Tamron Blog: Angle of View

PMDA Portraits of Love Project

 By Ken Hubbard

Back on September 26th I had the honor of participating in the PMDA Portraits of Love Project at Fort Hood,Tx. Spending the day with the families of soldiers overseas, mostly Iraq and Kuwait, made me realize how special a project this really is. Everyone who came for their portraits that day were so thankful for the chance to send their loved ones pictures. It was a bit overwhelming for me since I was the one who felt honored to do this for the soldiers who protect this country and the families that are waiting at home for them. It was a great day and I met some really wonderful people. I hope everyone I met that day has a safe return of their loved one.

The following paragraphs are a description of the project from the PMDA Portrait of Love Website:

The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA) has teamed with the Soldiers' Angels volunteer organization to create the PMDA Soldiers' Angels Portraits of Love Project. The goal of the Project is to provide 10,000 U.S. soldiers around the world with portraits of their families and loved ones this holiday season, taken by the incredibly talented photographers within our industry. What better way to make our soldiers feel at home than by providing them with a beautifully photographed and printed portrait of the ones they love and miss the most?

The PMDA Soldiers' Angels Portraits of Love Project will help soldiers create their own private world - one in which when they lay down at night, in the barracks, in the tents, or wherever they are, that they are with their loved ones. At the recent PMDA Person of the Year dinner, Sergeant First Class Toby Nunn spoke about the incredible motivation a simple photograph can provide to a solider away from home. We are looking to use the strength and commitment of PMDA member companies to help support this project and provide the men and women defending our country with a piece of home during these difficult times.

PMDA has designated the month of September to set up photo shoots and gather soldiers' families in specific cities, on military bases and in other locations across the country. We are working with individual photographers to set up these locations. The goal of the project is to create 10,000 portraits of soldiers' families and to send these portraits to the soldiers overseas and to their families here in the United States in time for the holidays.

The PMDA Soldiers' Angels Portraits of Love Project is the imaging industry's way of giving back with gratitude to the men and women who defend our country each and every day.

 

 

 

There's A New Fast Shooting Lens In Town

 By Mike Moats

If you watch old westerns, the fastest shooter in town was well-respected, and so is the new Tamron 60mm fast shooting macro lens. This f/2.0 out-shoots the other macro lenses by a full stop. This really helps with macro as we tend to shoot subjects like small moving critters, flowers blowing in the wind, and if you're like me, I shoot a lot in wooded areas where it can get pretty dark. So to help stop a moving subject or speed up my shutter in low light, the Tamron 60mm macro fits the bill.

The wide f/2.0 aperture of this lens also helps to blur backgrounds, which is a problem you usually have with the short focal length lenses. I had no problem producing nice blurred backgrounds or abstracts, and the results rivaled some of my longer focal length macro lenses. This lightweight lens is also great if you’re hand holding shots.

Those of you that know my style of shooting know that I like to shoot a lot of subject using full depth of field. I was very happy with the way this lens performed when stopped down all the way. Nice sharp images throughout.

Here are a few shots from the Tamron 60mm macro lens.

 

 

 

 
 
 

Lakota Wolf Preserve

  By Ken Hubbard

Lakota Wolf Preserve is one of the gems you find in out of the way places. Tucked away in Columbia, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Pennsylvania border, and hidden by a local camp ground, you can hear about 24 wolves howling in the distance. The Following images were taken over a few years with a few different Tamron Lenses. When people first hear about photo trips to this great place they ask, "Wow, I must need some really long glass like the 200-500mm". Actually, you don't need such long glass since at times the wolves are close enough to you that they can lick your lens. The 1st two images were taken with Tamron's AF18-270mm VC lens, set on aperture priority at f/6.3 to minimize my depth of field. The second 2 images were shot with the 28-300mm VC also on Aperture Priority at f/6.3. I usually hand-hold my camera when shooting at the preserve, since the wolves move so quickly at times that a tripod can become a bit awkward. A monopod will work much better for those who are concerned about shaking, but with the VC mechanism on the Tamron 18-270mm & 28-300mm I have had no problems hand-holding under all lighting conditions. Since the animals get very close as well don't be afraid to use a wide to normal zoom like the new 17-50mm VC lens. Last but not least, don't put the camera down, keep it close to your eye and ready to shoot, usually you only get a split second to capture the wolves in the perfect pose.

