© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Malaysia Prime Minister (L) Najib Razak and his Qatar’s  counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani talk during the state welcoming ceremony in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, December 5, 2011.

My schedule is a little bit pack recently, lots of assignment going on here and there and I hardly can keep up with my blog. Some of them are with sharing here while others I just posted on my flickr. Feel free to visit there in case I haven’t posted it here just yet. This is part of my job but don’t worry though, I will not flooded my blog with all this political pictures, I know some of you might hated it but it depends on which angle you look at. Whether it is from photography perspective or political perspective.

I’m just doing my job, you may like or don’t like the subject but let’s be professional and hopefully you can appreciate the moment captured because whatever it is, this is part of Malaysian history and I’m here to do my job the best as humanly as possible, “insyaAllah,” God Willing.

© 2008 Wazari Wazir | Black and White Portrait of My Son | HaiQal

“When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!”

 - Ted Grant -

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | A Portrait of My Son

“If Your Pictures Aren’t Not Good Enough, You’re Not Close Enough.” 

- Robert Capa -

Sometimes it was true, that our picture is not good enough if we are not close enough. But when it comes to portrait photography, we have to look it in a different ways, sometimes we need to leave some space for that particular person to have a room for breath or to have something in the background to add context to the photograph especially if we are talking about environmental portraiture where we need to show to the viewers about the subject, where he work, play or rest but when there is nothing much to tell about the background then it is better for us to get really close to the subject.

Close-up portrait photography have more impact compared to the loose picture of a person. If you fills the frame with just the face of the subject, you will have more strong photograph where nothing will distract the viewers from the person being photograph. I took this photograph of my son form my point of view where he is really close to me, even though there is no eye contact between me and my son but I like his expressive joyful look here and the background behind him is not important in term of story telling, I just wanted to share with the viewers, the expression of my son hence I think close-up work is more suitable than full length portrait.

Talking about expression, I like what well known portrait photographer, Bambi Cantrell once said “Expression Beats Perfection” meaning that if you have great expressive picture, it will always outperform perfect photograph with no expression or emotional impact and getting a close-up portrait of your subject will definitely enhance the impact of your portrait photograph.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Malaysia King Birthday Celebrations at Dataran Merdeka Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia King Birthday Celebrations usually took place on the very first Saturday of June each year, which in this year fall on 4th June 2011 at Merdeka Square or “Dataran Merdeka” Kuala Lumpur. This event normally last for about an hour from the moment the King arrive at 8 AM until 9 AM.

The photographs above were shot with 300mm f2.8 lens because the distance was quite far away, we can use 70-200mm lens but you will never get this tight. I’ve seen photojournalist who are using 400mm lens to get this shot, its all depends on what the photographers want, whether they want to record the whole event including it’s surrounding or just wanted to concentrate on the King himself.

In this picture Malaysian King Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, center, stands in an army jeep during the inspection of the honor guard in conjunction with his birthday celebration at Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The king, who is 49 years old, was born on January 22, but his birthday is officially celebrated as a national holiday on the first Saturday of June.

Just a short and simple assignment for me this Saturday morning, I’ve been photographing this event for quite few times already and the flow of the event is the same, nothing much different this time and luckily the weather was good. This is really an interesting event, a lot of tourist were seen watching this historical event, so to those of you who planned to visit Malaysia, just take note that this event took place on the first Saturday of June each year, but it is good to come few days earlier because normally they will have full day rehearsal prior to the actual event, so you will get a better chance to document the event and get the idea beforehand how the event will proceed.

© 2011 Momotarosan | Youthnity Festival 2011 @ Titiwangsa | Photography Exhibition

Just a quick update, I was a little bit busy these past few days, this photograph were taken on May 31st during my Youthnity Photography Exhibition 2011 which held in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa Kuala Lumpur. As the name suggest, this event is for the youth but it has a great program for all walk of life, it is a family festival actually where parents can get to know about their youth.

This is the first time I join a photography exhibition which took place from 1st – 3rd June 2011. Thanks a lot to Apai Biszign, Macha Farizal and Momotarosan for inviting me to join this event, I just manage to print five pieces of my son pictures for this exhibition, just a small A3 size, it was small if we look at the area of this exhibition. I think the minimum size that is suitable for this huge space is A1 or A0 size, that will look great but it  thanks to my late response, I really didn’t have much choice and I really wanted to say a big thanks to Momotarosan who print the pictures for me in Malacca, I just email the picture to him and pick it later at Titiwangsa the night before the exhibition start.

We stay here up until 3:00 AM in the morning to finished things up but have I have to come again in the afternoon for final inspection, actually my picture still left on the floor by the time I leave the exhibition hall at 3:00 AM in the wee hours. Thanks a lot also to Ahmad Shukri who pick me up from my home, back and forth from his home in Putrajaya to Titiwangsa and send me back home in the early hours of the morning.

I promise if there is ever any exhibition in the future which I was invited, I will make sure that I will printed it real Big  to really showcase my artwork because I believe some pictures does look better at large size.

