Photojournalism | Malaysia King Birthday Celebrations

© 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.