Bring the Lights Down Low by Jenn Gidman Photos by Candice Stringham |
No dress rehearsal necessary for the Tamron 18-250mm Di II and 28-300mm VC—these two lenses are ready for opening night right from the start. |
Candice Stringham has an eye for finding mesmerizing beauty in her everyday experiences. Whether the winning shot lies in the mischievous grin of one of her two young sons or on stage at a regional theater performance, Stringham (who is currently based in Utah) is able to capture the photographic magic with ease every time. Stringham, an editorial photographer and contributing editor at Creative Keepsakes magazine, mainly focuses on writing how-to articles for the magazine and teaching photography seminars. Her work has been inspired by some of the most awe-inspiring locales on earth, including where she was raised. “I grew up in Hawaii, on Oahu, and it’s obviously very beautiful there,” she explains. “I took a photography class my sophomore year of high school and continued on with it. I did take a short detour for two years and was a theater major, but then I changed my major back to photography and graduated with my BFA in photography. I’ve been working doing portraiture ever since.” Helping her in her documentation efforts are the Tamron 18-250mm Di II and the 28-300mm VC (Vibration Compensation) lenses. Both lenses have served her well with their sharpness, attention to detail, and versatility in a variety of spur-of-the-moment situations.
Zooming In Stringham relies on her 18-250mm Di II high-powered zoom to give her creative freedom and intricate details. In one photo of her older son, Stringham was able to come in close to truly capture his essence. “I shot this photo in the shade and did a fun, unique crop,” she says. “The nice thing about having this lens is being able to get in so nice and close. I usually use the zoom end when I’m cropping in close so the wide end doesn’t distort the image. Cutting right in the center of the face is good if you want to get in that close.”
Don’t be afraid to use the lens to focus on these details, advises Stringham. “I tell my students not to worry about cropping into someone’s face; you’re eventually going to have those full pictures of the person at some point,” she says. “It’s those details you want, those unique features of your kids while they’re still young—good close-ups of their eyes, ears, and other parts that change as they grow up. Photographers make sure to get detail shots at weddings and other events, but we often forget to get them with our kids.”
The 18-250 also came in handy during an expedition to the Louisville Science Center (in Louisville, Kentucky, which until recently served as home for Stringham and her family). She posed a young lady in front of a slew of stunning blue columns for artistic effect. “The girl was an actress from the actor’s theater where my husband was performing,” she says. “It was midday, but we were in the shade, so I had soft, shaded light. I was really impressed with the sharpness of the lens. I was able to get those nice saturated colors, and I used a really narrow depth of field so the focus would be on her instead of on the columns.”
Stopping On-Stage Shake Stringham is able to stop blur in its tracks with the 28-300mm VC (Vibration Compensation) lens, allowing her to handhold her Canon 40D in situations where it usually wouldn’t work in her favor—most notably, at a production of “A Christmas Carol,” where her husband, who does the regional theater circuit, was performing. “I was really surprised at how great this lens was,” she says. “Inside the theater, it’s a really dark, contrasty situation, and I was handholding at pretty low shutter speeds. With the [vibration compensation feature], all the pictures turned out great.”
This is critical, considering it’s usually not advisable to use flash while viewing a stage performance. “In this situation, I was watching a rehearsal, so I definitely couldn’t use flash,” Stringham explains. “It was a contrasty situation, but the lens was able to grab onto the light that was there and focus right where it needed to be. It worked well for me, because I was pretty stationary and didn’t have a tripod.” Even bright stage lights don’t make for ideal lighting situations. “In some of the shots I took, the light got pretty bright, but for the most part the background was really dark,” she says. It’s often still not bright enough to shoot at, say, 1/300th of a second, since you’ll likely be zoomed out to capture just the actor and not the entire stage. While shooting at anything lower than 1/300th could translate to major camera shake, “the 28-300mm VC lens still clearly captured all the details in the background,” Stringham says. One example is an image Stringham took of her thespian spouse sitting against a brick wall, the sole source of illumination a ray of light shining down from above. “I handheld this at 1/40th of a second,” she recalls. “I actually went all the way down to 1/25th of a second, and the images were still sharp. That’s pretty amazing for a lens in low-light situations. I was able to get some really good shots I normally wouldn’t have been able to.”
The flower-shaped lens hood that comes with the lenses can prove beneficial as well. In one closeup of her four-year-old son, Stringham was able to control the bright midday sunlight streaming from above. “This was a high-contrast situation,” she explains. “It was around 1 p.m. and he was completely backlit, so I just came in and metered up close on his face. I used the hood that came with the lens to block out the direct sunlight, because it was almost coming directly into the lens. It was right behind him, so I was able to get some nice backlit shots.”
Stringham advises photographers that, no matter what equipment they may have at their disposal, not to lose sight of the routine subjects that pop up in front of your lens every day. She notes the shot she took of the same actress in front of a montage of mirrors, also in front of the Louisville Science Center. “I went with my kids to the museum all the time, but it was probably like a year before I really noticed those mirrors,” she says. “Then I saw that they’d make a nice juxtaposition with people standing in front of them.
One of the things people forget as they go through life is to look around. They pass the same things every day, and those things could make for really interesting backgrounds. I recommend people look around as they go about their daily activities and see the interesting situations they find themselves in.” |
