Biography

Educated in British Columbia and California, U.S.A., Kaj has over 30 years of experience in architectural, commercial, studio, assignment and stock photography. Kaj has extensive knowledge of the “zone system” for panchromatic (B&W) photography, film processing and archival printing of fibre-based papers. He works in all formats from 35mm format to 8” x 10” view camera, including high resolution digital capture and post-production.

Kaj has owned and operated commercial studios for over 30 years and currently is the managing director of Viewpoints West Photofile Ltd, a stock photography agency which markets an image bank of over 135,000 images. Kaj’s photographs have appeared in hundreds of books, magazines and journals worldwide including publications such as British Columbia, Canadian Geographic, Canadian Living, Dynasty, enRoute, Future, German Geographic, Globo, Maclean’s, Men’s Journal, Morning Calm, Outside, Reader’s Digest, Russian Geo, Sky, Unique Homes and Western Living.

Kaj R. Svensson’s teaching and workshop credits include:

2007 to present – Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VANARTS)
- instructor for full-time Digital Photography certificate program
● “Stock” photography course (12 weeks)
● Lighting & Shooting for Product course (12 weeks)
● 4” x 5” View Camera course (12 weeks)
● Architectural Photography (12 weeks)

2004-08 – Abbottsford Photo and Arts Club (October workshops)
● Landscape Photography
● “Painting with Light”
● Stock Photography
● Star-trails Photography
● Exposure & Depth of Field

2007 – Image Explorations – one-week workshop (July 2007)
● “Stock” photography
● “Star-trails” photography
● “Fine Art” photography

2006 to present - Vancouver Photo Workshops - one-day workshops
● “Stock” photography
● “Product” photography
● “Star-trails” and Astronomical photography

1999-2005 – Focal Point School of Photography
● Intermediate Photography course (10 weeks)
● Practical Lighting course (10 weeks)
● “Stock” photography course (10 weeks)

1984-2004 – British Columbia Institute of Technology
● Introduction to Motion Picture (12 weeks)
1983-1987 – Centre for Continuing Education,

U.B.C
● ID-103 (Instructors Diploma Program)

Workshop(s)

Macro Photography – New Worlds to Explore

Macro and micro (close-up) photography opens up a
whole new world of endless photographic possibilities
for the photo enthusiast to shoot. You don’t even need
to leave your own home or backyard to find infinite
subject matters from flowers to insects. Mini-landscapes
and colourful abstracts are limited only by your
imagination.

Equipment to allow photographers to shoot macro
images range from simple close-up filters to macro
lenses. Some equipment can of course be very
expensive but need not be so if you are on a tight
budget.

This presentation will discuss all of the various types of
close-up equipment and methodology which can be
used to create stunning photographs. A series of macro
images will be shown including post production
techniques to further increase your creativity.

Panoramic Photography

The Webster dictionary defines the word panorama as “a wide angle view in all directions”. Most of us, photographer or not, would come up with something comparable in definition. Humans with normal binocular vision, in fact, perceive the world in a panoramic manner - whether we are or are not aware of this, it is the way we see the world.

Landscape photographers tend to think of a panorama as a “wide angle view” in the horizontal dimension rather than in all directions and so shoot in this configuration with whatever type of camera and lenses that they using. Photographic panoramas of course do not necessarily imply the use of “wide angle” lenses and in fact has more to do with the aspect ratio of the final image.

This presentation will discuss all aspects of cameras, lenses, film, digital capture, composition and preconceiving and shooting in aspect ratios that are different than the commonly used 35mm format (i.e. 2:3 aspect ratio) to create dynamic images. Also discussed will be post production techniques such as the “stitching” of multiple images in order create large panoramas. A series of panoramic images will be shown with descriptions on how they were made.