| We have looked at producing New Zealand photo realistic camouflage patterns for sometime. But we resolved not to release any patterns until we could produce camouflage designs and prints, as good as, or better than, anything currently available |
Producing a New Zealand bush camouflage pattern has been foremost in our minds for sometime. Commonly used American forest patterns tend to be way too dark. They are designed mainly for bow hunters who hunt from high tree stands, in forests dominated by large, dark deciduous hardwood trees, with dark heavy canopies. Because it is only possible to hunt during the autumn in the USA there is very little green foliage in the patterns. |
from the leading camouflage designers in the world. They must have great depth, detail and clarity. Our investment in digital textile printing has given us the opportunity to achieve the results we demanded, and
we are finding the final results surpass all traditional methods of printing fabric. The Habitat Camouflage System™ has been 4 years in the planning and execution, and will continue to evolve in the future, as we tweak and fine tune these patterns. |
New Zealand forests are dominated by small leaf shrubs, and small trees interspersed by larger trees, with small leaves, creating light open canopies. Our higher rainfall and milder climate makes our forests have a much more lush foliage dominated by evergreens. The effect is a much greener environment, with hundreds of shades of green. Also a lot of hunting country is made up of ridge systems with gullies full of lush growth while the ridge tops tend to be more open and sparsely populated by shrubs. Bushland™ was very demanding to design because of the large variety of forest types which are hunted in New Zealand. |
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| We started by building a library of thousands of photographs of all types of hunting country, bush, wet land and alpine. After hours of analysing photos, a series of recurring themes began to surface, and these were the basis we used to create the Habitat Camouflage System™. |
We identified plant foliage which is found in most hunting
areas as our foreground elements, and the same with the
intermediate ground, to formulate a pattern which will work
in most bush areas. |
| The patterns are designed on the basis of 3 elements; the foreground, intermediate ground and a background. Firstly we choose the foreground elements, which have the most detail. |
The waterfowl hunter is at the great disadvantage, because his prey is
flying high above getting a birds eye view of the surroundings, plus they
can see any colour variations. |
| The plants are photographed from several angles and then are carefully painted by our graphic artist to achieve the greatest effect. The intermediate and backgrounds were created similarly, then we digitally adjust and move the elements to achieve the final result. Because we always retain all these individual elements, we can easily change and fine turn the patterns, for instance change the background or individual leaf groups or the overall colour tints, to evolve the best camouflage. We have been experimenting making camouflage patterns from a single or a small number of Photographs, so we can offer Custom Camouflage for any of your specialist requirements. |
Now with the introduction of the rules for the compulsory
use of steel shot, you need even better camouflage to get the birds in closer, without them detecting you.American patterns have always been popular with bird shooters, but tend to be very yellow and brown depicting very dry grasses, reeds and rushes. The most striking thing we found when studying our photo library of wet lands was that the overall effect is much greener than we thought. This was confirmed by photos we had taken from above wet lands and swamps, the way that incoming birds would see the ground. The overall effect was a layer of green new growth of flax, rushes and grasses laying over the yellow and brown dead and dry under growth. The fact we can use thousands of colours means we can produce a huge range of subtle shades, which gives much greater depth, detail and clarity to the pattern, to fool those wily mallards. |
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In designing Hi Viz Habitat™ there are two important considerations; Firstly that it is highly visible to humans, but also it is not to the animals you are hunting. There is a strong view amongst some of the most successful hunters, photographers and videographers that animals are alerted by blaze orange garments. We all accept these animals only see in gray scale, but many people believe the stark difference between the orange and the natural surroundings some how make it stand out to the animals. This may be true but we suspect from our experience, to achieve a very bright hi viz fabric, it is necessary to use UV brightners, and theoretically deer can see reflected UV light. We recommend using Sports Wash and UV Killer type products on all hunting clothing. We under took a testing program to produce Hi Viz Habitat™, by trialing various patterns
on deer at a local deer farm. The final analysis was that a fine mottled pattern without a lot of solid colour was much more effective than a bold solid pattern. Our Hi Viz Habitat™ is quite different from most, the result of our trials, and features a range of black and greys giving a diffuse overall bush effect. |
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Our first attempt at an alpine camouflage was our Tussock Camo which we released
in 1992. Based on the old woodland type pattern we changed the colours to suit our
alpine tussock areas. This proved to be very popular in the Central North Island, the
South Island and Australia. Alpine hunting areas are dominated by snow tussocks often
interspersed with alpine plants and lichen covered rocks.
The overall appearance of High Country Habitat™ at a distance is yellow green interspersed by the darker rocky background. Up close it has the fine detail of an alpine rock garden. |
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| It wasn't our intention to produce an Australian camouflage this year but with the weight of enthusiasm and encouragement by a large number of our Australian customers, we have pulled out all the stops to make it happen! To produce Gumtree Habitat™ we relied a 100% on input from Australian hunters. They provided us with photographs, conceptual ideas and the usual sheep jokes, to create this camouflage, so any inaccuracies are their fault! LOL! We consider this a work in progress and will improve and alter the pattern and colours as we get feed back and suggestions. Having said that, considering the limited material we used to produce this pattern it has incredible depth and perspective. Gumtree Habitat™ garments available only in Australia. |
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