"Landscapes & Seascapes" Photo Workshop with Kim Westerskov

Aaaaaah, landscapes! There’s not many of us who don’t photograph landscapes some of the time – or most of the time. On a good day, we’ll come back with some photos we’re reasonably happy with. Occasionally very happy. But on other days [far too many] there’s nothing we took that approaches the specialness of what was in front of us when the shutter clicked. Something got lost in the translation. The landscape you were standing in front of looked great – which is why to you took the photo[s]. Unfortunately, gremlins from a parallel universe got into your memory card and by the time you looked at the photos on your computer, they didn’t look anywhere near as good as you hoped, and expected.

This workshop is about correcting that - de-gremlinizing your landscape photos and showing you how to get the good gremlins [from a different parallel universe] to help make your landscape photos “POP!” Translating the “Wow” you felt standing in front of a good landscape into a “Wow” photo. Techniques, approaches, tips, tricks.

Kim is uniquely qualified to teach this. He is one of very few photographers ever to have won five First prizes in the BBC/Natural History Museum “Wildlife photographer of the Year”, the world’s biggest and most prestigious nature photography competition, running for over 50 years now. This competition is recognized as the Oscars or Olympics of nature photography worldwide. Two of Kim’s First Prizes were in the “Wild Places” category, the landscapes and seascapes category.

Landscape is a big topic and there’s many ways of approaching it, so we’ll be covering a lot of ground. Topics covered will include:
- Grand [Classic] Landscapes and Intimate Landscapes
- Why landscapes are both easy and hard at the same time - and what to do about it
- Extractive landscapes
- Dynamic landscapes and quiet landscapes
- Figures in the landscape
- Common landscape problems – and their solutions
- Technical stuff AND creative stuff
- Common mistakes
- Clouds, weather, light
- Time of day, sunrise/sunset, “golden hour”, blue hour”
- Stars & night photography
- Getting your composition right. The importance of foregrounds
- Forests, hills, mountains, waterfalls, geothermal areas
- Water: waterfalls, rivers, lakes, estuaries
- Seashores
- Dealing with scruffy foregrounds, “blah” backgrounds & boring skies
- Lens choice: wide-angle vs normal vs telephoto
- Your gear: camera, lenses, tripods, filters etc.
- Colour or black and white?
- Depth of field. Hyperfocal distance explained and made simple
- Choosing the best camera modes and settings
- Some good places to go
- Post-processing – polishing your photos so they look great.

It’s a huge and very rewarding subject. One of the best that photography has to offer. Care to join Kim?
The course fee includes tuition, hand-outs, yummy catering, assignment and follow-up a few weeks later - the follow-up can be by email if you don't live close to Tauranga.
The full course fee is $295, students with ID $150.

ABOUT KIM WESTERSKOV. Kim has had a long and internationally-recognized career as a photographer and for the last 12 years has taught, inspired and guided many photographers through mentoring, tuition and the regular workshops he runs, mostly from his workshop studio in Tauranga, occasionally elsewhere in northern New Zealand. He has had 18 books published internationally, written and photographed by him, on topics such as Antarctica, whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, albatrosses, huskies, diving and underwater life.