This week’s B.I.T.S, Blogger in the Spotlight is none other than our friend from Singapore, Tan Geng Hui. He is an avid photographer with a wide area of photography interests and he mainly shares his journalism writing on his blog. We thought it would be cool to hear about what his passions are , and how photojournalism became his full time job. Here is Tan with “What it takes to be a good photojournalist”.
What does it take, to be good photojournalist?
Photojournalism has grown and expanded quite a lot in recent years, especially with the boom of the internet and the exponential growth of blogging, social media networking and lowered costs of entry into the art of photography.
Changi Boardwalk, located near the Eastern tip of Singapore
Tulips for a Lady
Photojournalism today is not confined to just reporters, media, travel magazines or photography magazine writers. More people nowadays are entering into photojournalism, covering and sharing things, events that are close to their hearts, passion and interests, sharing them on their blogs, facebook, twitter, flickr or forums.
Landscaping Singapore
Fireworks in Singapore
What does it take to be a good photojournalist?
· Passion
· Interest
· The “eye” for photography
· Heart and soul – to go all out for your passion and interest
· Do not rush into taking photographs, relax & stay composed
· Seeking to improve your photography technical skills constantly
· Exploring different fields within photography to search for that particular field that you really love in your photojournalism e.g. Street Photography, Cultural Events, Sports & Action Photography, Travel Photography
A sunset view from a new location in Southern part of Singapore
· Make the best out of your camera setup, don’t rush into upgrading your equipment
· Don’t aim/find for the “Perfect” Photograph and miss the priceless moment
· Enjoy your photography!
· Take only pictures, leave no litter behind, just footprints and avoid damaging the environment
· Willingness to share with friends and people all around the world
· Networking and making new friends that share your same passion and interest
Jet planes tearing up the skyline
What areas can you as a photojournalist cover?
· Local and Overseas events – Cultural , Arts, Events
· Food
· Travel
· Historical Locations
· Special Interests – Eco-tourism, Helping people
Food – food journalism or food blogging is fast becoming the “in thing”
Travel- At the summit of Mount Kinabalu, located in Sabah, East Malaysia
What kind of equipment?
The choice of equipment will always be subjective, a simple digital camera or your mobile phone camera to a DSLR, each can help you to capture the moment. It’s all about the moment and once the moment is missed, it might never be replicated again, therefore, having one of the different camera types listed above, that can let you capture that precious moment.
Photojournalism – Take your camera with you, go out and shoot in your daily life, don’t hesitate and wait, search, seek and shoot! Let me leave you my personal photojournalism quote ~
“Observe carefully with your eyes, shoot with your heart!”
About this week’s guestwriter:
Geng Hui started off as a keen photographer & traveller.. slowly transforming into a photojournalist over the years. He loves the field of Travel, Events & Sports Photography, and recently has found himself moving into teaching & sharing techniques and skills on photography. Geng Hui is a blogger and social media enthusiast, and you will find him poised behind his “giant tool” every opportunity he has!
Follow Tan Gen Hui on Twitter
Read his blog!
Amazing pictures!! Especially love the one at Mt Kinabalu and the one with jets flying in the sky. Photojournalism sounds like something that one can only pursue with lots of passion and interest! 🙂
love the pic of the fireworks. pretty spectacular 😀
my fav are the tulips.. sigh.. so romantic;)
Wow… now that’s what I call photography! I feel so inspired to improve! 😀
LOL, your photography is brilliant already la, mr kenny mah 😛
Me too! I like the one at Mt Kinabalu & the jets.
Great guest post! These tips are super helpful and I always wanted to know more about Tan Geng Hui. I follow him on Twitter and am amazed by his photos 🙂
same here les;)
Inspiring and Geng takes beautiful photos
he’ll be so pleased to hear!
He’s goooood!!!!
i agree Cat;)
Hey it’s @tangenghui !!! It took a while to finally click! Dude your hitting the Malaysia food blog covers now, great stuff!
Let’s get you up to KL soon, or a weekend visit to SG?
Then we can have a battle of what food tastes better? 🙂
Dave, LOL! just name the time and place buster 😛
Very cool post, interesting to see so many philosophical views on photography.
thx aynge;)
I salute you. No need to upgrade…. just shoot with heart lor!
agree!
Outstanding images and some sound advice from somebody that obviously knows their subject well.
Would add that a photojournalist must know their equipment inside out as they will often have very little time to capture an image, therefore being able to change settings quickly to ensure they get the best exposure possible is essential.
Also need to be able to observe what is happening around themselves and anticipate what may happen to enable themselves to get to the right place and in time to capture the image.
This will only come with practice so the best way to learn is to get out and experiment as the author suggests enjoy taking pictures.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Iain for your kind comments! Geng is really good at what he does. Totally inspiring.. I agree that you need to know your camera well -once a shot is gone .. that’s it. How often have we missed a once in a lifetime shot? Luckily, they do come around again;)
I gotta agree with his advice. A very refreshing read. Makes me appreciate my camera even more(not that I dont in the first place).
Thx for sharing Geng Hui (and Ciki too! ) 😛
A very big thank you for me to share & write my first guest post here on your wonderful and exciting blog !
I would also like to say a big thank you to all readers especially those who left kind and wonderful comments, appreciate it and will strive to share more of my photojournalism experiences & also photography tips too in the future !
Looking forward to meeting travel, photography bloggers around the world ! Let’s stay connected and stay in touch via the various social media channels & blogs !
JH
http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv
Great tips 🙂