Direct Flash Photography Syndrome

This is not a beautiful artistic picture that people normally will hang on their wall, some people may think this is just a snap shot picture, a piece of cake picture that everybody can take, well easier said than done, if only you know how many photographers are here struggling to get this shot, more than twenty photographers if I’m not mistaken are struggling to fit into a very crowded space with all members of Cabinet Ministers present here. It is very tough situation.

I’ve already wrote about why PRESS photographers use “Direct Flash” before. In this situation it is not advisable to use bounce flash, to be safe and to be really safe here, I’ve no other option but to use direct flash, because I can shoot at burst, rapid shot, continuously without worrying about my flash recycle time, If in this situation I choose to use “Bounce Flash” option, definitely I will miss some of the best moment in history, I mean their laugh, their facial expression, everything keeps on changing every second or maybe less than a second.

In this situation, just forget about being artistic, forget about good composition, you can hardly move, it’s so tight, I think I’ve push some Minister aside because some photographers from behind keep pushing on me, everybody wanted this historical shot, historical moment where our current Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, having a good time with Malaysia former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi and Tun Mahathir, it is not everyday kind of situation where we will get this moment and who knows maybe our current Deputy Prime Minister , Muhyiddin Yassin will become our next Prime Minister in the future, so I’ve four great Malaysian leaders in a single frame.

This picture is not a piece of a masterpiece, it is not a piece or artistic photography but nevertheless it is a historical picture to Malaysia whether you like them or not, that’s a different matter but most importantly I’ve captured a history where in a single frame our future generation will be able to look at them and everybody was there. Our present and past leaders are there in a single frame. I might not get this picture if I choose to shoot with “Bounce Flash” because this moment only happen for a very short time, at a fraction of a second. Nobody can tell whether we can see them together again like in this picture, so I’ve to think and act fast. Like I said before, in Photojournalism the most important thing is to tell a story with a picture. If this picture tells a story then it is good enough for me. A beautiful picture sometimes are meaningless, it is beautiful but just that, have no meaning other than just beautiful, you can take a beautiful picture everyday but you can’t shoot or captured a “Moment in History” everyday.

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