Self Expression

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

“I think your picture is not sharp”, “I think your picture is a little bit dark”, I think your highlight is blown out”, ” I think you picture has too much noise”. For me this is all “funny comments” not from photographers but I would call them a “Technicgraphers” why? Simply because these kind of people who like to comments about technical aspect of photography fail to realize what photography is all about, a picture is not like an engine or a building where you can measure or judge their performance by technical aspect. Great photography or great picture will work even if they break all the rules, a blurry picture and totally blown out highlight picture will still stand a chance to win a World Press Photo Awards if the picture is GREAT regardless of their lack of technical aspect.

For me it is very simple, a GREAT picture is a GREAT picture and a BAD picture is a BAD picture even though all the technical aspect is perfect in term of composition, lighting, exposure  and etc and etc…

What Life is All About

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

While We Try to Teach Our Children All About Life, Our Children Teach Us What Life is All About | ( Angela Schwindt )

I think we can learn so much from our children, they really enjoy their present, I mean their time that they have in their hand and I think we should also enjoy our present, while we can plan for our future endeavor, we should never forget to really enjoy our times at hand, the future is not in our hand for sure. If you think there is something that can be done in the present just do it, don’t wait and don’t ever procrastinate, I’ve learn that all, I’m a victim of procrastination.

It is very heartwarming feeling watching my son playing with the leaf and with the puddle of water, everything look so interesting to him, every little-little things simply fascinate him, I wish I’ve a picture like that, a picture of me playing happily but I don’t, all I’ve is a blurry vision about my past, I grew up here in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1970, it is still “kampung” or village by today standard then, we don’t have electricity and we spent less time in front of the television, my television back then use a battery car to power it up and yes it is a black and white television and it is boring to watch. Nowadays children spent so much times in front of the idiot box and rarely have extra physical activity outdoors. To cut the story short, enjoy the present and plan for your future but do really enjoy the present first because the future is not in our hand…

Photographic Expedition | Belum – Temengggor

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Photo above taken during Belum – Temenggor Photographic Exspedition on 23rd to 25th October 2009 organize by Emkay and Institute Perak Darul Ridzuan. Thanks a lot to Azrul Affandi from Beritah Harian through Photoskool for inviting me to this event, I really have so much fun there.

Candid Moment

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

This picture is not in our photo shoot agenda or in our plan, actually we were just finish our shooting and take a break, having a cup of tea or coffee, so while we are having our drink, I notice that the lighting was perfect and the mode was there, so I captured it, I mean the model, shooting continuously with my camera until the model doesn’t bother anymore, so I get this shot, a quite moment in a very crowded situation, there were seven photographers and two  models at the table, so you can imagine the situation, it is quite noisy actually. This is among my favorite shot from the outing even though it is not in our original plan…

Photoshop | eBook | Getting The Tones

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Some people may like it and some people may hate is especially those who are too concern about perfect skin tone. So my e-Book is not for them, my e-Book is for those who have never fear to express themselves. Colors play an important part in our life, some people doesn’t care to pay for a higher price on their cars for a specific colors and design, the car and engine is still the same but they make a big decision on colors. For me personally I’m very particular about colors, like choosing my camera bag, I’ve a Crumpler bag, and I don’t like black so I’ve to wait for a few month to get my colors, something in between Grey and Green.

My point is people can be so choosy about colors. back to my color tone and why I like to play with tone is this, very simple explanation, certain colors really can enhance a mood on a pictures, all pictures, sometimes mute or fade colors picture work great with portrait where there is some kind of emotional feeling into it, for an example a picture of an old man looking through out of a windows, longing for something, this type of a picture will work great without too many colors that will distract a viewer from “the mood”. So either convert those picture onto black and white, sepia or just fade their colors a little bit will do the job, will bring our attention straight to “the mood”, to the “feeling” of loneliness.

We should know when the colors may work and when the colors can become a distraction. For a light heart moment or some kind of a warm feeling I like to add more yellowish or orange tinted colors on my pictures to create more “warmth feeling” onto it. It is not as simple as add more yellow or just bump up the saturation, you won’t get that kind of tones, I’ve try that, so my e-Book will guide you through how to get that kind f tones. I’ll show you the way, the way that most people can understand, as simple as it can be.

Lately there is a trend where people especially here in Malaysia are more aware or starting to pay close attention to the tones, I’ve often get comments something like this, “Nice Tones”. It’s not easy to describe about “Nice Tones” you just absorb it unconsciously. People in United State or from European Country have been using the tones long time enough, from film to digital, I like their tones and it is not because I want to be something like them but I want my picture to have a “feeling”. Normal picture without any color tones into it, is just normal, maybe it is a picture of sadness but without the right combination of colors, the mood wasn’t so strong. For an example a picture of a crying with a bright colorful cloth and a picture of a crying child in black and white will have a different kind of mood, sure enough the picture in a black and white  hold much stronger emotional feeling than those in a bright colorful photograph, even though it is same kind of a picture, the feeling is not the same.

Colors can show happiness and colors also can also show sadness. Our life can be so colorful or just monochromatic…

I will update about my e-Book on the next blog update , about the price, few tips and tricks about using it and also how to get it. Stay tune…

In The Name of Love

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

HaiQal | Backlighting

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

When I start as a PRESS photographers among few things that bother photographers is “Backlighting”, whether it came from artificial light source or from natural light, sometimes PRESS photographers will shout or ask politely to their subject to move here and there to block the “backlighting”. Backlighting can cause “flare” that make our subject unclear especially on their face. Sometimes photographers will use flash and most of the times they do use flash to put back light onto their subject face so it does not appear to be dark and it is true that metering is tricky for backlighting.

