Kajo Photography - Fineart Landscapes and Panoramas

Making of Mona Vale Pool

Kajo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:20:57 +0000

I got a few questions regarding my Mona Vale Pool processing and I uploaded this 10minute video to show you.
There was another shot that I wanted to process from the same morning, so I caught two birds with one stone and recorded the processing which was very similar to the previous one.
Anyway here it is. I hope you find it useful.

If you would like to learn more about photoshop, consider joining my Photoshop Workshop where you will learn all my tricks and tips regarding image processing and workflow.
Click here for details.

Photoshop Workshop Official Announcement

Kajo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:33:50 +0000

Due to popular request, I am thrilled to announce my brand new Photoshop Workshop in Sydney, 18th of February 2012.

Photoshop Workshop – From Camera to Print & Web.
I am an honourable member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and my new workshop is jam-packed with photoshop and workflow tricks. Meet like-minded photography enthusiasts and enjoy a fun and social day while learning all the tricks of the trade!

Click below to view the program for the day
http://www.kajophotography.com/blog/photoshop-and-workflow-workshop/

I expect the workshop to go for around 5-6 hours. Laptops are not required, and course videos are provided to take home after the workshop.
Half the places are ALREADY filled with past participants in my workshops, so to avoid disappointment book your spot immediately by sending me an email.

NB: Places are secured once a deposit is received.

Mona Vale Pool

Kajo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:13:42 +0000

The other morning I went out with some photography friends to shoot the pool at Mona Vale at Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

It was raining heavily during the night, and we were all very excited when we met at 5am. Stormy mornings make for some of my most favourite conditions to shoot in. It produces the most atmospheric images in my opinion.
Well here is one of the shots I came back with. I do enjoy symmetry in the photo, but not exact symmetry. Therefore I intentionally did not clone out the pole at the left.

If you would like to learn how to take seascape photos like this, why not join my next landscape photography workshop on 4th/5th of February!
I still have two spots left, so simply use the contact form at the top of the page to send me an email.

Landscape Photography Workshop in February

Kajo — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:48:13 +0000

The next landscape photography workshop will be held on the weekend of 4th/5th of February 2012.

If you would like to join, please contact me via the contact form or via the comment section of this post.
For more information on the upcoming workshop, please check out:

http://www.kajophotography.com/blog/landscape-workshop/

Lunar eclipse – bad luck

Kajo — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:38:24 +0000

The frustration of us photographers sometimes is when you’re on location, set everything up and spend hours waiting only to see the sun rise behind clouds, or there are no clouds at all and the sunrise is really bland.
It’s also why photography is so exciting. It requires a good amount of patience. And when you get rewarded from time to time, you really appreciate it.

I had one of those moments when I was in the garden, setting up my gear, waiting for the lunar eclipse. It was supposed to start at 11.30pm and finish at around 2.30am. So that’s 3 hours of waiting if you want to capture the whole thing.

So I was standing in the garden like a statue for 2 hours and just before we had the full lunar eclipse with the moon turning red, a huge cloud field moved in and completely covered the moon. It was literally 15 minutes before it would have happened.
So the result was a very unhappy Kajo with not much to show for in terms of photos. Oh well the next chance I will have will be in 2014!!

It’s part of photography and while it’s frustrating, there’s nothing I enjoy more than being out in nature trying to capture her at her finest.

Here is one of the shots I took that night with the earth’s shadow already creeping across the moon (100% crop):

I shot with my trusty Nikon D2H and 80-200 f/2.8 lens. I also added a 1.7x TC (also Nikon) to get extra reach. I really wanted that moon to be nice and big. Effectively I had a 340mm lens. Not bad on a cropped sensor (which corresponds to roughly a 500mm lens on a full frame).
I shot at pretty high ISO and fairly wide open. Shutter speed is important, because the moon moves and if you want a razor sharp moon, you have to have a fast shutter speed.
So ISO was at 800 and aperture at f/5.6. This gave me a shutter speed of about 1/125sec. That’s plenty for what I was going for.
Below is a shot of the setup I used.