Tamron Lens on a Goodwill Mission

Rusty Earl films a moving documentary in Tanzania with the Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 VC lens.

Article by Jenn Gidman

Images and video by Rusty Earl

"When I first met Dr. Kaff and started talking with her about the work she was doing in Tanzania, I fell in love with her mission," says Rusty. "She told me she was going back and asked if I wanted to go. I ended up spending two weeks in Tanzania's mountain regions in July, the end of their winter there."

Rusty used the Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 VC lens for filming and for individual stills (click here to see a trailer for the movie). "You need a nice, clear lens for shooting video, and the 17-50 worked great for me," he says. "About 50 percent of the wider shots were filmed with that lens. There's so much of what we call 'running and gunning' in documentary work, which was the case for much of our filming at one of the orphanages and a school for the blind we visited. You don't have the time to get the camera stabilized on a tripod, so the Vibration Compensation was really valuable here - it really helped smooth out all the movements. Plus, when I had to shoot at low shutter speeds, that maximum F/2.8 aperture was ideal."

Using his DSLR to film the documentary was a natural fit for Rusty, who transitioned from shooting with traditional camcorders a couple of years ago. "I shot my first feature film in 2010 with a traditional camcorder," he says. "I started doing some more professional work on the side and then started doing shooting full time. I would say about 80 percent of what I shoot now is with a DSLR now. You get some beautiful colors you can't get with a camcorder. The very first lens I used for filming was that Tamron 17-50."

The Tanzanian people Rusty and his team encountered were receptive and welcoming. "They were absolutely wonderful," he says. "In some other areas, you might not want to show up with these big, expensive cameras, but we were in the mountains near Christian schools and churches, and they were so open. The children were especially excited. They loved getting their pictures taken because they wanted to see themselves on the camera. I think it helped that I was using a DSLR, so it didn't necessarily look like I was filming a movie."

Rusty always made sure that he was respectful in how he filmed and photographed his subjects. "You don't just start filming kids at random," he says. 'You have to ask the parents' permission. We had a guide with us who asked a father if we could take a picture of his son. When we played it back to the kid so he could hear his voice on the camera, he was squealing and so happy. He kept trying to figure out how the camera was doing what it was doing!"

The Tamron 17-50 helped Rusty pick up the beautiful details in this remote part of the world. "It was very bright but also slightly overcast the whole time we were there, so we had this gorgeous, diffused light for our entire production," he says. "The video and images I can produce with that lens are so sharp. I was able to get every detail, from the texture of the stucco walls to the patterns in a little girl's dress."

Rusty has a personal connection to the documentary, which has already played on PBS stations in Kansas and is now playing nationwide on BYUtv, a television station operated by Brigham Young University. "I have two children with special needs, so this was even more special to me," he says. "When you're in this area and seeing these kids with autism or who are blind, it looks like an extremely poor country from the outside. But we found that the resources they have there are leaps and bounds ahead of other countries, and it was wonderful to see that up close."

For more information about this documentary, go to www.humanitylooksgood.com or http://rustychainproductions.wordpress.com/.