natural landscape images to produce super graphics for wards and treatment rooms, the feedback has been great:

New Auckland Hospital murals, by Rob Suisted

The Waikato DHB have also recognised the healing value of nature photography, and several of Rob’s images are now in use in their radiation treatment rooms, link below

Waikato Hospital murals by Rob Suisted

We specialise in professionally stitched panoramas for large graphic reproduction, which maintain integrity and quality when reproduced as large murals. We invest in quality equipment that provides better quality files than you’ll get from most places, for large reproductions. Drop us a line if you’re planning a stunning big mural. See some more of our murals here.

You can take that from us, or take it from the Waikato DHB newsroom…..

“On the wall in front of you is a huge photo of a New Zealand forest, with majestic tall-trunked trees so real you feel your mind can go for a walk among them. The feature wall photographs are a beautiful forest scene by Rob Suisted, award winning New Zealand photographer”.

And here’s Rob’s opening address to the EDS Wild Places conference, talking about wilderness, the importance to the human condition, and some great NZ images. Grab a coffee and take a look:

Rob Suisted, Photographer from Environmental Defence Society on Vimeo.

* = Research shows: https://www.sciencealert.com/just-looking-at-photos-of-nature-could-be-enough-to-lower-your-work-stress-levels  & https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690962/

Addendum: Here’s a new hospital mural by Rob Suisted, installed in an operating theatre at Churchill Hospital – an image of Fitzroy Bay on medium format digital. We think it looks stunning:

Check out feedback we’re recieved from some of our mural clients.

Plenty of folks would get in line to shoot Gareth Morgan I’m sure, but it’s not that easy – I can attest.

Gareth Morgan is a man of many interests, passions and opinions, whose strong desire to get good things done can certainly polarise - take his cat control views (which have gone global) for instance.

Gareth Morgan and ‘Plan B’ – face mask and snorkel. There is no Plan B with climate change. On melting ice, Antarctica. ©Rob Suisted, for NZ Geographic

So I was certainly keen when NZ Geographic Magazine commissioned me shoot Gareth for a portrait profile piece.  Serendipity intervened again, as I discovered that we were to be on the same ship in Antarctica the following month.

Gareth Morgan is a strong climate change campaigner and author of a book on the subject, so a bit of creative dreaming arrived at a strong metaphorical image to capture the man’s character and one of his important messages.

This was my 17th trip to Antarctica. I drive boats and lecture, as a break from professional photography.  So, we took a boat on Xmas day, out into flat water behind Plenneau Island, borrowed a face mask and snorkel, and dropped Gareth off on the best piece of ice we could find to represent the melting ice of climate change.  The casual holding of the face mask and snorkel in normal business attire was designed to represent the foolish notion that many people carry, vis, that we have a ‘plan B’ somewhere for climate change. Plan B isn’t an option – just as a facemask isn’t here.

I’m proud of the result – strong metaphorical frame that captures Gareth Morgan in a striking way – no trickery, no post production work – simple.  BUT check out the pile of comments on Gareth Morgan’s facebook page.  It’s galling when some people, from the comfort of their home, suggest a great photo must be ‘photo-shopped’.  *Cough* – THAT photo is the combination of skills learnt over a long time as a professional photographer, planning, a good creative process, and qualifications and experience operating boats on over 20 polar expeditions! Everyone is a cynic, a critic, or blimin both…

Rob Suisted polar guiding and boat driving

Anyway, here’s the NZ Geographic Magazine article the image was used in: Out in the Cold.  And Gareth was a bloody good sort, keenly signing up to the idea, and willingly being marooned on a small ice floe while we (I and his family) drifted off without him, in the frozen middle of nowhere. Shot with a Pentax 645Z and DFA25mm lens.

NZ National Fieldays is the largest annual farming and agricultural trade show in New Zealand, and maybe the Southern Hemisphere.

Every year at Mystery Creek, Waikato, hosts over 1000 exhibitors and around 120,000 pairs of boots over a 4 day event (and presumably, the occasional dedicated pair of heels).

It has a rich history and tradition for over 45 years now (http://www.fieldays.co.nz/factandhistory ), and prizes are awarded to the best exhibitions.  We have a strong connection supplying large high quality image files to exhibitors.

Word is getting around that we have a great selection of rural photography, especially since the release of Rob’s 17th book ,the official 50th Anniversary of Country Calendar and the award winning Molesworth Station book, and that we carry a huge collection of panorama files for murals.

Westpac Bank lined their marquee with 3 massive panoramas that were stitched together beautifully, totaling 41 metres of murals:

We worked with some notable stands in 2016, including a 25m x 2.4 metre single image for Husqvarna (a 6Gb image file!)… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

NZ Post commissioned me to shoot the covers of the NZ Stamp Collection (an annual book containing all the year’s new postage stamps) again this year.  The theme is ‘Take a Closer Look’, and follows on from the previous 3 covers we’ve done together. This year Kauri Trees were our focus.

