Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Ice Abstracts

 By Mike Moats

As we enter into the first phase of winter here in the northern regions of the US, we find less and less to shoot outdoors. The colors have all disappeared and the plant life has wilted and faded away until next spring. Once the first week of December arrives, I look forward to heading to the local creeks and shooting ice abstract. These images that you see are produced in the very first stages of freeze at the edges of the creeks. In this newly formed ice you will find interesting patterns and unique natural designs. With each winter day the cold adds new layers of ice causing the ice to turn white and erasing these creative designs, so being out there at the first ice is your best chance to shoot these cool abstracts.

A long focal length macro lens works best as you will be shooting from the bank of the creek and need that longer range to reach the subjects and fill the frame. I used the Tamron 180mm macro lens.

You will be shooting at low angles and to increase my depth of field to bring the whole design into sharp focus I use the higher f/stop numbers in the f/22 to f/32 ranges. Tamron 180mm

Look for designs that have a lot of interesting swirling lines. Tamron 180mm

Sometimes you will come across ice with cool colors. The colors may reflect from the blue in the sky or from brown leaves under the ice, or yellows from low angle early morning sunlight. Tamron 180mm

 

As you can see there are some very interesting artwork created by mother nature, so dress warm and don't let the cold stop you from shooting. Tamron 180mm

Mike Moats is an award winning, full time pro nature photographer, specializing in macro. His images and articles are published in major magazines and has a book and four e-books on the subject of macro and photo business.  Mike offers a three day "Macro Boot Camp" through out different parts of the country, and has created a new online "Macro Nature Forum" for macro photographers to post images and participate in discussion about macro photography in nature. You can see more of Mike's work and info about the workshops, books, and macro forum at www.tinylandscapes.com

Acadia National Park

 By Ed Heaton

Every year I schedule my Acadia National Park Workshop to coincide with the peak fall colors in October. Maine is a beautiful state with a true diversity when it comes to photography. With its rugged coastlines, beautiful birch trees and a nice assortment of lighthouses it's a true photographer's paradise. As one would imagine my bag is full of assorted Tamron lenses. In fact I have a lens for each different job that I may run across. A wide angle, for capturing those dramatic landscapes when I want to incorporate a lot of supporting subjects, a medium range lens, when I want to show what I'm seeing normally and a longer lens, when I'm trying to extract part of the overall scene. As a professional photographer I am very happy with the quality of Tamron lenses and more importantly the quality of my images using thier lenses!

I wanted to share a few images that I made from my trip that were all made with several Tamron lenses.

Best of Light,

Ed

Last Light on Leaves

 By André Costantini

What is the best way to get vibrant color on foliage? Get great light on it. Several weeks ago I was out for a hike at the end of the day. The "peak" of foliage had past. However, there was some beautiful residual color still hanging on. I have, in the past looked for the perfect leaf. Even so much so that I have found the perfect leaf or in some cases leaves and then set them up in the frame. But today, where the light was already placed on the leaves, where they were and how they were was my interest. The color, the light and the decay. That is all part of the imperfect natural beauty. It is much more unpasteurized. I walked and walked, watching the light and the color until the sun had dropped beyond the point of illuminating moments in the forest.

 All of these images were shot with my Nikon D-SLR camera in Manual mode with the Tamron SP 60mm f2.0, wide open. Why manual mode? Often the camera's meter can get fooled by a bright thing in the foreground and a bunch of darkness in the background. This is because it looks for an average of tones. More often then not the result is an image where the subject is a little "washed out" or over exposed which also makes the color saturation light. Once you establish the exposure on your subject you can easily reframe your image without having to worry about exposure shifts.

A little practice experimenting with Manual mode will make you more comfortable with your camera. And besides, the rest of the other modes are still gonna be there if you want to go back, unlike those leaves which are already gone.

Kids Don't Sit Still For Long

 By Ken Hubbard

I'll start this off by saying that I don't have any kids myself, but do have 3 nieces and a nephew. So, I do know full well that kids just don't sit still for very long. Back in late September my sister's family and I went out for the last kayak trip of the year, we had a pretty good warm spell which made for a great trip. Emily, my niece, as usual went charging down the river as soon as she hit the water as fast as she could. The three adults, myself included, didn't even try and catch up, since this was going to be about a 5 mile trip and we needed to conserve a little energy.

I always bring a camera on these trips, and this time was no exception. Luckily for me I just got my sample of the new Tamron SP AF70-300mm VC USD lens and brought it along to try out. As the rest of us slowly paddled our way up river we came around a bend and there my niece was, just aimlessly floating about. She was sitting there in some really nice light, so I picked up my camera and started shooting, but within 5 seconds and maybe 6 shots she realized we were there and once again she was like a rocket taking off paddling out of sight. The 1st two images are from those six images. The ultra quick focusing speed of the USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) in the the new 70-300mm made all the difference in capturing the 1st shot of Emily looking sideways.

 
As the day progressed I took many more images but ended up liking this last image the best. My sister is just coming out from the darkness of a low bridge, so there is just enough light hitting her to show some detail, while the background is brightly lit. I also like the few droplets of water falling from her paddle. You can capture all these small details made even more clear because of the incredible sharpness of this new 70-300mm lens.

Controlling The Light

 By Mike Moats

For the macro photographer working with natural light, here is a tip and products to help improve your photos.

These are two simple and inexpensive products that I carry with me in the field for controlling light.

LiteDiscs 12″ Translucent  (diffuser)

 

 

 

Plamp (made by Wimberly)

The great advantage that macro photographers have over nature photographers who shoot landscape and wildlife is that we can control the light hitting our subject. Landscape and wildlife photographers have to deal with whatever mother nature throws down on their subjects (harsh sunlight, heavy overcast skies) without any ability to control it. Because of the small size of our subjects and a little help from these two items above, we take control.

This image was shot on a cloudy day, but even a cloudy day will produce harsh light and wash out the tops of flowers. As you can see the top of the Dames Rocket has lost its color.

With this image I have placed a diffuser over the top of the flower shading it from the overhead light. By doing this, it restored the color throughout the flower.

This example shows how to position the diffuser over the top of a flower, shading it from the harsh overhead light.

Here is another example of controlling harsh overhead light with the diffuser.

 Without diffuser                             With diffuser overhead

So what do we use the Plamp for? For holding the Diffuser.

Please take a minute and check out my new Macro Nature Forum. www.macronatureforum.com