| Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | News | Contest | ||||
  |
||||
Michael Garcia hops aboard a cruise ship to Alaska and brings back many striking images from his trip, shot with two of his favorite lenses: The Tamron 11-18mm Di II and the Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II lens. |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| AF18-200mm
F/3.5-6.3 XR Di II & AF11-18mm Di II by Andrew Darlow |
||||
For more than 30 years as an award winning professional photographer, Michael Garcia has captured images of families, seniors, and wedding couples in the San Francisco Bay area. But for 10 days in the summer of 2006, he and his wife left the “city by the bay” behind to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary on a cruise among the glaciers and wilderness of Alaska. "25 years ago we celebrated our honeymoon by taking a cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver, Canada. This trip to Alaska was an ideal way to mark this milestone in our lives." |
||||
|
Along for the expedition was Garcia's Nikon D100 and two of his favorite lenses: The Tamron 11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di II and the Tamron 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di II. "I chose to bring these two lenses because I love wide angle photography, but I also like to have the ability to capture telephoto images of people and places. Combined, these two lenses offer a fantastic range." Garcia then describes a memorable photo that took him back a quarter century: "As we pulled out of port in San Francisco, I used the Tamron 18-200mm to photograph a wide angle image that included the Golden Gate Bridge. The photo was shot at 48mm, F/22, 1/500 sec and ISO 400. It was very similar to a photo I had taken 25 years before on our honeymoon cruise to Vancouver. But this time, thanks to the extreme zoom range of the lens, I was also able to quickly capture many more variations of the scene." |
||||
 |
 |
|||
Garcia recalls a similar situation while on the cruise ship's main deck off the coast of Alaska. "One afternoon a number of passengers were looking at the coastline from the main deck and suddenly someone noticed a rainbow. The zoom range of the Tamron 18-200mm lens allowed me to capture a series of images of the rainbow as it appeared and faded away just a few minutes later. If I had been busy changing lenses, I may very well have missed the opportunity. The 18-200mm produces very sharp images and gives me a wide angle to telephoto range that is perfect for so many different shooting situations, from landscapes to portraits." |
||||
 |
||||
The Di II lenses are made especially for cameras with CMOS-sized sensors, including Michael Garcia's Nikon D100. The full-frame 35mm equivalent zoom focal length of the Tamron 11-18mm Di II is about 17-27mm, and the 35mm equivalent for the 18-200 is about 28-300mm. By optimizing the Di II lenses for this class of Digital SLRs, they were able to be made lighter and very compact (about 3.1" in length for the 11-18mm Di II and about 3.5" in length for the 18-200mm Di II)–something that Garcia took full advantage of on his trip. "Both the 11-18mm and 18-200mm Di II lenses are very well constructed, yet surprisingly lightweight and compact. In fact, I was able to keep one of the lenses inside the front pocket of a pair of standard cargo pants with zippered front pockets, and I hardly noticed that the lens was there. This made changing lenses much faster and easier, and believe it or not, there was enough room to keep the lenses’ flower-shaped lens hoods attached in their normal shooting positions inside my pocket."
|
||||
Garcia adds, "For those who don't plan to ever wear cargo pants, most people's jacket pocket or a small fanny pack will also do the job. Only when I put the lenses into my camera bag did I reverse the lens shades, which makes the lens and shade more compact. (I recommend showing Michael's photo of his lens with the lens shade on and reversed here (see photo below). Placing the lens in a small plastic bag will give added protection from dust and moisture. If you are going to keep a lens in any pocket or bag, I recommend always keeping the lens protected with the lens cap and rear element back cap. The Tamron lens caps stayed firmly on both lenses throughout the trip, and their design allows them to be removed from or placed on a lens by simply pinching two inner notches in the center area of the lens caps.” |
||||
 |
||||
And despite the fact that this was summer, Garcia sometimes found himself in frigid temperatures. "While photographing images of glaciers from the deck of the ship, it was about 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and both lenses held up perfectly." |
||||
 |
||||
Garcia's passion for wide-angle imagery was an ideal match for the beauty of the Alaskan coastline. "One day we were returning to the ship after an excursion, and I noticed a bouquet of flowers on the dock. I had the Tamron 11-18mm lens on the camera and moved in close to capture the flowers, mountain, water and sky. The 11-18mm lens is perfect for these types of shots because it allows you to get in close to emphasize subjects in the foreground while creating a nice separation between foreground and background. I photographed the scene at 11mm, F/22 at 1/250 sec and ISO 640." |
||||
 |
||||
Garcia captured another dramatic wide angle image with the Tamron 11-18mm. "I photographed an image of the ship's foyer at the lens' widest aperture (11mm, F/4.5 at 1/20 and ISO640). Even though it was relatively dark, I was able to focus using the lens' autofocus setting, and the final image is sharp from edge to edge." Garcia also likes the way in which the zoom on both lenses operates. "The zoom rings on both the lenses are easy to adjust, and I prefer Tamron's turning zoom ring to push/pull-type zoom rings because I am able to adjust them more precisely. In addition, when the lens is pointed downward at flowers or other objects, I've found that gravity can sometimes cause push/pull zooms to move unexpectedly." |
||||
 |
||||
Michael Garcia's 25th wedding anniversary trip to Alaska will be one he and his wife will never forget. "The Tamron 11-18mm and 18-200mm lenses were the perfect “dynamic duo” for this special trip. I’m now planning future trips, and I will definitely be bringing both lenses with me…and my wife, too!" |
||||
Michael Garcia is co-creator and co-host of Photo Talk Radio, the Internet radio talk show devoted to the photographic community. He spoke about his trip to Alaska on the October 14, 2006 broadcast. It can be heard in the archived shows section at www.phototalkradio.com.
|
||||
1. Use a lens hood. A very convenient reversible lens hood comes with both the Tamron 11-18mm and the 18-200 XR Di II lenses. 2. While looking through the viewfinder, use your hand or a piece of paper (such as a 6x9 inch cruise line brochure), to help shield the light coming from a specific direction. 3. If you are shooting with a tripod, look directly into the front of the lens. If you can see the sun shining on the surface of the lens, you may experience flare. Moving the camera until the reflection is gone can help avoid flare. Tip 2: Tip 3: 1. The bags can be filled with sand virtually anywhere you go without having to carry the extra weight everywhere you go. After filling, they can be used to stabilize a tripod or monopod, or the bags can be used as a support for a camera. 2. A camera with a lens can also be placed in a bag, and a hole can then be cut in the bag to allow the lens to peek through. This worked very well when Michael Garcia found himself in a area with very heavy mist. Tip 4: Tip 5:
|
||||
