Ian Gardiner is one of Tait’s original 12 members, he has had a hand in documenting Tait history from the very beginning of the business, to the current day. Ian is a font of knowledge when it comes to everything Tait, but what you may not know is alongside his keen skills in recordkeeping, he is also a talented photographer.
Ian has spent a large amount of time and effort in documenting Tait’s legacy; everything from photos, product releases, journal entries, and news items of the past – he's got it recorded. A font of knowledge is a great description as when it came to sourcing legacy imagery for our latest Tait Tough 2.0 campaign, he came back within the hour with promotional material for the T700 mobile radio:
Promotional material used for the Tait T700 Mobile Launch in the 1990's.
Ian is also the masthead for what has now become the Tait Museum in Tait Communications Headquarters in Christchurch. New Zealand (which is open to visitors from 8:00AM - 5:00PM with guided tours available via booking.)
With his thoroughness in recorded keeping, he is also a talented photographer - Since retiring from full-time work at Tait eight years ago, Ian has concentrated on landscape photography, developing a side hustle in photos-on-canvas - with some of his shots being up for adoration at the Canterbury Arts Show in August of this year.
A keen climber since his teenage years, Ian always carried his trusty Pentax S1A into the mountains and in 1965 won the New Zealand Alpine Club’s Photo of the Year with a shot taken on Tasman Glacier.
The photo below is of Lake Wanaka, looking north-west from Beacon Point towards Mt Alta, with Mt Aspiring visible above Roys Peninsula).
When asked about his adoration for landscape photography Ian answered, “I spent several seasons climbing in Arthurs Pass National Park (and 11 years on the Park Board), the Ragitata area and Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park – I always carried my trusty camera with me and had numerous opportunities to capture mountain landscapes.” he continues “I must say I have continued that theme and enjoy capturing stunning scenes on canvas and sharing them with others.”
In case you were wondering what a Pentax S1A looks like:
Please enjoy some of Ian’s older works from 2021 as seen below!
Stay tuned for more pieces about Tait people and the people behind your critical communications solutions.
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