Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Why the 17-50/2.8 is almost always my 'normal' go to lens.

By John VanSteenberg

At Tamron, a group of us travel extensively to fulfill the 350 events we stage each year teaching photography and training people and attending conventions, etc.. Those include everything from nature and macro workshops, “zoo days”, staff training events, convention booths images, and almost any kind of photography seminar imaginable. And, traveling to and from these events is often the time we get to make images.

Additionally, much of my personal work includes photographing “social events”. In my case, it involves appearances with athletes at social and promotional events. These often include group functions like awards dinners, public appearances, fitness clinics, etc.. Typically, these happen in restaurants, social halls, gymnasiums or the like. Often, they include meetings and dinners and are technically very much like photographing wedding receptions or business functions.

Because of the wide variety of situations, most involving small groups of people, in low light, many requiring specifically using flash or ambient light only; I find my Tamron SP 17-50/2.8 VC on my camera almost all the time.

1) Coverage. The 17-50mm range on an APS-C body is perfect for social functions. From portraits to table shots to “grip and grins” to couples in conversation, to dance floor situations, I seem to never have to change lenses. (For full-frame bodies, I would choose the Tamron SP 24-70/2.8 or SP 28-75/2.8 models.)

And when documenting seminar attendees, booth set up at conventions and even for fine art landscapes, the 17-50 fits virtually every situation except the most extreme wide or telephoto situations.

2) Hand held low light capabilities. The fast 2.8 constant aperture means I can work with ambient light in the situations requiring it. The additional capabilities of the VC technology enable me to work in light that we would never even consider a couple of years ago. I have never seen any stabilization feature that is as effective. Everybody’s ability to shoot hand held varies, of course. But, I find I can hand hold 1/8^th to 1/4^th of a second, depending on my caffeine intake.

3) Improved flash functionality. Having the constant f/2.8 is crucial for social events. I dislike the flat and high contrast usually associated with most on-camera flash photography. Therefore, in the field, to soften the light and create more wrap, I always use a fan type flash modifier, when flash is required. The drawback to this is that the effective flash distance is reduced about in half. The fast and constant f/2.8 aperture offsets this loss of light, allowing me both a higher quality of light and the greater distance required for many group shots.

4) Close focusing capabilities. In addition to citations and plaques, athletes are often awarded rings in recognition of certain events or championships. Just like the ring shots at weddings, these ‘ring shots’ come up often. With the ability to focus down to about 12 inches and a reproduction ratio of 1:4.8, I can fill the image with anything slightly larger than a business card.

5) Video clips. Today, photographers are often required to produce video in addition to still images. Again the constant f/2.8 aperture plays an invaluable roll. It prevents exposure shift associated with zooming when using a variable aperture lens. And, it allows for effective depth of field control to de-emphasize objectionable backgrounds.

6) Optical quality. The fast f/2.8 means that at f/4-f/5.6 my images will be sharper than any variable maximum aperture lens I have encountered (because they are not yet into their “sweet spot” of maximum sharpness). This means that from the eyelashes on portraits to the faces of everyone in large groups, I can be certain of great enlargement capabilities and satisfied clients.

Also, as with all SP models from Tamron, it is possible to get a bigger maximum enlargement size than with non-SP models. This becomes very significant when high quality display prints are the goal.

So, for all of these reasons, the 17-50 range is virtually my normal lens and is always on my main body unless I am traveling, then it goes to my 18-270 VC..

18-270 Tamron at the Chrysler Museum

By Mike Moats

I recently found out that the Walter P Chrysler Museum is closing it's doors to the public, and will be just used for Chrysler Corporate events. The museum is located outside of Detroit in the suburbs of Auburn Hills. They have about 70 classic cars and trucks dating back to the 20's. I have been loving my Tamron 18-270 zoom lens which is the perfect lens when working in museums. With the cars behind barriers, many times I will need the reach of the 270 to capture small areas of the cars at a distance away. The wide angle comes in handy when I am working in tight areas where I can't back up. So with the museum closing soon I figured I better get over there and put the 18-270 to good use.

See more images at www.tinylandscapes.com

The Space Shuttle & the Golden Gate Bridge: Once in a lifetime.

By John VanSteenberg

It’s always fun when circumstance shines on you. Recently, I was in San Francisco for the Photographic Society of America annual convention when the newscasts announced that there would be a coincidental final flyover of the space shuttle Endeavour on its journey to retirement in Los Angeles.

Rather little information was made clear by the media. Start times were widely varied. Flight direction and duration was not clear. We knew it would be early morning, little more.

So, a group of us got up at 4:30am (to be sure we got there and set up by the 7:30am possible start time). Naturally, we started late. When the morning news indicated that the fly over might be delayed by about an hour due to fog, we were relieved. So, we got going at 6:00am and drove down to the Golden Gate bridge area. We arrived at 6:30am and set up just east of the Golden Gate with both a good view of the bridge and a pretty good view of Alcatraz.