© 2008 Wazari Wazir | Portrait of My Son | Mr Big Eyes

When it comes to black and white portrait photography, I will always try to keep it simple. Uncluttered background, less distraction element. Black and white will not work well for every picture, only certain picture will really look great if we convert in into black and white photography. When I took this picture of my son in 2008, I have a clear idea, what the photograph will end up to be, I mean the finished product.

I want to convert the photograph into black and white, so I will make sure all the element are there, I mean, I need something that have texture, so I choose to wear my son with knitting head gear and I need a very good shadows and highlight, so I need to choose where I should position my son, he can’t walk just yet, so I can position him wherever I want. Another thing is that the wooden plank there really help with the added texture.

The head gear really help to frame my son face, so the focus will go straight to his face and I’m glad that I manage to captured his  candid expression and that moment really make this picture quite special to me as a father.

Hopefully you get the tips. Look for something that have texture, pattern, shadows and highlight, keep your photograph simple, this is among the things that will make a great black and white subject. No matter how good we are at black and white editing, without the right elements, it won’t look great. et the right element first and everything will become easier.

I’m glad that this picture of my son has been featured among 100 stunning examples of  Black and White Photography. There are maybe million of black and white photography on the internet but to make it among the 100 is a pleasure even though it comes from a personal blog but I’m quite happy to be among the hundreds.

Get The Secret HERE

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Children Portrait Photography

I’ve always enjoy doing black and white photography, sometimes I like to get super deep rich black and sometimes I just like a lighter version of it, a little bit softer black and white or some people might called it as a shade of grey. Some people have asked me, what make good black and white picture, for me it is not an easy answer. It is personal and base on individual preference, we can choose whether we like super deep rich black and white or just a shade of grey.

I think there are two type of a people who view a photograph, one who just like to enjoy the content of the picture, who enjoy or appreciate the story of the picture regardless of the composition, lighting, colors or the tone of the picture and the other one who view it from artistic viewpoint, they like to judge a picture base on it’s composition, the tone of the picture, lighting and all kind of thing, for this type of a person, no picture can make them happy since they like to scrutinize each and every pixels in the frame up until the “fringe” of each pixels.

Since this is a Photographer Blog, you are free to judge if that is what you like to do but if you come here just to enjoy the picture, you are welcome, I welcome each and everyone here. Since the title of this blog post is about black and white, I will stick into that. I personally think that there is no right or wrong when doing black and white picture. Like I said before we can have a shade of grey or we can have super deep rich black and white, it’s a personal preference. I can do both, if you have visit my flickr stream, you will notice that I’ve done quite a lot of deep rich black and white photograph especially for my son picture HaiQal. I know how to do it and now I know that there is more to black and white than a solid rich black and white.

Nowadays when t comes to editing I will do it base on my feels rather that what look good in my eyes, sometimes it may look great in my eyes but the feeling is not there, something like that. It is a subjective matter and for me there is no point wasting our times discussing about this matter, just what we feels right since it is impossible for us to satisfy anyone and why should we unless off-course you are doing a photo shoot for your client, then you need to listen to their point of view, need s and requirement, but on the other hand if you do it for yourself, just listen to your heart.

Related Post : The Power of Black and White Photography

Making your very own Photoshop Brush is very simple process actually, but for the benefit to those of you who are really well into Photoshop, I will show show step by step how to get done. In this simple tutorial I will show you how we can make our very own Signature Photoshop Brush where we can use it for watermark our Photograph.

STEP 1 : Just make a New Layer, follow the step above.

STEP 2 : Adjust the Width of your canvas, you can make it small if you wish 500×500 Pixel but I choose 1000 x 1000, actually we just wanted to use small portion of the area but just follow this tutorial to get the ideas. Once you adjust the canvas size, then just rename it as My Signature or any name to your liking. Make sure it was on RGB and set the background color to White.

STEP 3 : Once you have your canvas, not it is the time to write your own name or maybe your company name, just go to the type tool with the symbol “T” in the toolbar and start typing your name. Make sure your foreground color is set to black.

STEP 4 : When You’re done, the next step is to Flatten the layer, when you Type, Photoshop will automatically create a new layer on top of your existing layer, so now you have two layers. We need to flatten the layer, just follow the step above.

STEP 5 : Once the layer is flatten, we need top make a selection around your name, go to “Rectangular Marque Tool” or selection tool and make sure you adjust the feather to 0 and start make a selection around your name like the picture above.

STEP 6 : The next step is, go to Edit > and choose from drop down menu “Define Brush Preset” just click that one.

STEP 7 : You will get a New Dialogue box and just write your name there, this is your Brush name and click OK.

STEP 8 ” Next Step we need to locate where is Photoshop save your new brush preset, just click the Brush Tool in Photoshop Tool Bar.

STEP 9 : Photoshop will save your new brush preset at the very bottom of your brush set, just click onto the Brush under menu bar there and scroll down to the bottom of your brush preset and you will find your own.

