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.
Nagaja Sanatkumar
Founder, 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.
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.
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.
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.
She believes Photography to be a powerful medium of connecting people with nature and raising awareness about conservation.
D'Artagnan Sprengel
Photography Teacher, Mentor
D’Artagnan is a 18 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 he has been awarded Young Nature Photographer of the Year 2024.
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.
Adrian Wild
Videographer, Filmmaker
Adrian is an experienced filmmaker and videographer, volunteering his time to film at workshops and create videos to promote our mission.
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.
Katrina Comeskey
Marketing
Katrina is Marketing Manager, volunteering her time to help us with digital marketing, website, SEO.
Chen Cui
Videographer
Chen volunteers at the workshops as a videographer. He loves wildlife videography and is finishing his studies in zookeeping.
Hina Patel
Photography Teacher and Mentor
Hina is a photographer, videographer and artist who incorporates her love of nature into her work.
Sonali Patel
Workshop volunteer
and videographer
Sonali volunteers at our workshops as a videographer. She has finished her studies in primary education recently.
Dawn Lee
Social Media
Dawn Lee is a passionate Photographer and Content Creator who graduated from AUT with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree.
Vu Khuu
Website
Vu is a software developer, volunteering to maintain the look and feel of the IMAgEN8 website.
DONORS, VOLUNTEERS and SUPPORTERS
Volunteers
Mike Hellen (Photography mentor)
Kinga Nagygyorgy (Photography mentor)
Prem Panchami (Photography mentor)
Santhosh Kumar Dasika (Website)
Irene Sung (Workshop support)
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
Book and Image Printing
Bookprint.co.nz (David)
Printart.co.nz (John Botton)
Keen2Print (Chris Keen)
Vaidya Gupta Family Trust
Philanthropic donor whose early support enabled purchase of cameras and school workshop programs.
Roscommon School
Support for school workshops.
Whaea Pare Paul (Rumaki Reo unit, Whanau leader), Junaid Rungan (Deputy Princial), Sima Alefaio (Deputy Principal), Terry Televave
Supporters
Penelop Hansen and Carole Davies (From the Deck - Newmarket stream restoration project)
Anake Goodall (Seed the Change)
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
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
St. Heliers Community Centre
Jill Kayser
Forest Bathing Aotearoa
Geoff Handsfield
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