Passionate about Nature
Tushar Sharma
Founder, Director, Photography Teacher
Tushar Sharma is a nature photographer, teacher, conservationist, author, publisher and curator. IMAgEN8 was born out of his love of nature and his desire to deepen people's love and connection with our natural environment, improve mental wellbeing, foster sustainable living encourage kaitiakitanga, and bring joy. He has published 13 books - six of his photography and writings and seven for IMAgEN8. Tushar is the Principal Educator of IMAgEN8, and has been conducting workshops and publishing books since 2019.
Mark Ryan
Photography Teacher, Mentor
Mark is a professional photographer with 40+ years of experience. He is currently a senior tutor for Three Little Wishes photography workshops, and a freelance commercial photographer. Previously he was the program director for Diploma in photography & tutor in photography Photoshop and InDesign in Brisbane, Australia.
Chen Cui
Videographer
Chen volunteers at the workshops as a videographer. He loves wildlife videography and is finishing his studies in zookeeping.
Ana Lyubich
Magazine editor
Ana is a founder of Excio Photo Community and The Art of Seeing Academy and is the volunteer editor for our magazine, Compassionate Nature. Ana is based in Wellington and does nature, lifestyle, and branding photography.
David Argue
Photography Teacher
David is a photographer, director and cinematographer. He loves sharing his enthusiasm for photography and videography with rangatahi.
Nagaja Sanatkumar
Founder and Director
Nagaja Sanatkumar is a professional director on the boards of Meridian Energy, Cawthron Institute, NZ Post, UFF, and FSNI. In addition to her work in strategy consulting, she is also a guest teacher for The Mind Lab and a Beachheads Advisor for NZTE. Nagaja is passionate about sustainability (currently pursuing a Master’s degree from Massey U) and loves tramping, hiking and exploring New Zealand with her family.
Penny Milner
Photography Teacher, Mentor
Penny is a photographer who loves to take pictures of nature, people and places. She has 2 children both studying at Otago university. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and of course, taking pictures.
Keerti Siag
Photography Teacher, Mentor
Keerti is a passionate landscape and bird photographer based on the North Shore.
She has a background of teaching English literature and now teaches local young kids photography along with running her branding and lifestyle photography in the bays.
Keerti inherited a love for photography from her father and feels strongly in the power of photography to connect people in a positive way.
She believes Photography to be a powerful medium of connecting people with nature and raising awareness about conservation
Sonali Patel
Videographer
Sonali volunteers at our workshops as a videographer. She is finishing her studies in primary education.
Julie Bassett
Director
Julie Bassett is an executive leader at Constellation Brands, one of NZ’s leading wine companies. Her current responsibilities include HR, communications, IT, data and PMO across their international division. She is also involved in industry wide activities such as women in wine and on-the-job education. In her spare time Julie enjoys nature walks with her dogs and spending time with family. As an amateur photographer, her favourite subjects are African animals, birds and plants.
Chelsea Samuel
Coordinator
Chelsea works in Sales Operations and although she does not have a background in photography, she likes to give more of her time being outdoors and exploring different areas of Auckland. Aside from work, she loves to spend quality time with her loved ones, taking care of her son, and capturing Auckland’s beauty one snapshot at a time.
Hina Patel
Photography Mentor, Social Media
Hina is a photographer, videographer and artist who incorporates her love of nature into her work. She mentors students and creates social media content.
D'Artagnan Sprengel
Photography Teacher, Mentor
D’Artagnan is a 17 year old photographer from Auckland, New Zealand. He has been taking photos since he was ten, and mainly does bird and macro photography as well as a bit of astro and landscape photography. He has been very successful in national and international photo competitions and most recently his image was Highly Commended in the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2023).
Donors, Volunteers and Supporters
Volunteers
Adrian Wild (Videographer)
Beverly Winstone (Photography mentor)
Irene Sung (Workshops)
Roscommon School
Support for school workshops.
Whaea Pare Paul (Rumaki Reo unit, Whanau leader), Junaid Rungan (Deputh Princial), Sima Alefaio (Deputy Principal), Deepa Chaturvedi (Associate Principal), Tania Lunjevich
St. Heliers Community Centre
Jill Kayser
Vaidya Gupta Family Trust
Philanthropic donor whose early support enabled purchase of cameras and school workshop programs.
Kaipatiki
Kaipatiki Local Board (grant)
Pest Free Kaipatiki (project partner)
Book and Image Printing
Bookprint.co.nz (David)
Printart.co.nz (John Botton)
Keen2Print (Chris Keen)
Blurb.com
Orakei Local Board
Funding for the nature reserve workshops in Eastern Bays and the Borrow a camera, Adopt a reserve program
Scott Milne, Margaret Voyce, Sarah Powrie
Eastern Bays Songbird Project
Funding of prints of students' photographs, environmental education support on workshops.
Michelle Brinsden, Turfa Chowdhury
Remuera Intermediate School
Support for school workshops and Borrow a camera programs.
Robin Gatfield (Head Year 8), Julie Miller, Anne McDonnell, Mikayla Gulick, Sarah Choat
Epsom Normal Primary School
Significant support for our work enabling school workshops and Borrow a camera, Tell a story programs.
Ateel Sudhakar (Principal), Dillon Rungan (Deputy Principal), Gail Colby (Deputy Principal)
Auckland Council
Joanne Rutherford, Lucia Davis, Mary Stewart
Forest Bathing Aotearoa
Geoff Handsfield
Manurewa Local Board
Funding for the nature reserve workshops in the local board area
Supporters
Penelop Hansen and Carole Davies (From the Deck - Newmarket stream restoration project)
Anake Goodall (Seed the Change)