© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Mother and Son | Botanical Garden Putrajaya

There was a times when I like to boost some contrast when it feels right, colors can enhance mood of happiness or cheerfulness but in order for the colors to stand out you need to match with a perfect background that will make your subject stand out from the crowd. I took this picture at Canopy Bridge Botanical Garden Putrajaya which is 170 meters long and it is a great place to play with “Bokeh” or perspective.

You don’t need long telephoto lens to get this kind of Bokeh, I use my all time favorite 50mm f1.4 Lens to get this Bokeh. The secret is to get as close as possible with your subject and make sure that your subject is quite far away from the background and you will be rewarded with lovely Bokeh or shallow depth of field that will make your subject stand out. Just don’t forget to open your aperture at its widest setting, f/1.4 or f2 will do the job.

If you come here during weekend you have to be patient because there was a lot of peoples here at the bridge, taking pictures or just enjoy the scenery from the bridge. I spent almost an hour here at the bridge to get the photographed that I wanted. I will not leave this place if I don’t satisfied with the photographed that I was taken here but unfortunately I have to leave before I was fully satisfied when the rain comes.

Play with colors, choose the right background, get as close as possible with your subject to get a beautiful  Bokeh and be sure that your subject is quite fare away from the background and please be patient until you get a clean background without unwanted people enter your frame and you will be rewarded with a happy pictures.

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | HaiQal at Botanical Garden Putrajaya

“If it Makes You Laugh, If it Makes You Cry, If it Rips Out  Your Heart, That’s a Good Picture.”

( Eddie Adams )

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Portrait Photography | Moroccan Pavilion Putrajaya

© 2010 Rujiah Muhin | Photograph of Me Taken By My Wife | Kiram Village | Mesilau

Yesterday When I Was Young | Roy Clark

Seems the love I’ve known has always been
The most destructive kind
Yes, that’s why now I feel so old
Before my time.

Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I’d always built to last on weak and shifting sand.
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
And only now I see how the years ran away.

Yesterday when I was young
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung,
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do.
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died.
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play.

There are so many songs in me that won’t be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.
The time has come for me to pay for
Yesterday when I was young…

( Roy Clark )

How I wish I have a beautiful picture like this when I was at my son age…

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© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Backlighting Portraiture

Backlighting can be friend or foe to the photographers. Most photographers hate it when they have to deal with the backlighting, the metering can’t be trusted when dealing with the backlighting and usually PROGRAM MODE doesn’t work here, unless you make some customization with the PROGRAM MODE. Why Program Mode doesn’t work, simply put, the metering will think that there is a lot of light source out there and usually it will end up with underexposing your main subject in order for the camera to “average” the scene.

In this case, like my son picture above I use build in Spot Metering from my camera to get the reading and I use MANUAL MODE here. Take the reading from my son face and don’t worry about the background, definitely the background will be overexpose but that’s alright since the background is not my main subject, I just need a correct exposure for my son face.

Some people asked me, did I use flash here, or did I use reflector here? My answer is no, I don’t use flash and I didn’t use reflector, why? Because I want to make it as close to reality as possible “minus” the tone. I don’t want my photography to be complicated, I don’t want my photography to look like that I’m having a fashion photo shoot, I want my photography to be simple and I want to work fast and further more, using flash with kill the mood.

I don’t think I will get  soft looking mood if I were to use flash here and if I choose to use reflector to brighten up my son face, it will look unnatural because the lighting or the sun are coming up from the  background and how come there is another source of light coming up from the front, I don’t want that kind of thing, I want to record as the way I see it. The editing is just the way I want to present it.

Few things about the editing, I did lower the saturation here in order to get this “Old School” kind of thing and I did add a texture here just a little bit of artistic touch if I can use that words. If you can see, the texture play here is jut minor, hardly visible. Playing with backlighting was easy if you know how to do it and know how to get it right. The best time to play around with backlighting is when the sun is around early morning or late afternoon. have fun with backlighting.

Related Post :  Backlighting

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© 2010 Wazari Wazir | A Moment to Remember

“When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing – just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?”

