Nature’s Pic Images Blog

Unexpected bonus this January 2024, we went to visit the world’s biggest iceberg, an incredible 3,900 square kilometres of ice ploughing through the southern ocean at 30Nm per day.  These are a force of nature, incomprehensible the human scale!  I was working as a polar guide for EYOS expeditions guiding clients to remote spots, something I’ve done as a related work story to my professional photography and polar experience for a long time, that gave me the chance to see this behemoth up close.

It’s a mind bending experience to see something like this.  > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

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 do a lot of kitchen splashbacks. Posting this one because we love our endemic native Kea, the true alpine expert, and this was a cool use.

Here’s the original photo file that was used to print direct to glass by Thermaseal in Christchurch with an advanced ceramic printer

Been a run of enjoyable story portraits for www.NZGeo.com recently.

NZ Story Portraits of, Ocean Mercier, Meng Foon, Linda Shum, Kirsten Wong with Gordon Wu

These are portraits of I’ll explain them in more detail below… > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

Excited to see our latest book project land in bookshops this week – our 17th book so far.

We’re giving one away FREE here if you’re keen ($55.00 value, and we’ll sign it too)?  Check out more detail (or get yourself a copy) at our publisher’s website here.

NZ’s Country Calendar TV show is the 2nd oldest TV programme in the world after Coro Street.

It was an honour to be commissioned to photograph the official 50th anniversary book to commemorate the milestone for TVNZ. It’s been a full on 6 month photographic journey, twice around NZ, poking my nose into so many interesting stories, and meeting lots of passionate interesting people around NZ.

Firstly, if you haven’t got a copy of this iconic book, get yourself along to my publisher and order a copy – you won’t be disappointed. I’m very proud of the quality of the photos created to tell each of 15 stories, and Matt Philp’s writing style is brilliant at capturing the tales.  Here are a few favourites from the many images

The job wasn’t easy – turning up to live with complete strangers 24/7 for up to a week, while seeking their confidence to document their stories and poke a camera into their lives. It was stressful for them and me, but without exception everyone was incredibly hospitable and obliging which allowed me to tease out their stories and capture it within 8-10 frames.

Each image had to earn it’s spot, and often illustrate at least 2 concepts. Such as the photo below, it needed to be a portrait, talk of wetland restoration and Stu’s Kaitiaki role and his love of whitebaiting. It took some doing: Stu Muir runs a dairy farm, but is passionate about wetland restoration in the Waikato River Delta.  This is what I came up with:And here’s how it was done – 2 days of planning/executing, screening water flow, and a lot of time coaxing shy whitebait within 50mm of my wide angle lens (the little guys take fright at their reflections and the tiniest vibration), while trying to hold a punt in the current (with 10mm free board), and keep the good natured Stu Muir from getting too bored. It was a success and a frame I’m proud of.

Today’s news carried an article on my photography work on the NZ Stamp annual, NZ postage stamps, and the NZ bank notes just annouced. Full story here.

Wellington photographer Rob Suisted, whose work features on stamps and on the newly designed New Zealand banknotes.

The article by Dave Crampton mentioned I’ve done previous NZ Post annual stamp book covers, so here’s some of the back story to those covers.

NZ Post annual stamp book covers by Rob Suisted, urging us to take a closer look at our native fauna

I’ve worked with Nicky Dyer of Strategy Design in Wellington on these for several years now.  The 2012 cover used one of my favourite images, and the last couple of covers have been very interesting.  2013 cover involved filming rare NZ native geckos on a black background which involved an afternoon wrangling this cute little joker.  2014 proved to be much tougher.

Nicky called me and said they’d like to do a stunning cover focussing on our rare and little known giant carnivorous land snails, Powelliphanta.  Jeepers I thought, it’s winter and they’re not going to be very mobile in the cold.  Always up for a challenge I accepted.

The job involved setting up a makeshift macro studio in the back of my jeep, talking to snail experts, before heading across on the interisland ferry for a few days.  Of course that night turned very cold, meaning that snails would not be active.  Luckily I’d managed to get out at dusk and spend a few hours searching for snails.  It took about an hour to find my first, and several others shortly after.  I was fortunate as overnight a good dusting of snow meant searching become impossible.

Freezing cold, rare snail hunting

These unique snails require warmth to be active, and luckily with the sunny day, and black surfaces, it was enough to coax one out of it’s shell despite the cold air temperature.  It did take about 4 hours though (mostly moving on the spot to warm my feet), and I got some stunning and unique portraits to do these giants proper justice.  The textures, colours and form are beautiful and I enjoy looking at them.

New Zealand Hochstetter’s giant landsnail (Powelliphanta hochstetteri). Threatened NZ native terrestrial mollusc

Have a look at more photos of these rare carnivorous giant landsnails (Powelliphanta sp.).  For a closer look at the new New Zealand bank notes, check this out.

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.

Just had my 10th and 11th books hit the book shops; very satisfying to see them arrive.

Thoroughly enjoyed a RadioLive interview with Graeme Hill.  Have a listen here for why Triffids were mentioned in the interview about NZ flowers, why NZ flowers are mostly white in colour, and the parasitic native orchid that gets its life from sucking it out of other plants:

CLICK to listen to interview with Rob Suisted

Some other promotion included: The Press Christchurch Oct-1-2012, Stuff Website, Yahoo, GardensNZ, MindFood Magazine

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 > > >

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

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

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 > > >

Well, printing is finished and we’re counting down until bookshop release date 9th November 2009. I couldn’t find a good reason not to share the cover with you. So here it is:

Update: Internal pages added to view below.

I’m really proud of this book – my seventh to date.  This one is key – it’s my heartfelt work and showcases favourite places and images. Click for a large view. I’ll give you a sneek at some pages shortly if you want.

I have a hope, and tiny suspicion, that it’s going to make a few Kiwis teary eyed. Actually this arrived 2 minutes ago from Kara of Herkimer Coffee in Seattle when I showed her last week:

“Thanks so much for sharing your book with me.  Ian and I were taking a look.  This is a must, your pics are ah-mazing!  We were about in tears, oh the beauty!..”

I’d love to hear your reaction if you’d care to leave a comment below… Thanks, Rob

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

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.

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 > > >