 

  

Over the past 4 years I have had the good fortune to be able to attend a number of workshops at Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, New Jersey. This year is no different. Over the next month two of our local dealers in New Jersey will be hosting field trips to Lakota. Tamron will be there loaning out lenses to the participants and to give some helpful tips on how to shoot the wolves. Dan and Jim, the owners of Lakota, will be there as well to answer all the many questions you may have. What sets Lakota apart from other wolf preserves is the fact that all the wolves are pure breeds and not hybrid mixes. Check the tamron event page for more info on these field trips and if you decide to go on your own, the Lakota web page is http://www.lakotawolf.com.

Nubble Lighthouse

 By Ed Heaton

Last week my wife Kelly and I taught a photography workshop in Acadia National Park and on our way up we stopped at the Nubble Lighthouse. I know it’s a very mature subject and I’m sure I didn’t get any new twist on it. However, this was my first visit and like most people, I was excited to have the opportunity to photograph at this iconic location. We arrived late afternoon and the clouds were just incredible. I worked the subject at several different angles and having the luxury of a solid variable focal length lens (Tamron 28-300mm) I was able to carry one lens and move around the rocks quickly. (Needless to say, it was pretty crowded) After shooting for an hour or so, we went for an early dinner so we could be back in time for sunset with hopes of capturing some amazing light. The clouds were thick on the horizon but we waited and kept our fingers crossed that the sun would peak through and paint the lighthouse with warm light. I have to say our patience paid off. Just before the sun dipped below the horizon, it poked through the clouds and I was able to fire off several shots!

Best of Light,

Ed

 

 

 

 

 
  

Letchworth State Park and Pano Stitching

I just got back from a Tamron Road Series event in upstate New York, which was held in Letchworth State Park. It is known as the East Coast's Grand Canyon, because of its giant gorge and many beautiful waterfalls. The image below was taken at the Upper Falls, I chose this site because of the train trestle which stands behind the falls. I wanted to do a Pano Stitch of this area and the straight lines of the trestle and wanted to see how difficult it would be for the Photoshop software to render well. The Pano image is a composite of 5 vertical images shot with Tamron's 18-270mm lens set to 42mm. Shooting from left to right I shot an area that would be roughly a 180 degree view,each consecutive image was overlapped about 15% so the software would be able to create a clean blend. I ran the 5 images thru the Photoshop stitch software and then cropped the file to this final view. As you can tell there is some distortion in the train trestle, which is much less than what I was expecting with such a wide angle of view. There are many stitch software apps out there and some will work better than others, for me Photoshops built in stitch software works well.

 

I placed this second image here for comparison, it is a horizontal image shot with the Tamron 18-270mm at 27mm. As you can tell it is not near as wide of an angle, but it also does not have any distortion in the trestle.

 

The South Pacific (literally)

  By André Costantini

After finally getting through the first edit of our 5000 or so images from a recent trip to French Polynesia (it only took me a month to do this) I can start to see some of the imagery that struck me so about a part of the world which encompasses roughly the area of Europe with, depending on who you ask, around 120 islands and atolls. In the two and a half weeks we were there, we managed to see three. I figure moving at that rate we could see them all in about two years. But fortunately, we decided to come back to New York so I could blog about the first two and a half weeks. With so much water around, it's pretty hard to ignore the water and especially how light effects it. I'm always amazed with the different colors and textures that the ocean can have. And how the color of the sky can off-set the water. What appears to be a relatively simple subject is subject to the same thing that all subjects are. First, there is the direction and quality of light, then angle of the lens to the subject, which effects how the image is rendered on a CCD. Then there is the focal length of the lens and of course the aperture, shutter speed and point of focus in your image. Lastly, you have things such as wind and the depth of water, which effect the texture and color. The following images show everything from intense blue waters to images that look devout of color. Aside from some basic adjustments (no Photoshop work), these images are all presented as shot.

André

ISO 400 Tamron 18-270mm VC @ 270mm f6.3 1/3200

ISO 100 Tamron 18-270mm VC @ 85mm f10 1/500

 

ISO 100 Tamron 18-270mm VC @ 42mm f5.0 1/1250

ISO 100 Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 @ 200mm f22 1/1000

ISO 100 Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 @ 200mm f11 1/500

ISO 100 Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 @ 200mm f8 1/1000

ISO 400 Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 @ 200mm f2.8 1/1600

ISO 400 Tamron 28-300mm VC @ 300mm f14 1/500

Using HDR Software @ Eastern State Penitentiary

 By Ken Hubbard

I recently helped work a Seminar given by Nancy Ori at Eatern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Lucky for me I had a few moments to shoot in this amazing place. Since you are shooting in some pretty enclosed areas, the Tamron 10-24mm & New 17-50mm VC were ideal for this situation. Also, the light inside the Prison is both very dark and contrasty making a perfect setting to shoot multiple exposures and process them thru High Dynamic Range software.

