Sean Rogg has collected bottles from all over the world for years, culminating in this water spread (pp100-101). For his exhibition, Rogg placed the bottles on tables and filmed visitors drinking from them. He planned to editthe film to create a video installation. A member of our team saw the exhibition and immediately contacted a photographer. Two designers and a photographer spent hours arranging the bottles on the floor and creating dramatic lighting. It was verytricky - one misstep and the bottles could topple over like dominoes!

The giant wasp featured on the insect anatomy spread (pp26-27) was caught and photographed in the senior designer’s (Stef) father’s kitchen. Things got a bit tricky as the wasp was not very cooperative (perhaps the modeling fee was too low?) and Stef needed to get very close to it to photograph it in detail. Fortunately, his dad is a beekeeper and had all the necessary equipment to handle and control the wasp safely.

The gems shown on pp168-169 were shot at London's Natural History Museum and the entire collection is worth approximately $1 million. Those who attended the photo shoot were more than a little tempted to replace one or two of the gems with cheap beads before heading out, but unfortunately, the museum staff kept a careful watch at all times.

One of the perks of the fruit shoot (pp16-17) was eating all of the fruit afterward. Most fruits were really delicious and gave us quite a vitamin boost, but the durian fruit was awful. As soon as we cut into the durian, the studio reeked of a vomit-like smell. Most of the team on the shoot was too chicken to taste it, but a couple brave souls gave it a go. If you held your nose as you ate it, it actually tasted good!

We specially commissioned the ice sculpture of a faucet for the states of matter spread (pp98-99). The sculpture was delivered to the photographer's studio early in the morning, and the race was on to photograph it before it melted. The heat of the studio lights caused the ice to melt fairly quickly, so the sculpture had to be carried outside before it flooded the studio and shorted the circuits!

The eggs featured on pp48-49 were also shot in a museum. As egg collecting is illegal, the eggs in the collection are very old and valuable. The auk egg alone is worth almost $100,000. The museum curator created cardboard cut-outs of all the eggs we wanted to photograph so we could arrange the layout to suit our needs. When we were happy with our arrangement, the curator substituted the cut-outs for the actual eggs (we weren't allowed to touch any of them!). The auk egg was brought in at the very last moment in a special box, then taken away immediately after. The baby ostrich shown was later added via the magic of Photoshop!