The Story
Behind
Dean French bought his first camera in 2016. That was a mistake, because he has not been able to stop since. What started as curiosity quickly turned into a full-blown addiction to capturing light, and that addiction turned into TNR Protography.
He has never taken a formal photography class. Not one. Everything Dean knows came from thousands of hours of trial, error, YouTube tutorials at 2am, and a stubborn refusal to accept "good enough" as a final product. That self-taught path shaped not just his technical ability, but the way he works. He does not follow the textbook, because he never had one.
Dean prides himself on three things above all else: turning up on time, being precise with every frame, and delivering work that genuinely makes people stop scrolling. When he shows up, he is present. When he delivers, it is worth the wait.
Not every favourite photo is the most technically perfect one. Some are favourites because of the story behind them. Dean calls these Bucket Shots. First auroras, bioluminescence at midnight, sleeping in the car because the sky was too good to leave, dragging Grandma out with 10 minutes notice. They are the photos that take him straight back to the moment he pressed the shutter.
Dean is the sole developer behind Spot The Aurora, the number one aurora forecasting app built right here in New Zealand. The same obsession with light and timing that fuels his photography went straight into building a tool that tells Kiwis exactly when to look up. It has become the go-to for aurora chasers across the country.
Dean's original alias for his own music. Three letters that stuck, because some things just fit.
Video production is at the heart of what makes TNR more than a photography studio. Motion and stills, together.
Combine Production and Photography and you get Protography. The name that says exactly what it does.
He turns up when he says he will. No scrambling, no excuses. If Dean says 8am, he is there at 7:55. Your day matters too much for anything less.
Every frame is considered. Every edit is intentional. "That will do" is not a phrase in Dean's vocabulary. Never has been, never will be.
This is not a nine-to-five. The obsession goes home with Dean, wakes him up at sunrise, and keeps him editing until the small hours. It shows in the final product.
The main camera is a Nikon Z6 III - the workhorse that handles everything from weddings to real estate to aurora shoots. It shoots 12-bit RAW video in-camera, which means the colour grade on a final edit has real depth behind it rather than being pushed from compressed footage. Crisp, vibrant, reliable in any light.
Alongside it sits a Nikon Z6 as a backup that punches well above its weight. Great colour, great sharpness, great in low light. Always in the bag, always ready. The kind of camera you stop thinking of as the backup.
The Nikon 17-28mm f/2.8 covers wide work - real estate interiors, environmental portraits, anything where you want the full picture. The constant f/2.8 keeps things bright even when the venue doesn't cooperate. The Nikon 70-180mm f/2.8 handles the other end: candid moments at events, intimate portraits with background separation, details from a respectful distance. Surprisingly lightweight for the reach it gives.
The Nikkor 24-70mm f/4 S rounds things out in the middle - a versatile everyday lens that covers most shooting situations with clean, sharp results across the zoom range. And when serious reach is needed, the Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 steps in for wildlife, sport and fast-moving subjects. Even at 500mm it holds detail and colour well.
In the air, Dean flies a DJI Air 3S - dual camera system with a wide-angle and 3× telephoto, 4K up to 120fps. It brings a perspective no ground-based camera can touch, whether it's a coastal property, a wedding venue or a West Coast landscape. All drone work is arranged at least one week in advance and is location dependent.
On the ground, a DJI Ronin 4 gimbal keeps video work smooth and intentional - perfect for real estate walkthroughs, business promos and any job where motion needs to feel cinematic. Audio is handled by a DJI Mic 3, which means clean, usable sound for vows, speeches, interviews and brand promos without needing a studio setup.
The West Coast has given Dean the landscapes, characters, weather, light and grit that shaped TNR Protography, so community work is a real part of the business rather than a side note. He has done free and discounted shoots for groups and causes that matter locally, including Blackball Community, Their Voice, Lake Brunner Coastguard, and Greymouth Squash Club.
More recently, that same community focus has expanded into building Spot The Aurora and helping Nicole White’s Why Not Me? campaign raise awareness and money for brain tumour support as she prepares to run the Queenstown Marathon in November 2026.
Community projects Dean has supported or built around the Coast:
Nicole's story in full. Four brain surgeries, years of treatment, and a marathon to run. Over six hours of footage and five hours of interviews, trimmed into 25 minutes. Over 30 hours of editing. One of the biggest projects Dean has taken on.
"Dean was very professional, our communication beforehand was thorough and I was able to convey my intention for the shoot and what essence to capture. Dean asked me questions before the shoot so we were both on the same page and on the day he could just get straight to work. He filmed an exercise session I ran with drone, took photos and head shots and I am thrilled with the outcome. Highly recommend."
