Shooting in South America

Griffin Stewart and his wife, Valerie, stopped in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile during their trip around the world with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens.

Article By Jennifer Gidman

Images by Griffin Stewart

"I wanted really great-quality images from our trip without having to lug around 10 pounds of lenses," Stewart explains. "Plus, I always get frustrated when I travel and I don't have the right focal range for what I want to shoot. This lens is the best of all worlds: It's the perfect size and weight to carry around, the range is incredible, and it's got that Vibration Compensation feature, which is really important once you get into those higher zoom ranges. It's the ideal lens for travel photography." [Click here to see Stewart's full review of the 18-270 VC PZD lens.]

Read on to see what Stewart recommends for stunning images in these South American stopovers.

Bring along an adjustable neutral-density filter.
One of the most amazing places we visited, in terms of both beauty and scale, was Iguazu Falls, which literally means "big water" in Tupi. For one of my favorite shots of the falls, I got as wide as I could on the 18-270 (I had my camera on a tripod) and shot a 20-second exposure to get that swirly waterfall look. However, it was broad daylight, around 2 p.m., with not a lot of clouds in the sky, so I used an adjustable neutral-density filter. What that filter does is allow you to make everything that the lens sees darker, so you can get that look with a long exposure in the brightest part of the day.

Incorporate other tourists into your images to show the scale of your massive landscapes.
We took a helicopter ride over the falls, and in some of my shots from the air, you can see people next to the water. This gives you a sense of just how big the falls really are. If I'm shooting from a closer location, I'll often try to include one or two people in my shots, but I don't like to incorporate crowds. That takes away from the beauty of the place.

Focus on the details of native wildlife - but use the 18-270 to mask imperfections.
We went to Parque das Aves, a bird park located right near the entrance to Iguazu Falls. They have all different kinds of exotic birds, especially toucans. There were a bunch of toucans flying around when we entered the atrium, but there was one in particular who was really playful and just as curious about us as we were about him. We called him the "Curious Toucan." I was able to get a lot of shots of him.

The 18-270 was so helpful for taking these types of pictures. I was especially amazed by the one shot I got of him tilting his head. You can see all the detail in the white feathers on his head. If you look closely, you can also see his beak is a little scratched up. I just focused on his eye and shot it at 70mm at F/5.6, with my ISO at 400 - I wanted to get it just fast enough but not too noisy. I didn't touch it up any more than that, because the depth-of-field I used blurred out the imperfections in his beak nicely.

Bring a tripod to expand your photographic possibilities.
If you have a tripod, you can work with whatever light is available and increase the types of shots you're able to get to show the beauty of the places you're visiting. For instance, one of the spots in Chile we wanted to go to was San Pedro de Atacama, which offers unparalleled views of the stars. There's a French scientist who's been there for about 10 years teaching visitors about the galaxy and stars. He's got about 15 telescopes there, and two of the world's largest telescopes are located not too far from his location.

For my shot of the Milky Way I took from there, we were at about 10,000 feet altitude. I set my camera up on a tripod, which allowed me to get a 30-second exposure and one of the best images of the Milky Way I could hope to get anywhere in the world.

Get creative using the wide focal-length range of the 18-270.
This is a really great lens for a photographer who wants to experiment with different framing and compositions. With just a twist of your wrist, you can zoom all the way out or zoom all the way in and see a less obvious frame of your shot that might offer a better image.

When I shot some of the volcanoes in San Pedro de Atacama, we were very surprised, because we had expected it to just be a flat, boring desert. Plus the volcanoes were snowcapped - also surprising to see in the desert! For the image of the volcano I shot at sunset, I was able to play around with different focal lengths to get a variety of compositions. I shot this one at 22mm. I used that symmetrical peak as the focal point, but I liked that I was able to zoom in and crop the image this way - there were other mountains next to it, and I didn't want them distracting from my subject.

To see more of Griffin Stewart's images, go to his website at http://griffinstewart.com.