Whether photographing the rarely seen northern rockhopper penguin on a South Atlantic island or the emperor penguin in the Antarctic, the remoter the better, for Ms De Roy.
During the production of her latest book, Penguins Their World, Their Ways, co-authored with Mark Jones and Julie Cornthwaite, she made an exception, visiting Otago Peninsula to photograph the yellow-eyed penguin.
Ms De Roy (59) and her co-authors were in Dunedin this week to talk to the Dunedin Photographic Society.
The book was a sister to an earlier one on albatrosses and together marked the end of a 15-year project for the trio.
It was during the work for the latest book that she fell in love - with emperor penguins.
She travelled to the Antarctic with the Australian Antarctic programme and was able to spend three days photographing the penguins.
''It's very much the end of the earth. I was very lucky.
''The space, the immensity, the soft light and they were such stately birds. It was very other-worldly.''
Her dream was to spend one year in Antarctic photographing the penguins' life for another book.
Such an endeavour was not that outrageous for the woman who has been photographing wildlife in remote places for many decades - including the Galapagos Islands, where she used to live - and who has produced six books in the past eight years.
Another highlight was photographing the ''outrageous'' looking northern rockhopper penguins, as their remote location meant they were not often seen by people.
In contrast, she also spent four weeks camping in the Falkland Islands among four different species of penguins.
Her work required much time and the ability to be able to immerse herself in the environment, she said.
With the book out, she planned to take some time out before planning her next project.
