© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Father and Son | Photograph Taken by My Wife

“My father always told me, “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

- Jim Fox -

I don’t think I can carry my son like this if he reach twenty years old if God Willing “InsyaAllah”, so I better get the picture first before its too late. My wife took this picture and I’m not someone who can easily get satisfied when someone else took a picture of me, not even my wife, so after each shot taken, I will take a look at the LCD just to make sure “everything was fine”.

I want to make sure that the clock tower is visible behind and I want to make sure that me and my son is sharp, not necessarily pin sharp but sharp enough to recognize my face. I didn’t notice that my son hold a little dinosaur with him, not until I see this picture. I think those little dinosaur makes a perfect “frame” for me and my son.

Sometimes as a photographer we have very little picture of or own, so whenever I go out with my family, I will always make sure that at least I’ve one or two pictures with them together. This photograph was taken at one of Malaysia famous landmark, which is at Independence Square or “Dataran Merdeka” which most Malaysian familiar with. The building behind is Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | HaiQal and Raphael | My Little Big Boss

“Epression beats perfection any day of the week, and if you have the most perfect photograph in the universe it’s a zero if you have no expression from your subjects.”

- Bambi Cantrell -

In term of photography composition, I’ve to admit that, I’m not satisfied with this picture. I wish, I really wish that I can go higher to photograph them both, so that I did not chop off their hands and legs. I know it will look much better if I get everything, I mean the whole body in the frame. But the fact is that, there is no higher ground that I can stand to and I don’t have much more wider lens with me, all I’ve is 24mm prime lens.

But I believe there is more to a photograph than a beautiful perfectly compose picture. It’s about moment, it’s about expressions that can’t be repeated, that will only happen once. I wish my little boy Raphael would smile but he has a better idea, to cry, maybe he feels uncomfortable lying on the wooden plank there. I love the moment, I hope both of them will cherished this picture when they grow up and hopefully they will smiles whenever they look back at this photograph.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | The Joy Childhood | Taman Botani Perdana | Kuala Lumpur

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

- Kay Renfield Jamison -

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Mother and Son | Blue Valley | Cameron Highlands

“Epression beats perfection any day of the week, and if you have the most perfect photograph in the universe it’s a zero if you have no expression from your subjects.”

- Bambi Cantrell -

When it comes to portrait photography, I’ve to agree with Bambi Cantrell quote above “Expression Beats Perfection”. If you are familiar with portrait photography, more or less the pose is almost the same but what makes each portrait differ from one another is the expression from the subjects, whether they are smiling, laughing, serious or  sad looking face. There is so much we can say about the person just by looking at his/her expressions.

Sometimes as a photographer, we are too concern to take a perfect photograph and tend to forget what’s really important, the moment or the expression when it comes to portrait photography. The reason I share the photograph above is that, I like the moment and I like the expression from both of them, a mother having a great time with her son. There is nothing much in the background to add into the context of the story here. Just an empty road with thick mist in the background, where my wife holding my son standing on the side of the road, doing nothing but just having a great time together.

If you are familiar with World Press Photo Competition and take your time going through the winning photographs especially when it involved people photography, you will notice that among the great photograph that have win the competition is the photograph of a person with such a great emotional expression. Take a look at the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2004 where a women mourning a relative killed in the Asian tsunami which was taken in Tamil Nadu India. It is just a simple photograph with a simple composition but the expression from the women is extraordinary, you can almost feels her pain and losses and I’ve to tell you this.

The winning picture is far from beautiful but nevertheless it is such a very powerful photograph and if you take your time to go through all of the winning World Press Photo in the past, you might found that some of them are blurred, lacking in technical perfection, badly composed but they catch the eyes of the judged because the “expression always beats perfection.”

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© 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 | Take a Break With Ice Cream | 50mm | f/1.8 | 1/640 | ISO 200

Basically Negative space is the space within a photograph which is left unused. Negative space is a great way to help add emphasis to your main subject. Negative space usually is an empty space, it is not an important part of the photograph and usually we don’t focus on that area and most of the times we leave the empty space out of focus or blur but nevertheless if we use it wisely it can have a profound impact to the photograph.

Actually there are three main component when it comes to photography composition :

• Frame – The Frame is the border around the image.
• Positive Space – The main subject in the border, this is where our camera is focused and this should be the sharpest within the frame.
• Negative Space – The rest of the image, located between the positive space and the frame or all around the main subject.

Photographers talk a lot about fills the frame for more impact but sometimes certain pictures needs a breathing space for more impact or simply to complement the shot. The negative space may not be the centre of attraction but nevertheless it help to make the picture much more stronger, for an example like the picture of my son above,by giving an empty space to the left side of him, I put an emphasize where my son is looking, a room to breath.

