Photography and Jackpot? Graphic: Nicholas Campbell/iStockphoto

My mentor Lance loves analogies. He could compare teaching photography to teaching salsa, using studio lights to driving cars, shooting to fishing, farming and hunting, and the list goes on.

My favourite analogy is one where he compared getting a good photograph to striking a jackpot on a slot machine.

What Makes a Good Photograph Anyway?

So what makes a good photograph in the first place? There is no easy answer since we all have slightly different tastes in aesthetics.

A good portrait for someone could be one where the light is soft with little shadows, an expression that conveys joy and happiness, a framing that is tight and emphasizes on the facial features, a background that is plain and simple. On the other hand, someone else might prefer a harder and more dramatic lighting, a more pensive expression, a looser framing, a more colourful background.

It’s okay to differ about what exactly makes a good photograph, but we can all agree that a photograph that is good to us is a result of many variables falling into place. In the example above, the variables could be lighting, expression, framing and background. There can be, and there usually are many more variables in a portrait—the eyes could be brightly lit or in shadows, the exposure could be too bright or too dark, the pose can be natural or unnatural—but you get the idea.

How Photography & Jackpot Are Very Much Alike

Each of these variables represent one of the many reels that is constantly spinning on a slot machine, and only when these variables line up to our standards of aesthetics do we get a photograph that we really like—a good photograph.

Boy in Ayutthaya, Thailand, 2009. Commissioned by AsiaPhoto.

The good news is that getting a good photograph is easier than striking triple ‘7’s in jackpot. The difference is that it’s possible to control some, if not most of the variables that make a good photograph, but not the reels on the slot machine.

Your chances of striking a jackpot is very much higher when you’re just waiting for the third cherry on the last spinning reel, compared to waiting for three cherries to line up from three still-spinning reels, right?

How Good Photography is Easier than Striking Jackpot

The trick is then to turn as many of these variables into constants as possible, and to wait for those variables that we can’t control to fall into place.

Translate all these theory into the portrait that we talked about above, we could easily turn two of the variables (framing and background) into constants if we lock down our camera on a tripod and get our subject to stay in position. Then we’ll only be left with getting the expression and lighting right.

Consider if we don’t lock down the frame and background, we could very well end up with a shot with the right light and expression, but a crop that’s too tight or background that is too distracting for our taste.

If putting your subject’s eyes into shadow is your cup of tea, then make sure you choose to shoot at noon! Photo: patries71/Creative Commons

I like warm glow and directional lighting in my outdoor portraits, so I’d choose to shoot in the golden hours of the day (that’s about 7–8.30am and 4.30–6.30pm here in Singapore) rather than in the harsh midday sun where more likely than not, the eyes of my subjects will end up in dark shadows due to the overhead sun. If however you happen to like the eyes of racoons, you’d choose to shoot at 12 noon to maximise the chances of having your subject’s eyes in shadows.

With outdoor portraiture, there is no guarantee that you’ll get the kind of light you’re looking for, but at least you can make a conscious effort to control the variable and maximise your chances.

If the light is right, then we’re just left with getting the expression we want. And that is the variable that we might have to take a few tries before we strike our jackpot.

But just like the fickle sunlight, we could do our part as photographers to maximise the chances of getting the expression we want, by anticipating and pre-focusing so we don’t lose the moment when the expression presents itself.

A dry cabinet is where you should be storing your equipment. Photo: James/Creative Commons

Storage

For general safe keeping, we strongly recommend that cameras and lenses be stored in a clean and dry area such as a dry cabinet. In humid Singapore, the dry cabinet is essential to keep fungus from growing in your equipment.

As they are available in a wide array of shapes and sizes, choose one that would store your camera, lenses and accessories like flashes and cables comfortably. For up to two camera bodies and three lenses, the smallest-sized 38L AIPO AP-38EX would fit the bill just right.

Limiting the size of the dry cabinet would probably help you refrain from buying excessive equipment to fill up the voids!

Camera Care

The best way to keep dust out of your camera sensor is to minimise the exposure of the sensor to the environment. This means that people who own only one lens would probably never, ever find a single spot of dust on his or her sensor. But for most of us who own more than one lens, we’re bound to find dust spots on our sensors every now and then depending on how frequently we change lens and the environment in which we change the lenses in. If you’re storing your DSLR with no lens mounted, remember to cap the body up to keep your sensor, mirror and focusing screen clean of dust.

