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| Grape Expectations | ||||
Ken Hubbard embarks on a tour of Long Island wine country with seven fellow epicureans and the Tamron 11-18mm Di-II lens. |
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| SP AF11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di
II LD Aspherical (IF) by Jennifer Gidman Zumpano |
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Like the main characters in Sideways, Alexander
Payne’s recent cinematic tour de force, Tamron photographer
Ken Hubbard spent a recent late-spring afternoon touring verdant
wine country with seven friends, sampling luscious libations and
touring tasting rooms along the way. However, unlike the gastronomes
depicted in the Academy Award–nominated feature film, Hubbard
wasn’t carousing around Napa/Sonoma in search of the perfect
bouquet: His winery wanderings all took place on Long Island’s
East End, now home to some of the world’s foremost vineyards. |
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“We traveled east on Sound Avenue [a major
Long Island winery thoroughfare] all the way to Orient Point, stopping
at a few vineyards along the way, including Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue,
Martha Clara Vineyards in Jamesport, and Macari Vineyards in Mattituck,” he
says. “We also stopped in the towns of Greenport, East Marion,
and Orient.” |
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Hubbard packed his new Tamron SP AF11-18mm F/4.5-5.6
Di II lens to help him unearth some of Long Island’s grape-harvesting
culture. This super-wide-angle lens helped him creatively compose
his imagery with minimal aberrations and distortion. “ The
11-18 came in handy on this trip to take care of shooting in sometimes-tight
quarters,” he explains. “There were many times inside
the tasting rooms when I really needed this type of wide-angle
lens to get everything I wanted in the frame. We were a group of
eight, and to get everyone in some of the shots would have been
impossible without the 11-18.” |
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Vintage Views—From a Wide-Angle Perspective |
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The 11-18 lens allowed Hubbard to capture some
impressive imagery with unique perspective during his daylong excursion—without
sacrificing image quality. “When shooting with such wide-angle
lenses, distortion is one concern that always pops up,” he
says. “I was very impressed with the minimal amount of distortion
in this lens, even at 11mm.” |
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Distortion usually increases when you’re
shooting off the horizontal plane of a subject (when you either
shoot down, up, or to the side of your subject, as Hubbard enjoys
experimenting with in many of his shots): “I usually like
to offer a slightly different perspective, and distortion (especially
when shooting people) can provide some funny effects, but usually
not what you’re looking for. With the advanced optical system
inside this new Di-II lens, the light rays hitting the sensor are
condensed so they hit directly onto an APS-sized sensor, in turn
minimizing distortion.” |
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Hubbard put just such a different spin on a small
schooner in the quaint town of Greenport. “I wanted to show
the extreme angle and depth-of-field of the 11-18,” he explains. “It
was a little difficult to get this angle, so I sat down on the dock
and dangled my legs. I still couldn’t get quite as close as
I wanted, so I stretched out my hands with the camera and took the
image without looking through the viewfinder. It took about five
or six tries to get everything lined up correctly.” |
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To shed some light on the photogenic tall ship,
Hubbard used a white piece of foamcore that he usually keeps in his
car to reflect some light back onto the ropes and the wood. “This
was an extremely backlit subject, and I was worried that it would
come out too much like a silhouette without some light coming in
from my direction,” he says. “I didn’t need much
light—just enough to show a little detail in the wood and ropes.” |
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The 11-18 also offers you increased creativity
when it comes to image composition, according to Hubbard. “This
lens allows you to be more creative with your framing,” he
explains. “With such a large depth-of-field at 11mm, you can
have your subject in the extreme foreground and still keep your background
in focus.” |
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Framing landscapes can prove to be a bit of a challenge
with such a wide-angle lens—subjects can appear too small in
the frame, and distracting elements can creep in and result in a
boring image with no primary subject to focus on. “Try to frame
your image with one main subject and a complementary scene to frame
your subject, not overwhelm it,” Hubbard suggests. “If
you have a broad landscape with a faraway vista, try to have something
in the foreground to help give perspective. For example, if you’re
shooting a mountain range, try to find flowers or a small tree to
place in the foreground to help frame and give depth to your image.” |
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Hubbard got to test this imaging axiom at a farm
stand (closed for the day) in East Marion, overlooking the wetlands near
Orient Harbor. ““The colors of the sunset were just starting
to emerge,” he says, “but it was still a little too bright.