The most beautiful Kauri Tree (Agathis australis) in NZ

I was fortunate that last year I was taken to a very beautiful Kauri Tree, by a remarkable man called Kevin Prime.  I was commissioned to shot his portrait for a book project, and wanted to photograph this humble man against the might of the majestic Kauri.  Kevin knew just the tree and he introduced me to it.  A minute after we arrived, in the peace of the calm forest, a quiet whirling sound started up, and got louder.  What was it? Suddenly the tree’s seeds started landing on my head and shoulders.  It’s had cast it’s seeds out onto us.  The hair stood up on my arm as Kevin said how auspicious this was.

So when NZ Post wanted a kauri for their annual stamp collection book, I knew exactly which tree I wanted to showcase to the nation.  Never before have I seen such a distinctive bark pattern on a Kauri Tree.  The hammered texture of this one is very striking, and almost appears as an embossed surface on the book box set.

NZ Post's The NZ Collection, annual stamp book covers by Rob Suisted

If you’d like to see more of this beautful tree, or get a closer look at the distinctive bark patterning, have a look at our Kauri Tree photo collection.

The Reserve Bank announced new designs for the New Zealand bank notes today.

I’ve been keeping a big secret for months – my photographs appear on all of them.  I’m very proud about it, as you can imagine, to have you carrying my work in your wallets and purses.  Click on the image for a closer look:

New Zealand bank notes redesigned from Rob Suisted photos

UPDATE: News article about the use of my images on the new currency bank notes, and NZ post stamp annual book cover.

First of our 2015 calendar creations have arrived.  Here are 13 different titles we’ve done with John Sands New Zealand – part of a 17 year relationship we’ve had creating quality New Zealand calendars together. You’ll find them in most book shops, post offices, supermarkets throughout New Zealand.   We never get tired of seeing them together, hot off the press.

We’ve been working with Kai Hawkins on some interesting projects lately.  Firstly we completed the new Blenheim i-SITE visitor centre, and today we got photos of new bus shelters we’ve supplied some luscious large high quality images for great looking murals.  Take a look:

Check out some of the other 2500 Marlborough images we have available online. Check out feedback we’re recieved from some of our mural clients.

Rob’s proudly done 18 postage stamps now with New Zealand Post.  Here are the latest three:

New Zealand Post page.

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 and murals like this. For example, you’ll see my images used in Auckland and Christchurch International Airports. Check out feedback we’re recieved from some of our mural clients.

So the buggers put me on the cover, freezing my bits off.  I can’t be too upset, testing a new outer shell garment for Swazi Apparel can lead to trouble when you push the limits, but you’re going to get an experience out of it too.  Here’s the shot, a quick story behind a beaut experience.

Freezing my proverbials off, Mt Taranaki winter

I set off with Bia Boucinhas (a Brasilian friend training as a mountain/Antarctic guide in NZ) to climb Mount Taranaki and get some winter photos.  Davey Hughes of Swazi had stuffed a newly designed goretex lightweight ‘Narwhal’ anorak into my hand and told me to test it the day before.  Of course I’d said.  Little did I know what a testing it, and we, were going to get.  The day had been fine as we set off to climb to Syme Hut on Fanthams Peak for the night, before climbing Mt Taranaki the following day.  As is often the case here, the weather changes very fast despite the best weather forecasting, and sure enough we were pushing through cloud and wind by the half way mark.

Approaching the summit of Fatham’s Peak we were hit by hurricane strength winds and a freezing southerly which made it very hard to stand up.  Visibility dropped to 3 metres making it very hard to find the white ice covered hut in a total white out where visibility was 2-3 metres.  Things were getting serious at this point as our core body temperatures were plummeting fast in the… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

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.

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.

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 > > >

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 > > >

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.

With Whitebait season due to start in New Zealand on the 15th August, we thought we would share some of the wonderful photos in the collection that highlight the beauty of this popular local delicacy…..

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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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Rob created some new shots featuring New Zealand made products for a project we’re doing for a well known overseas travel guidebook. 

The photograph was put together in the studio and our purpose was to showcase a variety of natural goods grown in New Zealand such as Manuka Honey, quality olive oil, wine and cheeses, paua shell, merino and possum wool, greenstone/poumanu etc

> > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Do you feel it? That sense of impending gloom as we say goodbye to autumn and plunge headfirst into winter.  Are you longing for some small reminder of Summer to get you through?

Don’t worry we have the solution, so just sit back and relax and take a seasonal tour through the Nature’s Pic Images website.  We have a great keyword search available on the website, which provides a really simple and effective way of finding images related to a specific theme, for example SUMMER ….. > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >