It's Only a Matter of Time

By André Costantini

Last month I stopped by Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota and had a couple of minutes to make some pictures. Both images were shot with the Tamron SP 70-300 VC USD lens.

The shutter speed of the vertical was 1/6 of a second, hand held at 200mm. The VC (Vibration Compensation) feature built into the lens allowed me to hand hold this very slow shutter speed. By compensating for slight movements that can cause blur, the stabilizer makes it possible to take images at slower shutter speeds then traditionally possible without a tripod. This is important, especially with telephoto lenses. The reason is that longer focal lengths magnify (optically) what we photograph. The result is that a small movement on the part of the photographer gets recorded as a big movement in your image, creating unwanted blur.

The rule of thumb is that the slowest shutter speed you want to use is 1 over the focal length. So without the VC with a 200mm focal length one would need to shoot at no slower then 1/200 of a second. But at 1/200 of a second the water would not appear silky which results from that same longer shutter speed. The VC function gives you up to 4 more stops of light that one can effectively hand hold. In this case it makes 1/6th of a second exposure possible!

I thought it would be interesting to change the mood and look of the same subject only by changing the shutter speed. The horizontal shot was at 1/2000 of a second, freezing the water and capturing a moment that conveys more power and chaos then the longer shutter speed which makes the water smooth. The difference in the two images is only a matter of time.

Comments

[PA Hire]

I was actually amazed with this photograph and I thought you applied some tricks here. But I do believe that it's just a perfect timing to come up with a good shot.