To cut the story short, I love backlighting but that depend on my subject, as for example on my son pictures above, backlighting really add interest to my son hair, make it glow with rim light, in fact I did position my wife and my son so both of them catch the sunlight. Some of my friends ask me whether I use flash or reflector to fill in the light on my subject face. No I don’t, I don’t use flash and I don’t use reflector, I’m not a fashion photographer and I don’t want my shooting look like a commercial shot.

I took the metering on my subject face, if you are using PROGRAM Mode on your camera without any customization, your subject may appear dark because your camera will try to get some balance between the bright area and dark area of your subject, your camera exposure meter doesn’t know which one is important and which one is not. I rarely use PROGRAM Mode, most of my shooting are on MANUAL, so I took a reading on my subject face and forget the rest. Yes the background will be blown out, sometimes there is no details but in this case, like the picture above, the background is not my focus, so I don’t bother about getting the right exposure for that. There you go very simple and my editing is simple also and you can see I like to get my pictures especially portraiture have warm feeling or tone, during editing I bump up the temperature until my eyes satisfied.

Actually there is a lot of things going on about that picture above, I plan my shots even before I get out of the house, I’m very particular about my subject cloth,  when I see my wife or my son wearing something that I didn’t like, I’ll ask them to change the cloth or there is no photo shooting. For me a great shooting comes from great planning, most peoples doesn’t know what’s get on behind the scene, some people doesn’t bother to look deeply inside a picture and ask themselves why this particular picture work, why this picture grab our attention, why this picture stop us to look at it a little bit longer. that’s is how I view my favorite pictures on the Web, I stop and look and ask my self, why this pictures work and why some others not. That’s how I learn, I learn by looking at a picture, not just looking, but look deeper, thinking and then absorb the knowledge that can be found on each of a great pictures if we care to look at it more intensely rather than just browsing.

HaiQal | Untitled Expression

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

I just bought a new lens actually, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 D lens, It’s not an easy decision to make between 50mm G Lens and D lens and after much thought I think 50mm D lens gives me more value for my money, after all good picture is more than just about camera equipment. I’ve been shooting with Nikkor f1.8 for two years already which I bought on August 23rd 2007 and now I need extra speed to capture the light since I like to shoot with natural light and like to shoot under low light photography. This shot was taken at wide open aperture at f1.4 and all I can say is, it was sharp and good enough for me and I’m happy with lens.

To make a decision between 50mm and 85mm wasn’t easy either but after. 85mm was good for portrait if we are shooting outdoor, in the open field for an example but when we are shooting indoor like in the small house, mosque, museum, church where the space is constrain< I think 50mm is more versatile and furthermore I use DX format which gives me approximately 75mm coverage on 50mm lens.

Both 85mm and 50mm have it’s place but for me personally 50mm is more versatile and I’m happy with my decision. If I’ve extra money definitely I will get an 85mm, compared to 70-200mm, it is much lighter and considering I like to travel and planned to, 85mm is on my list… 🙂

HaiQal | Happy Birthday My Son

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Syukur Alhamdulillah My Son HaiQal is two years old today August 22nd 2009 and not to forget, today is also first Ramadhan for all Muslim here in Malaysia and some other part in the world, the fasting month for Muslim. To all Muslim friends out there, happy Ramadhan. About the picture above, it was a recent picture of HaiQal taken on his Birthday. We plan to take him out but it was raining few minutes after the picture was taken and few minutes later my son fall asleep.

My Universe

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Sometimes we need to think outside of the box in order to be creative. This things is pretty simple to do, all it takes is a little bit of imagination and just few Photoshop tricks here and there, no I’m not doing the hard work with the Globe, with the help of a “Website” I manage to do this and the key words here is TAGGING, at the meantime, I’ll let you wondering and thinking how I did this because I believe if you can read this that’s mean you have access to the internet and you can get the answer pretty easily. All I did is to add the stars and the lighting effect, the rest is made by the “Mechanism”.

Everybody need a quick answer nowadays, use plug in here, plug in there and use preset and action and later on called it “ART”. It is up to you if you consider whether some work is Art or not, about my picture about, it is not art, just pure playing with my pictures but the “Art” comes into play when we think outside of the box and put outside elements to make this things a little bit more interesting. I got the “Stars” from Google Earth. A lot of younger generation nowadays are too lazy to read after they graduate thinking that they have known everything in the university, how wrong they are. I’m saying this as my personal experience and just my personal thought. You may have your own, I mean by not reading is, not reading education material, not something like love novel that most people read, I mean a lot of younger generation nowadays read less education material, just few of them do.

How many people buy and read photography books other than magazine, maybe some of you say that photography books is expensive, how about your camera? I think your DSLR is so much expensive isn’t it. Buying expensive camera equipment without the knowledge of handling them and use them the way it should be is a waste of money, just remember, people can steal your equipment but not your skills and knowledge. My point is spent some extra money on education, buy some books about photography or anything that might interest you. Learn from other experience photographer. We cannot meet all the great photographers out there face to face but we can “Listen” to their story and experience through their books.

In photography we need to practice and practice in order for us to improve our skills but if we keep on pressing our shutter blindlessly without any clear vision, we are not making any photograph but just taking picture. If the photographers who have some knowledge in his head, he will be able to focus more clearly, see the vision ahead of him even before he lift the camera to his eyes. I’ve met many great local photojournalist who have a clear picture about a picture that they need to shoot even before they get out of the office, by the time they get their assignment from their Boss, they have a “Clear Vision” about how they are going to Photograph The Assignment.