Cattle CapturesMichael Snell used the versatile new Tamron 16-300mm VC PZD lens to photograph Pamplona's running of the bulls and a Dodge City rodeo. |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Michael Snell |
Michael Snell feels covered from every angle when he's got his Tamron 16-300mm VC PZD lens on the road-and that's no bull. Actually, there were plenty of bulls, including the ones dashing through the streets of Pamplona, Spain, and the longhorns strolling through the streets of Dodge City, Kansas, where Michael recently put his new 16-300 to the test. "I'd already been using the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD, which is great, so I knew this lens would have everything that one does but with a slightly wider range," he says. "And it did. The 16-300 has now become my go-to 'safety' lens: I know I'll always be covered for whatever I want to shoot, no matter what comes up." |
For his first summer run of the 16-300, Michael headed to Pamplona at the invitation of the Tourist Office of Spain. "They wanted to take journalists and photographers to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls, but also to promote and show other aspects of the San Fermin Festival, which the bulls are just one part of," he says. "People who haven't been there typically don't know about this whole other side of the festival." |
Michael did, of course, get to photograph the running of the bulls itself-"it's challenging photographically, because the actual running itself only takes a few minutes and then it's over!"-but he was equally excited to photograph the other aspects of the festival. Having the 16-300 lens at his disposal was invaluable when he was given the opportunity to photograph some of the elite bullfighters before one of the main events. "At the last moment, I was allowed to go down into this tunnel where the bullfighters were preparing for a fight," he says. "We were in this tight little space, underneath the arena, where they're putting on their capes and signing autographs. There's even a little chapel where they can pray in private and get ready mentally." |
Michael noticed when several of them started to congregate along one of the tunnel's walls. "In the chaos of what was happening all around, it was a nice, simple background with nothing distracting, so I started taking pictures," he says. "But it was such a crowded, tight space, that if I had only brought my telephoto lens, I wouldn't have gotten the pictures I did. The 16-300 allowed me to frame and compose my images with the lens rather than by me stepping forward or backward, which I couldn't do in that limited space." |
He captured a series of compelling portraits of one particular bullfighter who served as a banderillero, an assistant who's part of the matador's entourage. "Their outfits alone are incredible," he says. "The lens picked up all the detail in his costume. I really like the light I had to shoot in, too. There was no direct sunlight-it was all light bouncing off of the pavement and off the tunnel's stucco walls, which gave this soft, indirect illumination." |
Michael tapped into the 16-300 to highlight Pamplona's architecture, from the details of the ornamental stonework at the Cathedral of Saint Mary to the narrow alleyways and side streets. "Pamplona was a walled city in medieval times, so the city grew up instead of out," he says. "That means there are lots of narrow streets with tall buildings and balconies on every window, which is a big part of the feel of the city for me. That was another great thing about having the 16-300: The festival gets very crowded, and you're often shoulder-to-shoulder with people in the streets. You're shooting in tight spaces for long hours. I had to minimize the gear I brought with me, since I couldn't bring a bulky camera bag. The 16-300 helped me capture everything I wanted without having to worry about changing lenses or rustling through a bag on my back." |
The versatility of the 16-300's focal-length range allowed Michael to zoom in from the wider street views to the individual balconies. "People don't understand that the festival really isn't just all about the bulls and the all-night parties," he says. "During the day, it's a wonderful, family-friendly celebration with a neighborhood feel. Everyone wears white with red scarves, which is standard San Fermin attire. I was watching an impromptu street dance take place when these waitresses from an adjacent restaurant came out onto a balcony to enjoy the entertainment. I was able to zoom in on their reaction to their festivities with the 16-300 from where I was standing." |
Michael got a brief chance to explore the Spanish countryside, using the 16-300 to juxtapose manmade marvels with the natural world. "One of the places we visited was the Church of Saint Mary of Eunate, a Romanesque-style church built in the 1100s," he says. "I like that contrast of old architecture in the foreground with the rolling hills of the landscape in the background. Being able to play with light and shadow in this image helped me craft a more compelling visual, too." |
After Pamplona, Michael headed back to the states to attend Dodge City Days, a 10-day summer festival in Dodge City, Kansas, that features street dancing, "high-noon" gunfight reenactments, parades, craft fairs, and the PRCA "Roundup Rodeo" with championship cowboys and cowgirls. |
Michael used the 16-300 to document the hard-working cowboys preparing for the rodeo, much as he used the lens in Pamplona to show their bullfighting counterparts. "The Dodge cowboys were getting ready to be part of a parade," he says. "These two guys were setting the horses up with a Boot Hill stagecoach. What I really love is how the 16-300 was able to pick up on all the character in their faces. In today's society, with all of the plastic surgery and emphasis on 'perfection,' I appreciate faces that show age and time. These guys have been out in the weather their entire lives, and their age lines are the kind of detail I want to capture with my camera." |
With its old-time saloon, barbershop, and drugstore, Dodge City's Front Street is a popular photographic destination for Kansas tourists-but unless there's a shootout reenactment happening outside the storefronts, there's not usually a lot going on in the foreground. "This year, though, event organizers wanted to set a world record for having the largest longhorn cattle drive on a US main street," Michael says. "These weren't like the bulls in Pamplona-these animals were very well behaved!-so it was a perfect photo opportunity with the cattle in front of those old-fashioned storefronts." |
At first Michael was simply trying to capture the cattle in line, showing them quietly settled in their places. "But the more I photographed them, the more I started going lower and shooting wider with the 16-300 to emphasize their size," he says. "I also wanted to show off the most interesting part of them, which is their horns, so I tried to get more images of the cattle with their horns up in the sky so you could see the scale." |
Using the 16-300 allowed Michael to capture what was going on behind the scenes and in the stands at the rodeo as the sun went down. "The kids who attend are such a huge part of these rodeo events, and they're so into it," he says. "I wanted to show their excitement and anticipation in a wider shot like this that shows the spectators as well as the setting. You also get a sense of the time of day and the weather, all in one image. It was getting pretty dark by the time I started taking some of these pictures, so having the ability to shoot this at a higher ISO with low noise, handheld with the Vibration Compensation feature on the 16-300, was terrific. There was a time I wouldn't have been able to get a nice, sharp photo like this at that time of day without a tripod." |
To see more of Michael Snell's images, go to www.michaelcsnell.com. |