We were ready by 7:30 as the crowds began to arrive in earnest. And we waited. And waited.

As the sun rose, the beautiful early morning light hardened into mid day sun. We photographed dogs being exercised by owners. And we photographed boats. We jockeyed for position on the promenade. And we waited.

We knew that the flight was to go over the bridge twice. We didn’t know which way: parallel to the bridge or across it. We knew that we had basically a very short window of opportunity, whichever way the flight went.

I had lent out all of my very long lenses, so I was left with just my SP 17-50/2.8. In a way, it turned out to be a blessing. I could see nearly the entire bridge. Or zoom in to compose a portion of it.

And then it happened. First, a passenger jet with NASA logos flew into sight (the first plane of any kind sighted in an hour) and over the bridge to the southwest and turned south. Then, several minutes later, again far off to the northeast we saw a bright white speck heading west-southwest. It had to be the shuttle. As it grew closer we saw that accompanying it was a military fighter jet. Based on how long it took to approach, we knew it was big and flying pretty slow.

It’s course put it to the north of the bridge, where it turned south along a parallel path to the bridge. It was low and slow, and still the flyover took only about 30 seconds. It passed north to the south over the bridge proper in only about 15 seconds.

About 10 minutes later, the 747 transport carrying Endeavour had circled around for the second pass and headed back toward the bridge passing right over Alcatraz and bisecting the bridge going east to west. Amazingly low and slow, it was a once in a lifetime chance to see both the retirement flight and to see the flight in proximity to such an American icon.

Several thousand of us, many with their cameras got to be present at this once in a lifetime event. Quite a setting. And quite a sight.

Right Place, Right Time

by Jeff Allen

I travel a lot for work, as I think I’ve mentioned before.

A few weeks ago I happened to be in Southern California -- the week that the Space Shuttle Endeavour was flown to Los Angeles to be retired as a permanent part of the collection at the California Science Center. The Shuttle traveled on top of a specially-modified Boeing 747 transport aircraft across the country and around California -- much of the time at low altitudes of between 1200 and 1500 feet above the ground -- so it could bid farewell as a spacecraft, passing many of the cities that had something to do with design and manufacture of the shuttle.

I happened to be in Santa Ana, and had been watching the news coverage of the farewell trip.

The shuttle and transporter aircraft were scheduled to pass near Disneyland, several miles away from where I was. I decided to take a chance at getting a keepsake photograph or two if I could see it in the distance. I expected that if I saw it at all, that it would probably be a distant speck in the sky.

So, armed with my trusty Tamron SP AF 200-500mm lens, mounted on a sturdy tripod, I ventured outside to see what I could see. I had already set my camera to a shutter speed of 1/1000sec, and set the ISO to 400 so I was assured of getting sharp images. I was out for just a few minutes, when I heard the sound of a large aircraft approaching from my right. I looked and saw the Shuttle atop the transporter, probably less than a mile away. I quickly pointed my camera and started shooting. The aircraft were traveling fast and I only got a couple of shots off before they went behind some trees.

So, today’s tip is -- always be ready with your camera. Be familiar with your camera, lenses and how they need to be set for a given situation. Practice regularly so when the time comes, you will get the shot you were hoping for, when that speck in the distance turns out to fly right by.

Tamron SP AF 200-500 @500mm, Shutter priority @1/1000sec, f7.1 ISO 400

Mounted on a tripod for maximum sharpness

Making Lemonade

by Jeff Allen

It’s about that time of year again for many of us. You know, fall color photography season. Time to head for the hills, the woods, the local park or maybe just your backyard. There are lots of ways to get great leaf peeping photo results. But what happens on your outing if the weather doesn’t cooperate?

That is exactly what happened to me once when I was mentoring at a fall color photography workshop.

The morning started out great -- bright, sunny, warm and calm. Our group met at a local park. We shared some last minute thoughts and suggestions, then set out photographing the gorgeous colors that hardwood trees can produce: rich gold, vibrant red, even some saturated orange. Many sets of tripod legs were spread across the grounds, and attendees were getting good lessons and making some great shots. A small stream flowed through the park, and images of leaves floating and swirling in eddies were being captured, too.

We knew we had some potential weather issues looming as the forecast had predicted a storm front to come through. It was expected to arrive in the evening, so we weren’t too concerned about the workshop being affected.

Well, sometimes nature throws a wrench into your plans. About 90 minutes into the shoot, a breeze came up. No big deal. Simply set higher shutter speeds to stop motion. Of course, the breeze became steadily more intense until after just a few minutes we were getting strong gusts, branches were flailing and leaves were being blown away.

What to do, what to do?

