About | IMAgEN8

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.

www.tusharma.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

www.linkedin.com/in/nagajas/

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

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.

Katrina Comeskey

Marketing

Katrina is Marketing Manager, volunteering her time to help us with digital marketing, website, SEO

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.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliembassett/

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).