I decided to use the windows as a frame to the landscape, cutting down
on the brightness and lack of nice light. |
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“Wide expanses like this can be tough because
the subject matter is so far away,” he continues. “That was
another reason to use the windows as a frame: It adds depth to the image
and also draws your eyes inward. If you don't have a building, you can
use other another subject, such as the long branches of an old tree.” |
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Hubbard ran into a problem, however, in exposing
the stand’s dark interior with a bright background. Enter the neutral-gray-stone
parking lot nearby, which Hubbard used to take a reading from. “I
also pulled out my gold reflector from the car, which helped cast a warm
light onto the inside of the stand, bringing out the yellow highlights
inside while still having a good exposure in the bright light,” he
says. |
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Shooting the bustling scene inside the Martha Clara
tasting room offered fun compositional opportunities for Hubbard. “This
was the third or fourth stop on our trip, so things were starting to
get a little fuzzy,” he jokes. “I wanted to use a deep-red
wine for this shot—a white wine would have blended too much into
the background, and the image would have been much flatter. I also created
some depth by having the glass so close and abnormally large compared
to the group of people on the left who gradually fade out into the background.
I wanted to use a slightly exaggerated point of view, so I used the countertop
as my vantage point—which in turn helped me with camera shake,
since I was using a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second. I took advantage
of available light to give the image a warmer tone.” |
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Let There Be Light |
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Shooting in less-than-ideal lighting situations
was no problem on this particular daytrip thanks to Hubbard’s
digital camera and 11-18 lens. “One of the best features of
a digital camera is the ability to change the ASA on the fly,” he
explains. “Depending on the lighting condition, you can go
from ASA100 to ASA1600 with the push of a button—no more worries
of having the wrong speed film in your camera.” |
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| At Martha Clara Vineyards, Hubbard wanted to showcase
an organized assembly of wine bottles, but he faced a daunting obstacle:
distracting background and low light. He took care of the background
problem by shooting down on the bottles, which cropped out most of
the background, and by using a larger f-stop, which reduced the depth-of-field
and slightly blurred the background. “ As for the low-light
issue, I opened up the aperture to F/4.5, which helped to reduce
depth-of-field, and used an ASA 400 rating. It gave me a shutter
speed of 1/15th of a second, which is the slowest I would ever shoot
handheld.” |
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| Hubbard happened upon an instance of wine country’s
version of advertising-on-wheels when he stumbled upon a truck promoting
pinot noir at Castello di Borghese Vineyard, formerly Hargrave Vineyards
(the first vineyard on Long Island, established in 1973). “This
image was taken about ten minutes before sunset, which was both good
and bad,” says Hubbard. “The good part was the incredible
light I was able to get—orange, pinks, and blues create incredible
color saturation in your images. The bad part was that that the sun
was so low it created very long shadows. Everywhere I wanted to stand
cast a long, dark shadow across the truck or the field. When the
sun is behind you, it’s difficult to form an image where you
don't find your own shadow somewhere in the frame.” |
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| To that end, be conscious of the shadows surrounding
you at this time of day, says Hubbard, and be selective when you
do decide to use the shadows as part of your image. “Sometimes
using a person’s shadow can create a more dramatic image, but
in this case it would have been a distraction,” he says. “Luckily,
I was able to find one angle that worked.” |
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| Hubbard capped off his day on the North Fork by
watching the sun go down on Sound Avenue near East Marion. “Be
careful with your metering in an image like this,” he says. “It’s
very easy for your subject to turn out too light or the sky to end
up too dark. To get a correct exposure, take a meter reading off
the sky without having the sun in the framing.” |
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| When the boat on the dock turned out too dark,
Hubbard had to improvise. “To solve this, I used my flash hand-held
off the camera in different positions and at different power settings—I
took multiple images with varying results,” he says. “I
picked this image because of its natural-light look. I had the flash
at a very low setting and angled slightly up and away from the subject,
which allowed only the soft edges of the light from the flash to
light up the boat just enough to show some detail.” |
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In
the end, what did Hubbard discover after a long day of barrel tastings
and vintage viewing? “If you’re
going to be visiting Long Island’s vineyards, give yourself at
least a half-day, preferably the afternoon so you can catch the sunset,” he
advises. “Sound Avenue is a one-lane road for the most part, and
traffic during the summer months can be unbearable—plan your trip
for midweek if possible.” |
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And
what of the region’s carefully
crafted cultivars? “Long Island produces one of the [Sideways]
character’s most dreaded wines, merlot,” he laughs. “And
I have yet to be totally turned on to the pinot noirs, which they loved
in the film and which are actually quite good—it’s just I’m
more of a cabernet franc fan myself.” |
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Tip Box Compelling Captures—And Don’t Forget to Crop When journeying through an agricultural treasure trove like wine country, make sure you tell a story through your pictures. “Don't forget to take pictures of the lined-up bottles or some old wine barrels lying around,” says Hubbard. “And don't be afraid to walk around outside the buildings themselves—there's usually an abundance of images to enhance your photographic story.” The 11-18’s 9.8-inch minimum focus distance allows you to add some drama into your pictorial. “Don’t be afraid to get up-close to a subject,” says Hubbard. “You’ll still be able to fit in an amazing amount of your subject. One warning: With the ability to fit so much in your frame, be very aware of your cropping. It can be very easy to overlook something in the corners of the frame that will be very distracting when you print out the images.” |
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