Into the wild
20/01/2010 11:34:00 a.m.
Rob Suisted with an elephant seal pup that snuck up on him at South Georgia Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
ROB Suisted has been to Antarctica 12 times in the past three years.
For about two months of the year, the photographer lectures on board ship to guests on expeditions to Antarctica, explaining what wildlife and flora they will see. At the end of last year he also visited Greenland, Baffin Island and the Arctic looking for polar bears.
A Johnsonville resident, he scored this dream job following a stint with the Department of Conservation specialising in marine conservation and endangered marine animals.
During his time with DoC he always carried a camera. After 12 years with the department he began to split his time working as a professional photographer selling original photos through his company Nature’s Pic Images (a stock image library) and being a guide.
Suisted says photography needn’t be a person’s first love or passion in order to take good pics. The key to becoming a good photographer is to know your subject, he says. His passion for New Zealand wildlife, exploration and adventure has been with him since his school days at Tawa College.
“You have to be in tune with the environment and respect what you are photographing to get the best photos. I don’t believe you can take good pictures if you don’t understand your subject. Whenever I am tramping or hunting I take my camera – I like going on holiday into the wild.”
The scenes and landscapes in his seventh book Majestic New Zealand are a testament to his love of New Zealand’s outdoors and his understanding of light and nature.
The cover shot featuring peach-coloured clouds and mountain peaks was taken in “deepest darkest Fiordland” after he and a friend got stuck in a storm with gusting southerlies. The weather was so bad they had to stay in the tent for five days and were forced to ration their food.
“We were only allowed one Ginger nut a day, and one day I had two so had to go without the next day. All we did was tighten guy ropes and make endless cups of tea.”
Suisted loved the experience.
“If you want to get deeply philosophical, people don’t have enough time alone with their minds. We are consumed by computers and cell phones. Without those things [when you are in the wild] it is almost like meditation.
“It’s about getting back to basics – food, warmth, shelter and forgetting about emails. You don’t get bored – you get to know yourself more. When you are still – that’s where your happiness comes from.”
He says the photo in the book that is most likely to resonate with fellow Wellingtonians is of Castlepoint with waves surging into shore.
“I have tried to capture the serenity of the place and the power of the waves smashing into the cliff.”
Suisted does not manipulate the images, besides occasionally changing the tone “a little bit”.
“My goal is to capture what I see.”
Suisted believes he has the dream job. One of his most memorable expeditions was photographing elephant seal pups in the South Georgia Islands.
“One of them (150kg) must have thought I was Mum and snuck on top of me. Lucky seals are big blubbery things so the weight is distributed. I knew the animal wasn’t a hazard. A bigger concern was the impact I might be creating on the animal. Then it started to suckle me – people who have seen the photo think it is doing something obscene to me,” he laughs.
Despite many trips abroad “New Zealand is still my favourite place in the world.”
Follow Suisted on his travels at blog.naturespic.com.
