Photography Tips | Get Closer
© 2014 Wazari Wazir | Be Not Afraid To Get Closer | Thaipusam | Batu Caves Selangor
“If Your Pictures Aren’t Good Enough, You’re Not Close Enough.”
– Robert Capa –
Robert Capa, founder of MagnumPhotos once said that “If Your Pictures Aren’t Good Enough, You’re Not Close Enough.” Meaning that, sometimes you need to get closer to your subject for much stronger photograph. Yes sometimes like in sports for an example, you really can’t get closer to your subject because doing so will distract the movement of the sportsman, normally sports like football, tennis or athletic, you really need a telephoto lens in order to get “closer” to your subject “optically”, meaning that you get closer with the help of your telephoto lens visually, even though you are hundreds meters or more from your subject.
But from my understanding what Robert Capa really meant is that, sometimes you really need to get closer to your subject physically in order to get a great picture. Robert Capa is a war photojournalist and he rarely use a telephoto lens for his photograph, photojournalist don’t shoot war with 300 mm or 600 mm lens, most of the time, photojournalist use wide angle lens to cover the war or conflict areas.
It takes gut and courage to get really close to your subject and if you have noticed, most of the times, the winners of the World Press Photo Contest, the world most prestigious press photography contest are taken with wide angle lens, close up, except the Sports category. Did you know why? Like I said before, it take guts and courage to really get closer to your subject, to get intimate with them, to get their trust.
In the photograph above, I photograph a friend of mine Shamshahrin Shamsudin, a Malaysian based photojournalist specialises in editorial and travel photography during his coverage of Thaipusam, a Hindu festival at Batu Caves. Did you see how close he get to his subject, No, I didn’t orchestrated this image, or direct Shamshahrin to get closer, this real working environment on how professional photographer get his winning shot.
Yes, there is a place where you have to use a telephoto lens like 70-200 mm but it is a good habit to try to get closer to your subject if the situation permits, get intimate with them, get their trust and believe me, you will have a much stronger and powerful image to be proud of. So the next time, when you think on why your photograph are not good enough just like the professional, well, maybe you are not close enough.
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