A friends son at the recent polo match, he was trying to get out of the sun, shy but cute little boy.

I like the black and white effect with the grainyness, gives it a old vs new kind of feel. I tend to like B&W for youngsters.

I used lanatirs method of effective black and white conversion rather than just desaturating

Exposure: 1/1600 Aperture: f/4.5 Focal Length: 70 mm Exposure Bias: 2/3 EV ISO: 1250

Also recropped with space at the right to give the little fella somewhere to roam in. Cropping kids very tightly makes them seem rather too stationary.

Personally I’d say when it comes to photographing landscapes and still life I’m already pretty good, I naturally understand the composition for buildings, scenery and things that don’t have facial expressions.

When it come to people, I’m a beginner, I rarely pointed my Canon A70 at people, shooting people was never very interesting for me, only during parties, then I seemed to have a talent for the candid shot, capturing the moment rather than cheesy smiles and pre-posed stances.

From this I branched into street photography, which is candid for me, to bring out the true feeling, eye contact is good but not in a posed way as demonstrated by Lanatir below, you can have a eye contact portrait without it looked manufactured.

I like to try and capture some kind of emotion, capture a peice of the moment, not just some people facing the camera and smiling over and over.

I like to feel something when I look at the picture, not just go next..next..next..

For me this the essence of capturing an event, the same goes for weddings, nowdays this style has a label it’s called photojournalism style..for me, I just call it real.

I like to use a narrow depth of focus to give a real pop to the subject.

You can capture many emotions in this manner, when people don’t expect it, boredom, frustration, happiness, laughter, waiting etc..

This is my first effort of event style photography with my new SLR camera, so I have a lot to learn still, these are just my few tips from past experience.

It’s good to use SLOW flash setting to make people stand out, and any motion in the background will be blurred.

I also like to frame the subject with other people, or some objects like a glass to bring them out and add interest.

These were all taken with a very cheap prime Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF.

They aren’t the best pictures in the world, but I’m just starting out..

I hope my learning journey can help you too.

All were processed from RAW last night, my RAW workflow is still a bit hit and miss, I need to work on that.

That’s all for now

You can view the whole set here.

People shooting is very challenging especially when the person is aware that he or she is being photographed. That said, it is important for the photog to have good rapport with the subject before the start of the shoot. If the subject is a stranger, please try to obtain permission and spark a conversation with him. You will find that the subject is more willing and relaxed if you took the effort to understand his background. Also try to present him as a fellow human being worthy of your respect. Eye contact is important especially since the eyes are the windows to the soul.

This gentleman, I met him at an old Hindu temple in Sentul. I had approached him as I felt his wizened visage held a ton of memories and them eyes had seen better days. I was indeed sympathetic when I saw his abode and I offered him a little money after taking his photographs (of course with permission).

You will notice that I converted the photos to monochrome. I shall elaborate on my conversion process in future but I chose to relay the scene in mono simply because I wanted to enhance the atmosphere.

While I had taken many shots, my favourite one was this particular one where I managed to eke out a little hint of smile from his otherwise melancholic features. I would have preferred the portrait format but nevertheless, I felt that it did not diminish the effect of the shot.

P/S In relation to the comment made by Wong below…

My subsequent shots of him in the ‘correct’ portrait format did not hold that precious smile…