Peter Wong's Tamron SP 150-600mm VC lens helps him capture sharp, colorful agricultural and landscape photos.

By Jenn Gidman
Images by Peter Wong

When Peter Wong came to the US from Malaysia more than 30 years ago, he was supposed to be an engineer. "It didn't turn out that way, though," he says. "I wasn't very good at it."

What he was good at was photography, and in 1979 he opened his own commercial studio, eventually racking up such clients as Target, 3M, and Andersen Windows. But after doing that for 20 years, he started photographing golf courses and landscapes, which he found "more fun than sitting in the studio."

A chance encounter with a student eight months ago led Peter to start using the new Tamron SP 150-600mm VC lens, and since then it's brought his landscape photos to a new level. "I had another push-pull zoom lens that was too bulky," he says. "When I saw how easy it was to shoot with the 150-600 and how it focused just as fast as the lens I was using, I got my own."

Peter appreciates the 150-600's light weight ("I took it with me to Vietnam and China and it was fabulous"), the unique look it lends to the panoramic images he loves to capture, and the freedom it gives him to handhold thanks to the optical quality and the Vibration Compensation (VC) image-stabilization feature. "I'm amazed at how sharp the images are when I'm shooting handheld," he says. "I bump my ISOs up a little higher, and the VC feature keeps everything tack-sharp."

Images he's taken with the 150-600 were impressive enough that they caught the eye of a creative director who recently hired him to come down on assignment to North Carolina. "I went out last fall to photograph some tractors to test the lens out, and when I posted those images on my website and Facebook page, that creative director saw my work and reached out to me," he says. "When I went down to North Carolina for the job recently, I used the 150-600 to photograph everything from landscapes and people to even a little bit of video."

Composition is what most drives Peter's landscape photography. "I compose my pictures with unique lines, patterns, and textures in mind, directing the viewer to certain elements in my shots," he says. "For my image of the tractor in the field you see here, for instance, I relied on that S-curve to lead the viewer's eye toward the red tractor."

And that use of color is also one of Peter's signature moves. "I'm always on the lookout for those colors to incorporate into my compositions, and if I can't find them, I'm often able to 'manufacture' them," he says. "For example, when I was shooting in North Carolina, one of the images we wanted to capture was a sunrise photo of an expansive field of corn, soybeans, and cotton. It was gray that morning before the sun came up, and I saw the field was this dull-green color. I remembered I had some graduated-neutral-density filters I had brought along, so I stacked two of the filters in front and boosted the color so that when the sun came up, everyone went, 'Wow, how'd you do that?'"

Even though most of his golf course imagery is shot in the early morning/late afternoon—the so-called golden hours—one of the reasons Peter got hired for the North Carolina job is his ability to capture compelling agricultural photos even in the middle of the day. "When I shoot midday, I'm able to get these great contrasts between the trees and the fairways, the greens and the bunkers," he says. "When I try to shoot later in the afternoon, it creates highlights and shadows. Instead of shooting with the light, I'll try to shoot into the sun or with the sun going sideways—shooting with the light almost always makes my subjects look flat."

Peter brought the lens along on his trip to Vietnam in late March/early April and was able to capture a series of landscape photos during a two-night cruise. "The boat journeys through these limestone stacks, and it's always hazy there except in November and December, when the weather gets cooler," he explains. "Some of the locals there think the haze that happens during the warmer weather is due to climate change. For one photo of a tiny boat in the distance approaching one of the stacks, I exposed for the spot I wanted to have the focus on, so the background went almost white. I then tweaked it slightly in Lightroom and Photoshop so that you could still see the stacks, but not as distinctly. It gave the image a feeling of distance and a little bit of mystery."

On one of the nights they cruised past the limestone stacks, Peter had the chance to photograph the landscape at sunset. "The sky was just a pink glow at that point," he says. "It was hazy as usual while we were passing more closely by one of the stacks, and I spotted that woman in the boat next to it. I kept photographing her as we passed by. I stopped for just a second at one point to bump my ISO up a little bit; I wanted to make sure the image was sharp with a little noise rather than have no noise but a not-sharp image. The woman happened to be positioned in the light in front of the dark area, so I was lucky in that respect."

A longtime love of photographing trees led Peter to capture an image of background trees at Theodore Roosevelt National Park while he was leading a photography workshop. "So often I'll be speeding by trees on the freeway at 75 mph and make a mental note to myself to stop the next time so I can photograph them, but I never get the chance to," he says. "So while everyone in my group was photographing the buffalo and wild horses at the park, I decided to capture these trees I saw in the distance. It was late morning and the trees were backlit and this gorgeous green that the trees get in Minnesota and North Dakota at that time of year."

He was also able to put the 150-600 through a test run in creating the panoramics he loves to compose while at the park. "I did an exercise while my students were still photographing the wildlife," he says. "I wanted to create a panorama that was three rows, 12 or 13 images across each."

He zoomed in to about 400mm and lifted his tripod all the way up. "I stood on a little ladder I brought and shot the first row of images," he explains. "Then I lowered the camera and pointed it down to capture the second row, then lowered it again to get the third row. I had to experiment at least four different ways before I hit on the correct technique, which allowed me to capture the picture you see here. The 150-600 makes it look like it's a wide-angle shot with a telephoto look to it. I love how sharp it is and how everything is compressed together."

Peter hopes to travel to Missouri for the same client who commissioned him for the North Carolina assignment, as well as two trips in August and September to California. "I'll be photographing wheat, cabbage, and almonds there, which I'm excited to do," he says. "And in the wintertime, I may head down to Brazil and Venezuela to shoot some agricultural imagery. I'm looking forward to seeing what the 150-600 can capture in all of those places."

To see more of Peter Wong's work, go to www.peterwongfineartphotography.com or www.peterwongphotography.com.