Time to make lemonade from the lemons falling around us. I suggested we start shooting abstract photos. Everyone had already experimented with leaves swirling in pools on the stream, which requires a steady camera on a tripod making long exposures of the swirling color on the water.

So why not try shooting hand-held?

I had everyone take their cameras off their tripods. First, they used the zoom lenses to shoot long exposures handheld, zooming their lenses in and out during the exposures. Then I showed them how – with a wide-angle lens on the camera -- to rotate their hands like a clock during a long exposure. Both techniques made for some really unique, beautiful and colorful abstract images.

Day salvaged, smiles all around.

If you want to give it a try, here are some basic settings for your camera and lens to start:

Use a fairly low ISO setting like 100 or 200. Set the camera to aperture priority (AV) and use a small aperture like f16 or 22. Switch the autofocus off, and focus on the tree you want to use. You may want to experiment with using stabilization if your lens or camera has that feature. Try some with stabilization on and off. Back-lit or side-lit leaves will likely give better results than front-lit ones.

Below are a couple of examples that I captured that day to give you an idea of where to start. So when you get out to shoot this fall even if the weather isn’t great, or if you miss the peak of color in your area, or you just want something a bit different, you can try this approach, and maybe come home with a smile from drinking that lemonade.

Good shooting!

Shot with Tamron 18-270 VC PZD lens, while zooming “out” from the telephoto end of the range to the wide end of the lens zoom range at ISO 200. Aperture set at f22, the exposure was 1/20 sec. Try zooming both directions to see which results you like best.

Manual focus used. For best focus results zoom all the way in, then focus on the point of your choice. Try experimenting with focus point, also.

Shot with Tamron SP 10-24mm, at 18mm, while turning the camera counter clockwise, but not zooming the lens. ISO 200. Aperture set at f22, the exposure was 1/15 sec. Again, try turning your camera clockwise and counter-clockwise, to find the shot you like best. Focus set at manual, focus point was set at middle of the tree.

Governor’s Fish Ohio Day

Guest Post by Mike Mainhart

 

Port Clinton, Oh - The 18-270mm proves to be a versatile lens on the annual Governor’s Fish Ohio Day, held in mid-July. The event takes place in Port Clinton, Ohio and features a day of walleye fishing on Lake Erie. The invited guests include media and politicians. The goal of the event is to promote tourism.

 
I boarded a charter boat with a full bag of lenses on the morning of the feature event. As we cleared the break wall, it was obvious that the photo shoot was going to be limited. The 3-5 foot waves made it difficult to stand at times, let alone shoot photos. I chose the 18-270mm from my bag and stayed with it.

 
Normally I try to get creative shots. Hanging over the side or standing on the fly bridge, anything to make the photos stand out. Not this day. I had to rely on keeping both feet on the floor which limited the shots. The high sun helped to keep the lens fast considering both the subject and the camera were rocking back and forth. The wide angle proved to be helpful in the confines of the boat. Given the conditions and the few shots taken the 18-270mm performed great.

 
Back on solid ground, after the fishing, all the participants gather for lunch and speeches from the politicians. It’s difficult to get an interesting shot in a crowd of people. Always think out of the box. The key speaker at the event was Ohio’s Governor Kasich.

 
In somewhat of a surprise he decided to sign an executive order in front of the crowd of media. As all the cameras lined up in front of the action I decided to take a different angle. An over the shoulder photo proved to be much more interesting. The shot was taken with no flash. I had just enough time to bump the ISO up to 1600 in order to get good exposure under a shaded tent.

After the media event ended I decided to shoot some of the local scenery. The Marblehead lighthouse was a short trip from the hotel and the late-afternoon light was perfect. Again, traveling with a full bag of lenses I chose to stay with the 18-270mm.

When photographing something that has been well documented by thousands of others before me, my approach is to do something different. It only took a few minutes of watching others taking photos to realize, all I needed to do was back up. The late afternoon light was interesting. Backing away from the lighthouse and having the full 18-270mm range of the lens gave me several options for composition.

 

As the light faded towards sunset I changed position to capture the waves crashing onto the glacier carved bedrock. All sunsets are beautiful but some are better than others. This evening was average. The goal was to incorporate the scenery to get an appealing shot.

 

Sometimes a photo will present itself. After several minutes, camera on tripod, trying to find an interesting composition, something happened to make the shot. A fisherman jumped on a rock to make a cast. That one brief moment turned an average shot into a story telling photo.

 

Mike Mainhart Bio: He is a freelance photographer in northeast Ohio specializing in wildlife and outdoor activity photography. I'm honored to have received several awards photos published in several publications not only in Ohio but around the country including a Tamron sponsored (People's Choice Award). I am a member of Outdoor Writers of Ohio and the Kentucky Outdoor Press Association. Outdoor Writers website http://outdoorwritersofohio.org/