( Ralph Marston )

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Gabai

Gabai is well known among Kuala Lumpur people because of its waterfall, Sungai Gabai Waterfall to be exact, usually this place will be pack with people each and every weekend, just less than an hour from the heart of Kuala Lumpur to get here. Just a short drive from hustling and bustling of a city centre to get some peace, to get close to nature.

But here I take a detour, actually it is the same way to get to the waterfall but I choose a different path, I choose to go to Gabai Orang Asli village there, instead of going straight, we take left turn to head for the Orang Asli Village. The first thing to do here is to look for the gatekeeper, in this case we try to look for Tok Batin but unfortunately he is not available so we look for another gatekeeper or someone older or respected in this village and we meet Eroi and spent almost an hour with him to let him know our purpose here.

This photo outing is not possible without the help of my friend Azlan Nayan from Malaysia Islamic Outreach, Azlan has been here quite few times to deliver some goods and sometimes they came  with a doctor to give free medical service. Among the mission of the Islamic Outreach is To provide the Islamic Community and Malaysian Society generally with services for the advantaged and disadvantaged, the Muslim and Non-Muslim, through social services and reaching out within and without the Ummah, and to present Islam to all those seeking knowledge of the true faith.

This is not official visit from Islamic Outreach, so I will not go into the details about  the agency, you can google for more information about the Islamic Outreach and how you can participate.

There were only two of us here and frankly speaking, this kind of photo outing is not suitable for a large group of a people or photographers. I think five person is the maximum number here for a group of a photographer. We must be sensitive with the people, they are normal people after all just like you and me and they are not a subject and  need to be respected in order for us to get their respect and that is why we need to communicate with them, spent some time with them, to hear their story, show them that we are interested about their life, about their story, about their village.

After we get comfortable with the people then only I ask  the gatekeeper permission to take take few pictures in the village. I will not take a picture here if I was not given a green light from the gatekeeper and in this case from Eroi. Before we photograph this child, we did ask her mother permission to photograph her daughter and we did spent quite a times just to pursued her mother to get her permission, I did not want to rush and and I don’t have to.

When it comes to this kind of photography, I like what Steve McCurry said in an interview with Outdoor Photographer Magazine, “One critical elementof all this”  is you have to engage your surroundings. As you move through the situation, you have to engage the people, a dog, a cat, or a cow or a child. I think you have to interact with these things and stop and talk with somebody or play with somebody. That’s really important because then you are inside the situation. You are not an observer, you’re not on the outside looking in. You’re in it. When you are inside of it, you’re not separate. You are one with thing, with that place, and a lot of it has to do with interacting with the situation,”. ( Steve McCurry )

That’s one of the reason why I don’t like o go out with large group of a people when doing this kind of photography, I think you know why, if I come with large group of a photographers, I do believe that not all of them will interact with the peoples, there will always be somebody who are too busy clicking a shutter without even say hello to the peoples. I want to get to know the people, to get to know the surroundings and the truth is we spent more time talking to the people there than taking pictures of them because on this visit I just want to get to know them, to get to know the surroundings maybe if I come back here next time I will spent more time taking pictures here and hopefully they still can remember me.

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© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Expressive Portraiture | HaiQal | My Son

What’s happening here? Did my son hurt? Did my son injured or did I do something bad to my son? The answer to all those question is NO. I did not make my son cry just to get this photograph and if you are familiar with my picture, I’ve taken a lot of a picture of my son crying, it’s been more than two years already.

Crying is one of many ways for a small child to get our attention, my son doesn’t know how to speak well just yet, so this is a signal to get my attention, a signal not to let me interfere with his “play time”, a signal not to take a way his toys and maybe a signal that he doesn’t like to be photographed. Crying is part of growing up and I like to photographed it, I don’t have a picture of myself when I was I was crying, I wish I have and I think not many of us have that picture too, maybe we have but not too many, all we usually have is a picture of a smiling kids, a picture of happiness, a picture of cuteness. I think we are missing something here.