Since his eyes is looking on the left side of his shoulder, then it is only natural for me to give an extra space on the left side of the frame and it will look odd if I give an empty space on the right side of his shoulder.

This type of negative space also commonly use during sports photography, like race car or during running event where usually photographers will give a lot of empty space in front of the subject where they are heading for them to have a room to “move”. I know the image is static but it is just appropriate to give room or space in front of the moving subject rather than behind it.

There is a time when we need to get real close to the subject, to get it as tight as possible in the frame, fills the frame with the subject and there was also a time when we need to give some space to he subject. Just be remember that, in photography sometimes negative space have a lot of positive impact on the photograph.

© 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 | The King of Malaysia (Black Dress) and Sultan of Selangor  | Istana Alam Shah | Klang Selangor

“The decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.”

- Henri Cartier-Bresson -

There is a lot of talk debating about this “the decisive moment” definition, but I like this definition “A candid photograph taken at the precise moment which defines or illustrates the entire story or action.” Personally I think it is a photograph taken at it’s peak moment or when the moment is at it’s best. Let say if I just take this photograph of The King and The Sultan of Selangor walking towards the stair without that hands gestures, it is still a moment but not at it’s best and I personally think that when they show a hand gesture like what you have seen here make it the best moment and personally I think this is a “decisive moment”.

The decisive moment is not about action photography alone but it is an action at it’s peak or at its best. take for an example if you take a photograph of a politician speaks at the rostrum, for me the peak or the decisive moment is when the politician makes a hand gesture and it’s perfectly match with his expression, that’s a decisive moment, that’s why if you are alert when watching the News on the TV when a politician make a hand gesture, suddenly you saw a bright light shining on their face non stop, it is a sign  that the photographers wait for that gesture to take the shot. That’s the moment that they have been waiting for.

You may agree or disagree with me, you are entitled to your own opinion but for me “The Decisive Moment” is a moment where the actions happens at it’s best or at it’s peak. Even if you take a sports photography where each frame is an action shot, it doesn’t mean that every single frame can be considered as the decisive moment, there must be few frames that qualify to be called as the decisive moments, for an example when sprinter reach the finishing line and he or she touch the finishing ribbon and at the same time raise his or her hands and shows happiness with his or her expression, that’s a great decisive moment.

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© 2011 Wazari Wazir | HaiQal at Sekinchan Paddy Field | Selangor | 24mm | f/6.3 | 1/80 | ISO 125 | Natural Light

In photography, people always say that before we want to break the rules we should know what the rule are, otherwise how come we wanted to break the rules if we don’t have any idea about it. I think most of you who have visit my blog for quite sometimes, knows what the rule of third are, basically it was merely referred to the way we position our main subject. I mean by not putting our main subject at the dead centre of the frame.

If you want to follow the rules, never put your main subject at the middle of the frame, position your main subject either close to the left or right, and never put your horizon in the middle of the frame, either you put it closer to the bottom of the frame or closer to the top of the frame. Actually I don’t quite agree that it was called a “rule” instead I like to called it as a “guide in composition”. It is just merely a guide, it doesn’t mean that if you are following the rules you will have a bigger chance winning a photography composition than those who are not following the rules, and I think the judge will get tired looking at the same composition by the rules over and over again.

After awhile you will know what will work and what will not work, for the photograph of my son above which I took at paddy field in Sekinchan Selangor, I purposely put my son at the centre of the frame because I feels that it work that way, I feels that the portrait of my son will be  more stronger to match his expression if I put him in the middle of the frame than if I put him according to the rule of thirds. I don’t think that the photograph of my son will look stronger if I choose to put him either close to the right or left of the frame.

But I did follow some of the rules by not putting the horizon at the centre of the frames, I’m not doing this for the sake of following the rules but I “think” it will work that way, and I think there is no point to include so much of the sky because there were no details on it, there were no clouds on it, so it is better for me to fills more of the background area with paddy field than to divided it in half. I need to make this “photographic composition” decision in a split second because my son HaiQal does not stand and looking at me forever and in fact I just get one frame for this expression before he start running away.

Personally, when it comes to photography especially if you took it as a hobby, your photograph should be your personal expression, your photograph should be the extension of your vision, how you wanted to express yourself, how you wanted to tell your story visually, it should be your personal vision. There’s nothing wrong to listen or to learn all about photography stuff but in the end , you should only follow the “guideline” if it can help you to express yourself better the way that you intent it to be.

To cut my ramblings short, if the so called rules or guideline does not help you to express your vision the way you wanted it to be, just break the rules, photography should be fun and enjoyable. Do not let other people to dictate how your photograph should look like, ( unless they are your paying clients ) feels free to expressed yourself and be proud of you authentic artwork.

