Travel Contest Winner Showcases New Mexico

Terry Mann wins the My Photo Exhibits Travel Contest with a stunning New Mexico pictorial shot with the Tamron 18-270mm VC lens.

Article by Jenn Gidman

Images by Terry Mann

His images from last year's Thanksgiving trip to New Mexico to visit his son have earned Terry first place in the Tamron My Photo Exhibit Travel Contest. Guest judge Ian Plant says of Terry's New Mexico exhibit: "When judging a photo contest, I always look for photographers who take a 'transformative' approach to their subjects, showing objects not just as they appear to everyday observers, but instead showing their hidden side. This portfolio is an excellent study of shape, form, and color, and shows familiar subjects in an unexpected, and at times ironic, way."

New Mexico Meanderings
Terry used the Tamron 18-270mm VC lens on his walks around Albuquerque (including the Corrales section), Santa Fe, and El Rancho de las Golondrinas, a living-history museum that shows the heritage and culture of 18th- and 19th-century New Mexico. "I don't like to carry a lot of lenses around in my bag when I'm traveling, so the 18-270 has been perfect for shoots like this," he says. "Plus, the Vibration Compensation was great. I'm older and shake a little bit, so I just turn that baby on and start shooting."

It wasn't hard for Terry to find inspiration in "The Land of Enchantment." "I live in Florida, and everything is so green here," Terry explains. "My late wife's family is from North Carolina, so there's a lot of green there, too. New Mexico is a completely different terrain. There's not much green there - you've got the adobe buildings, the wood roofs, those amazing earthy textures, and the history of the ancient Americans making a living off of the land. It's exciting to shoot in that environment."

Drawing out those famous Southwest textures and colors was one Terry's goals during his walkarounds and often resulted in an artistic, almost painterly look to his images. "I received a Best in Show for my image of an adobe window in Santa Fe," he says. "As you walk up to the main door of the state museum there, there are two little windows on either side. The judge in the contest I was in kept coming back to this image because he said it looked like a watercolor. The same thing goes for the mill on the pond at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. My friend asked me to make a poster out of that image that he could hang in his bedroom."

One of Terry's techniques is to look for different angles, including getting down low and searching on high during his photo forays. "There were a bunch of cactuses in front of this church in Albuquerque, and I wanted to get the light hitting those cactuses and the building," he says. "I squatted down low and shot upward." He found himself low to the ground again while shooting an old-time cart outside of an adobe-style real-estate office. "I had to get down once again to shoot that cart and get the building behind it," he says. "That's what so interesting about New Mexico - the commercial buildings look like this and totally show the character of the area."

Glancing skyway was another way Terry was able to highlight local flavor. "There was a nice streetlight I was able to shoot covered by all the dying vines (it was November, so all the greenery that's there was dead)," he says. "Then I saw this bike perched on top of a bicycle rental shop in Corrales. I was able to get the bike against the backdrop of the adobe building and that brilliant blue sky - and the sky seems to always be that color in New Mexico!"

Following the lines and curves of the buildings and artifacts enabled Terry to experiment with what he's learned over the years about setting up a shot to make it visually appealing. "I've taken several classes on composition, and they always seem to want something coming up out of that bottom right-hand corner," he laughs. "So when I saw one of the ladders of the ancients, I adjusted my camera to make sure that's how I showed it. The same thing applies to the cow skull, which was on the window frame of that Corrales bike shop I mentioned earlier. The moss that's growing down from the top of the frame really makes the composition so much more interesting."

Next on his shooting agenda: macro photography with the Tamron macro lens he won for the Tamron MPE Travel Contest. "We have some unusual fauna here in Florida," he says. "I'm eager to get out and start shooting the scrub oak trees, cactus, and blooming wildflowers and maybe start a series on some of Central Florida's sights!"