Taking picture of a child is not all about cute looking face, it is not about to photograph them at their best but to photograph them growing up. Crying is part of growing up and small child like two years old my son  does cry a lot, mostly because he want my attention, he want his toy, he wants to spent more time playing even though it’s getting late, he want to watch his favorite cartoon when I want to watch the news, my son will cry and make some noise and if I want some peace, I have to obey with my Little Boss but first I will take a few shot of him crying, bad father isn’t it.

Another reason why I like to photograph when my son is crying is simply because my son stood still, usually he doesn’t run when he is crying and that make my job easier to photograph him, I know I don’t get a smiling face but the most important thing for me is to get his photograph whether he is smiling or not. Like every child, my son like to run a lot, hardly stand still, playing around with his friends around my house and lately he doesn’t like to be photographed, he gets so used being photographed since he was born and maybe he get bored, who can blame him but I will never stop taking picture of my son, after all he is my favorite model.

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© 2010 Wazari Wazir | A Portrait | Calimero

Flickr Front Page Explore, well what is so great about being featured there you may ask? Well, it depend, you don’t get paid if your pictured published there. It doesn’t mean that our picture is the best from the rest either, but it does feels good when our picture was on  front page, everybody want to get notice, don’t you think so.

This is not the first time my picture were published on the front page, quite few times actually (Flickr Front Page Explore Keeps On Changing Every Minutes). Personally I look it from a positive perspective, if my picture get there, that’s mean publicity, a lot of people might want to check my flickr stream, maybe they want to view other pictures from me, free publicity, maybe in return I get new contact, new friends and maybe I’ve a new followers who might like my picture or my style and if you are doing some kind of photography business, it’s good for your business, the exposure is good for you, who knows you might get a new client.

If you are familiar with the picture on Flickr Explore stream, you might notice that, most of them are simple picture, simplicity is the key here. For me with the publicity, I can promote my flickr and my blog and I can also promote my Photography Workshops or My Photoshop Tone eBook . What I’m trying to say is, being on the front page does help me a lot in getting traffic to my flickr and to my Blog.

Another thing is, it motivate me to always produce and share only the great work, I want to keep my followers satisfied each and every time they visit my stream, I don’t want them to get bored but the truth is I never plan to get attention, I do it because I love doing it without any pressure.

If my picture can make people happy, I’m happy. By being on the front page, I get greater opportunity to share my picture with large audience and I would like to take this opportunity to all of you who support me, who comments and view my pictures, who faves my picture, all this things  make it possible to be featured there, a millions thanks to all of you.

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© 2010 Wazari Wazir | Portrait Photography

A Perfect Photo That is Empty of Any Feeling Will Never Equal a Blurred Photo Full of Emotion

( Olivier Föllmi )

Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people (a group portrait), in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person’s face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the camera. ( Wikipedia )

Generally I like a description from Wikipedia about Portrait photography and for me great portrait photography have nothing to do with eye contact, the reason why I’m writing this is that, a lot of people especially those who just starting up taking picture put too much emphasis on “eye contact”. There is a place for that but it is not mandatory for a portrait to have eye contact, maybe in some case like for formal portrait shot, corporate shot or maybe some commercial or fashion shots, you do need to get strong eye contact but for general purpose of portrait photography just be free.

Maybe new photographers have not look back at the great portrait from the past like famous photograph like “Migrant Mother” a photograph by Dorothea Lange, there is no eye contact here but it does connect to our heart and that is the most important thing. I think great portrait photography is a picture that touch our heart. I like a quote from famous war photographer, Eddie Adams “If it Makes You Laugh, If it Makes You Cry, If it Rips Out Your Heart, That’s a Good Picture”.

But be remember, even though great portrait photography does not necessarily about eye contact but to have a great portrait the focus must be on the eyes. Basically the eyes must be sharp, the reason why is that, it is the first thing that we as a human will look at to, the eyes. Once again to those of you who are interested to learn more about portrait photography, please take your time to have a look from a picture from the past, why they are still consider to be great after all this years. There are many factors that contribute to great portrait photography but for  me personally, if it does touch my heart, then it is a great picture.

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