STEP 10 : Now you can open any picture that you want to put watermark and start paint it or simple stamp it with your new custom signature brush preset, you can change the color and the size of your brush just like any brush.

Finally you have your very own Signature Brush, you don’t have to create your brush each and every time you want to stamp your picture, just go to the brush preset, locate your brush and just stamp it. Don’t forget you can change the Opacity of your brush if you want it to be less hard or just wanted it to barely visible on your picture, just adjust the opacity from the menu bar above Have fun stamping…

Get The Secret HERE

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Fine Art Portrait Photography | A Portrait of My Son

“Photography is a craft. Anyone can learn a craft with normal intelligence and application. To take it beyond the craft is something else. That’s when magic comes in. And I don’t know that there’s any explanation for that.”

- Elliot Erwitt -

It’s been a hectic week for me from last Friday during my Photography and Photoshop Workshops with Spylens Studio held in Kota Kinbalu Sabah. I really need along break but still I like to play around with editing, something that I really like to do whenever I’ve a lot of free time which is editing portrait in black and white and add some texture to the photograph.

I didn’t have much to write here, but please do come back for more…

Tk

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | iPhoneography | A Printed Memory | 4R Size Printed o Matt Paper

I believe that those of you who have access to the internet regularly, those of you who spent great amount of time on Facebook and those of you who read my blog have a Mobile Phone and most mobile phone nowadays have built in camera, even among the cheapest mobile phone nowadays have built in camera attached to their mobile device.

I believe also that we take tons of photos with that little camera, but my question is, have you ever printed any of the pictures that you take with your mobile camera? I get a lot of response when I post this picture on my facebook wall. Some of my friends who have taken thousand of pictures with iPhone have never printed a single photograph. Actually I was astound when I know about that, some of my friends wanted to know how good the quality of the print, why don’t you just print it yourself and judge it for yourself.

I know most people take picture with their mobile phone just for fun, just wanted to share with their friends on Facebook, blog and all kind of other social media, maybe because of their small size, some people might think that it is not worth to get it print, but then the technology is so advanced today and most mobile phone camera nowadays take good quality picture especially iPhone 4 which I’m using at the moment. I can assure you that the quality is superb, considering that the sensor size is so small for 5 megapixel camera.

All of the picture above were printed on 4R size and if I put them side by side with any compact camera picture printed it with the same size, I can tell you that you can hardly see the difference.

Why wasting money to print the picture? Our mobile device is “Mobile” it can lost somehow, get stolen maybe, broke, crash and a lot of bad things can happen to our mobile phone and among the worst thing that could happen to us is when we can’t get back the picture in our mobile phone. The hard disk or the “solid state drive” on the mobile phone might crash someday, who knows. You can only imagine what will happen to the picture if  it can’t be recovered.

I believe also that most of us have other camera, maybe compact camera or DSLR but we don’t carry them all the time because of its physical size but most of the times we carry our mobile phone wherever we go, the size is small enough to put it in our pocket. Most of the times, great moment happens when we don’t have our “decent camera” with us but just our mobile phone camera. Let’s say we walk on the street someday and suddenly we jump into our long lost friend, our childhood friend and decided to take a picture with them and the only camera that we have is only mobile phone. The quality might no be so good but good enough for us to see our friend face clearly and nothing else matters.

I believe that we have  a lot of great moment captured through the small lens of our mobile camera phone and it will be total lost if we lost out phone. Some of you maybe shared all of the picture taken with mobile phone to Flickr, Facebook, Blog and many other social site or picture sharing site, that’s good practice, we still can get our pictures if anything happen to our device but to those of you who only store the picture inside the phone, it will be a nightmare if we lost all the picture if something happen to our phone.

The solution is a printed picture, you don’t need a battery or electric power to view the picture, maybe a candle might help to see the printed pictures if suddenly your house went blackout, just select your best shot and print it and gave it to your love one, maybe to put it on their wallet or simply turn it into bookmarker to remind yourself about any event or someone special to you. You can stick those printed picture on the fridge, put in on your table or maybe post some of the picture that you take with your mobile device while you are on holiday to your friends out there. Not everyone have the luxury to be online 24 hours a day, maybe your foreigner friend that you  met during your travel don’t have internet access, so a printed version is a great gift to them.

During my travel to India last year 2010, while I was busy shopping for souvenir for my friends and family in Pahar Ganj New Delhi, my eyes were drawn to the pictures on the wall, they are from all over the world, the owner of the shop tell me that his customer send to him the picture when they reach their home. They are not emailing the picture but post it in prints and they make it easier for the person on the receiving end to just stick the picture on the wall and save his time to get out and printed the “email” picture. I really wish I’ve took that picture on the wall with a camera but I left it in the hotel, yes I’ve a mobile phone with me but unfortunately at that time my mobile phone have no camera (cheap mobile phone), pity me.

I’m sorry about my bad English but hopefully you get the point that I want to share here and nothing else matters. The point s get your pictures printed before it’s too late.

Related Post : Have You Print Your Digital Pictures