In the first image I used the Tamron 17-50mm VC, with VC off and placed on a Tripod. The VC was turned off due to the fact that most of the images were shot at shutter speeds of over 1 sec. which I cannot hand-hold even with Vibration Compensation. Here you see the amazing effects using HDR software can have on an image. The image on the left was taken using in camera matrix metering. As you can see there are blown out whites as well as extreme blacks. Since a digital camera's sensor cannot handle the contrast ratio our eyes can, this is the best result possible. Even if I used manual settings and bracketed it would not come out much better. The image on the right was composed using 7 images at 1 stop under and over the original image. This allowed for better detail in both the shadows and highlights. I used PhotoMatix Pro to Create this HDR image.

 

The second image of the barber chair was shot with the Tamron 10-24mm lens also using PhotoMatix Pro HDR Software, it consists of 5 images shot at 1 stop intervals. When I processed this image with the HDR software I added a little more color saturation to bring out the green color on the walls as well as the red cushions on the barber chair.

The final image was once again shot with the Tamron 10-24mm lens. It consists of 5 images at 1 stop intervals, processed in PhotoMatix Pro. Since there were so many great textures in this image I felt turning it to a B&W image would produce a better result. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro for the B&W conversion and burnt edge effect. For me, images like this that have so much texture can produce some of the best B&W imagery.

Fall Football

   By André Costantini

The rattle of the freight train was loud, at least loud enough that picking up the ringing phone was futile. I was outside of Milwaukee watching 7th and 8th graders play football, supporting Getty Photographer, Bruce Bennett teach a Tamron sports photography workshop. As Bruce said, " The trains on railroad tracks behind the field are really quaint, I feel like I'm in middle America." "Bruce," I reminded him, "we are." Armed with my D3x and Tamron 70-200 f2.8 I was ready to stop some action. Not even the first thirty seconds, there was a player down.  Smashed at the knee which had him out for the rest of the game.

ISO 400 200mm F2.8 1/1250

So that sort of set the tone for the game, at least for the home team, despite a couple of nice runs.

ISO 500 70mm f4.5 1/2000

Anyone that knows me knows that I know almost nothing about sports, but I know something about people. Often focusing on the emotion can make compelling images.

ISO 500 140mm f4.5 1/1250

Fun On The Rocks

By Mike Moats

Over Labor Day weekend I was in Harrisville, Michigan exhibiting at an art show. I arrived Friday morning to set up, and I had the afternoon off to go out and do some shooting. I was staying at a friends home during the show and we planned to head to an old lighthouse on Lake Huron, where I wanted to shoot some of the colorful rocks off the point of the lighthouse. We waded out into about a foot of the cold clear water and began shooting abstracts of the rocks. The wave action that was hightlighted by the sunlight created interesting patterns as it distorted the colorful rocks. I was shooting some macro images earlier with my Tamron 90mm macro and decided to use it when I ventured out for these images. My settings for the three images were, f/8, shutter 1/2000 and ISO 1600. The high shutter speed stopped the movement of the waves and captured some interesting lines in the rocks. In the last image I caught a wave that was just entering the frame.

Drying Tobacco

By Ed Heaton

In today’s world, everybody is busy and rushing around, and some people have hardly enough time for themselves let alone others. I truly enjoy living among the Amish and seeing their simple pleasures. They still work the fields by horse or mule with no electricity or phones. I always say they are in all honesty “un-plugged”. With fall just around the corner it’s harvest time here in rural Pennsylvania and the Amish are plenty busy. This group of images of tobacco drying is from the Amish country in Lancaster County, PA. The two images with the wagons inside the barn are high dynamic range or HDR images and the process givens them a slightly grainy look. That is the only way I could balance the exposure between the inside and outside of the barn without setting up flash. I actually like the look and think it adds a bit of dimension to them. I used my Tamron 28-300mm VC lens, (which by the way, I absolutely love and never leave home without) and my new Gitzo tripod. I’ve been using both Tamron and Gitzo products for some time now and I can’t tell you enough good things about both companies and their products.

Best of Light,

Ed