© 2008 Wazari Wazir | Little Fingers | Using Depth of Field Creatively

Depth of field (DOF) by definition is the amount of your image that’s in focus or in another words is the distance in front and beyond the object that is in focus or sharp. There is a long discussing about depth of field on the internet, most of the discussion is more towards technical aspect of it rather than how you can use creative depth of field to your advantage.

To make it easy for you, there are three things that will affect the depth of field, those thing are the size of Aperture that you use, the Distance between you and the subject and also the type of Lens that you are using. This three things will affect your depth of field in term of sharpness or the area in your picture that will be in focus.

If you want greater depth of field, wanted everything to be in focus or sharp such as in landscape photography, you should use smaller Aperture, in the range of f/8 and above, using this aperture will guarantee you to have sharp image across the frame. There is also a “Sweet Spot” or a range in their aperture where they work at their best and produce the sharpest images, which is not necessarily by using the smallest aperture that your lens have and this “sweet spot” vary from lens to lens.

On the other hand if you want to have shallow depth of field, if you only wanted certain part of your image within the frame to be in focus or you wanted to make something stand out, just like my photograph above where only the little fingers of my son are sharp and leaving the face out of focus, you should use large aperture, like f/2.8 or below.

The second thing that will affect the amount of depth of field in your photograph is the distance between you and the subject. The closer you are to the subject, the shorter the DOF and subject at a greater distance will have greater depth of field than a close-up subject. That’s why in macro photography only certain part of the image are pin sharp while the rest of the picture or the subject is completely out of focus even though your lens and the subject is so close and on the other hand in landscape photography where the subject like a mountain can be a distance away but they appear to be sharp all across the frame.

The last thing that will affect the depth of field is the lens factor. A wide angle lens has much greater DOF than a telephoto lens. For an example you will get a very sharp image using 10mm lens at f/4 compared to using 600mm lens and shooting at the same aperture f/4. You might be wondering why you can’t get a “Bokeh” like 600mm lens have  when using 10mm lens at f/4. They are in different category and that’s why the choice of lens will affect the depth of field regardless of your aperture and a combination of those three things will affect your DOF generally.

Understanding about Depth of Field alone will not make you a better photographer, instead you should know how to use it to you advantage or how to use it creatively. The question is how you can use Depth of Field knowledge to your advantage? Now you know that using wide angle lens will get you greater depth of field compared to using Telephoto Lens, so with this knowledge, you should invest yourself for Wide Angle lens if landscape photography or architectural photography is your main interest and on the other hand if you like to shoot wild animals or sports or portraiture you should invest in Telephoto Lens because this lens will help to isolate the subject from the background better.

If you decided not to buy any new lens at the moment, then you still can control your depth of field by the Aperture that you use or the distance between you and the subject, for an example, lets say that you only have a Kit Lens on your camera body which is 18-70mm or any length  that comes with your camera body  (entry level DSLR ) and you wanted to take a picture of your child playing in the park and want to have nice blur background, how you do that?

Very simple first open up the aperture to its widest setting, maybe f/4 or f/3.5 and then make sure that the distance betwen you and your child is closer, and if possible at its minimum focusing distance that the lens allow you, make sure also that the background is quite far away from your child, maybe ten to twenty feet away. Then just shoot, you will be able to get a nice blur background that is good enough to separated your subject from the background, you will be able to make your subject stand out from the background, even though the “Bokeh” is not as good as shooting with telephoto lens at its widest setting, you still get the job done which is emphasize the focus more on your subject by making it sharper from the rest.

In photography, there will always a point of interest or focal point, be it landscape or in portrait photography. For portraiture, normally the point of interest is on the eyes so make sure you point your focus on the eyes especially if you are using Telephoto lens because they have very shallow depth of field. If you focus on the nose, than the eyes will be out of focus unless you have a very good reason why you wanted to focus on the nose in the first place, maybe they have certain characteristic or unique nose rings that you wanted to highlight, then please do so.

When you know how to control depth of field, now it is up to you to use it creatively. You don’t need to buy new lens to get better depth of field if you know the principles but no doubt that certain lens will help you control depth of field more effectively. For an example having 24-70mm f2.8 will have bigger advantage than owning 18-200mm f/3.5 – 5.6. If you use 24mm at f2.8, you will be able to isolate the background better than using 18mm at f/3.5 because big aperture yield very shallow depth of field compared to small aperture like f/3.5, the number may not look much difference but they are.

There is more in photography than about depth of field DOF, having great understanding about DOF will  never make you a better photographer, will never transform your photograph from bad to great but how you use DOF creatively that matters. Same like it is not so difficult to learn how to use  a DSLR but how you use the camera that matters. Even a child can use a DSLR to take a picture if you show them which button they need to press but then again, knowing which button to press is not good enough to produce a great picture.