Newer cameras such as the Canon EOS 40D, Nikon D60 and Sony A200, to name a few, come equipped with self-cleaning mechanism that would keep your sensor free of dust. If you do find dust on the sensor that the camera cannot clean by itself, we recommend sending it in to your manufacturer to get it cleaned for a nominal price of about $20. Canon users can find a list of prices for various repair and maintenance services listed on their website.

Quite honestly, we do not clean the camera sensor ourselves, and we would encourage you to leave its delicate handling to the experts. If however you are still interested to clean the sensor yourself, you can read more about the different methods and their pros and cons.

Lens Care

Lenses are best cleaned using a blower for loose dust particles and anti-static cloth for fingerprints etc. We generally hold the lens facing downwards and use a blower to blow off loose dust particles.

You should use an anti-static cloth to wipe off the dirt/fingerprint only when the loose dust particles have been blown off lest you scratch your lenses. Try not to use cotton or clothing to clean the lens as the fibres may get stuck or worse, scratch the glass elements. Anti-static cloths are available at most camera stores and optical shops or come packaged with cleaning kits bundled with blowers.

Dust will inevitably appear within your lenses after using them for some time. You should just leave them alone since they do not degrade your image quality and there’s no easy way to clean them aside from tearing your lens apart.

Filters

UV filters worsen lens flare. Photo: alforque/Creative Commons

Screwing on a cheap UV filter on an expensive lens ultimately defeats the purpose of spending the extra money for superior optics. Developing the habit of religiously keeping your lens capped when not in use would be a better (and more cost effective) practice to prevent accidental damage.

However not everyone is comfortable leaving an expensive lens completely unprotected. So if you do get an UV filter, get one with multi-coating to reduce flare, and don’t be afraid to remove the filter if it’s giving you trouble during a shoot. Filters come in different sizes to fit different lenses, so find out what thread size your lens uses (see the back of your lens cap, eg. 58mm, 72mm) before buying one.

Storage Media and Accessories

Storage media like CF/SD cards are hardier than your portable hard disks, but it would be a good idea to keep them away from magnetic materials to prevent corruption or loss of data. In fact keeping cameras away from magnets would be a wise practice too. Remove batteries from cameras, flashes and other devices if they’re not going to be used for some time to prevent them from leaking and spoiling your equipment. Formatting your storage media onboard the camera is better than doing it on your computer. Formatting a storage card involves deleting all the recorded (and protected) data and optimising it for usage on the camera hence it is best done on the camera itself.

Having all the equipment stored in a dry cabinet is great but thats not what cameras were made for, so do inspect them and use them regularly to keep them clicking like they should instead of leaving them idle in storage. If you are not likely to be using the camera for a long period of time (say a year) it might be good to just take it out once a month and shoot a few frames to keep the shutter mechanism working. Like a rolling stone gathers no moss, a well used camera is less likely to give problems than one that has been dormant for years.

Devotees doing their penance in the form of pulling chariots using strings and hooks attached to their bodies.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

A kavadi bearer prepares himself for the vel kavadi dance. The vel kavadi is a altar made with wood and decorated with peacock feathers and weighs up to 50kg. They are attached to the bearer through hooks or spikes.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

The vel kavadi attracts much attention from devotees and visitors alike due to its large size and its flamboyant decorations. Carrying a vel kavadi is seen as the ultimate form of penance due to the heavy burden and the multiple piercings involved.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

Many devotees also hook smaller items such as fruits and bells in their back as kavadi. Devotees say they feel no pain and shed no blood in their state of trance because of Lord Murugan’s protection.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

Not all kavadi involve physical torture; they can also be as simple as a milk jugs (paal kudam) carried on devotees’ head, as women and even children often do. Those who are clothed usually dress in yellow and orange, the colours of Lord Murugan.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

Not all kavadi involve physical torture; they can also be as simple as a milk jugs (paal kudam) carried on devotees’ head, as women and even children often do. Those who are clothed usually dress in yellow and orange, the colours of Lord Murugan.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

Batu Caves attract about 1.5m devotees and visitors yearly, mostly during the Thaipusam festival.

An estimated 1.2m visited the caves for Thaipusam in 2009.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto

A 43m tall statue of Lord Murugan completed in 2006 stands beside the steep flight of stairs to the cave.

It is the tallest statue of the Hindu deity in the world.

Commissioned by AsiaPhoto