The story of zunzun creative
What is zunzun?
Rooted in the bahamas
Written By:
Jackson Roberts
& Sahara Adams
April 2nd 2026
What is zunzun?
One of the most common questions I get asked.
A flash of jeweled green darts across your face frame. A high-pitched sound vibrates the air. A brief breeze blows over your cotton t-shirt. You glance around, trying to catch a glimpse of the ping pong ball-sized object dancing circles around you. The buzz stops, and just as you turn to face the newfound silence, you spot a four-inch hummingbird sipping the nectar from your neighborhood flowers.
Zunzun, also known to most people as the Cuban Emerald Hummingbird. This lightning-fast creature, known for its origins in Cuba, has also made its habitat quite prominent on many other islands, including The Bahamas. It got its name, Zunzun, from the vibrant sound that is played as it flies through the air. But why would I be giving you a history lesson on birds if you clicked on a website for photography? Well, my name is Jackson Roberts, and I'm the founder of zunzun creative.
zunzun, although only properly founded with that name in 2022, had been in the making for many years prior, when, for my thirteenth birthday, I saved up just enough money to buy my first ever “real” drone. For much of the time before I turned thirteen, I spent tons of time playing with any ounce of technology I could get my hands on: remote control helicopters, planes, and mini drones. I loved anything that could fly. As soon as I unboxed my brand new drone, I immediately had to show it off to my friends and start figuring out how to fly it. My best friend at the time, Quinn, whom you will hear about much more throughout my business journey, became my model as I snapped photos and videos from all angles. My once playing around had turned into trying to find the perfect lighting, techniques, and strategies to excel in my drone capabilities.
Flash forward a bit after trying to find newer ways to be creative in my recently found art, a family friend asked me to take drone shots for a few of her real estate listings. At the time, I didn’t think about it as a job or for money, just doing what I loved as a favor for someone else. I ended up getting paid, although I didn’t know how to invoice at the time, but nonetheless, it was my first official job. After that, I continued doing jobs for her and her co-workers, which is what really started it all. Because of this one random offer from a friend, it launched me into jumpstarting my brand, JRPhotography.
Now, to understand me, you have to know a few things: I am Bahamian (meaning I am one hundred percent, born and raised in The Bahamas), my favorite color is green, and as you already know, I love photography. With that being said, as I launched JRPhotography, I was mainly focused on real estate drone photography and videography. At the time, I could only take jobs in The Bahamas because that is where my real estate friend was, and I didn’t have a license to operate a drone anywhere else, at least not until I was sixteen. So, while I was waiting around, antsy to turn sixteen, I worked on my logo, which was so extremely original (a circle with JRPhotography in the middle), and I got my first-ever camera. The camera was simple, a Canon m50, so I could start playing around with handheld photos and editing. But then, the day I had been waiting for finally came, my sixteenth birthday. I turned sixteen in May, started studying for my FAA Part 107 test, and passed on my first try by September.
So, I did it, I could finally fly commercially in the U.S., and I immediately started looking for jobs, using lead generation sites and cold emailing potential clients. But what I didn’t realize is that jobs didn’t come easily. Leads were hard to come by, and landing the job from the lead was even harder. My saving grace? Networking and connections. Shortly after getting my license, I landed a big job with a Detroit-based marketing company, seeds Marketing+Design. The job included an overnight stay and focused on handmade wooden canoes. It was awesome.
Around this time, I decided it was time to rebrand. My logo sucked; there was nothing unique about it, and my company name was basic. What I needed was to find something sleek that would stick with people when they heard it. Once again, I worked with my best friend, Quinn, and a mentor, Dan, to brainstorm a brand that would stick longer than a few months and would not need to be changed again. We spent months thinking, drawing, editing, and revisiting different ideas. Different animals, colors, fonts, you name it, we tried it. Finally, we landed on a hummingbird; we liked the look and feel, and felt like it could contribute to the overall brand idea of drones hovering around, mimicking the flight of the bird. For the name, I came up with Detroit Aerial, what I thought would be perfect since I flew drones and lived in Detroit. We went through many designs of hummingbirds before finally settling on a simple design with blocky wings meant to look like buildings in a cityscape. After finalizing my logo, I pushed that aside and started focusing more on creating.
In 2022, I upgraded my camera and fell in love with even more types of photography. I started doing senior photos, landscapes, sports photos, but what I really fell in love with was travel photography. Another thing about me is that I love to travel. I am constantly on planes, stamping my passports, and hopping around countries, so finding this newfound passion got me excited to try new things. Not only travel, but I loved working one-on-one with businesses. There is just something about helping someone accomplish their vision that makes my heart happy. With that being said, I started being able to produce videos for places like seeds and also nonprofit organizations, churches, and more. One of the highlights is getting to work with the Detroit Youth Choir for a video with Life Remodeled.
Eventually, after making my new hummingbird logo, I came to the realization that I was not going to be living in Detroit for college, and therefore needed a name that was broader than just my local area. However, I was so fond of the new logo Quinn and I created, I knew we had to incorporate it somehow in the new name change. That is when I discovered Zunzun. As I said before, it's a hummingbird that lives in The Bahamas, that is emerald green, and hovers like a drone. What could be more perfect than that? Immediately, I knew that would stick.
Fast forward to this past summer, 2025, I did my most notable job, which was filming for an Audi mountain bike launch trailer. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, and I couldn’t be more excited to share about it. Not only that, but because of all my crazy passions for photos and videos, I landed a job with a local asphalt company, Anthony's Asphalt, and have now been led into an industry I would have never even pictured myself doing.
With all this being said, my journey was long in the making, but I am so blessed and excited for what other unique things I get to take part in around the corner. So, next time you see a hummingbird singing past you, I hope you can only imagine one thing, and that's zunzun creative.
