Portrait Photography | Expressive Portraiture

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | A Child and His Penguin | Langkawi

This is among my favorite picture taken at Langkawi, I know it’s not a picture about Langkawi, I can easily take this picture at home, no need to fly hundreds of kilometers just to get this close up shot. There is a story attached to this picture, there is a story to tell, I took this picture at Tengah Beach Langkawi and then again you can’t see the beach here. We bought the cuddly little penguin at Langkawi Underwater World after we finish the tour, I mean visiting the underwater world.

My son like to watch Madagascar the Movie where one of it’s character in the film is a the penguin, we spent more times watching the penguins in the Langkawi Underwater World more than looking at fish there. We did enjoy looking at the penguin, how they walk, how they jump,there is one species there called Rockhopper penguin that love to hop from one rock to another rocks, maybe that’s how the penguin got it’s name. The way the penguin walk is kind of interesting, funny at the same time.

Right after we finished the tour is the souvenir shop, there is a lot of underwater  toys here, I mean the souvenir, small little  items but when my son saw this little penguin hanging from one of the racks in the shop, he keeps on playing with it, touch it, I found it cute too, small and not too expensive. I ask my son to wander around and show him to some other souvenirs but he still wants the penguin and he said “buy”.

Finally we bought that little cuddly penguin and from that moment wherever we went wandering around this island, my son will bring the penguin with him, we rent a car to move around here. Whenever we want to leave our hotel room, my son will bring the penguin with him as well, children can be so attached to his toys, it’s like they found a new friend playing with him and talking to him.

Why I’m writing all this non photography related story? So you can relate to this picture, why I like this picture so much, its like a sense of an accomplishment getting that little cuddly penguin. About the tight shot, a close up shot is the best way to show emotion, to show the character of the person where expression matters, just like in the movie, most of the times, when there is sad or emotional feeling or a drama, a close up or extreme close up usually have strong impact to the audience, because movies is not a still image but moving image, usually they will start with established shot, maybe full length shot before zoom in to  the face of the actor or actress.

I just want to tell a story with just a single picture, a single frame, this is not a documentary photography or photo essay, so I need to choose a strong picture in order to tell the story, most people usually will take a photograph of their son or children happy, running around here and there, showing happy  face but whenever I photograph my son, I try to captured his soul, character and personality. I like it best when a picture of my son have an emotional feelings into it, strong and expressive.