Salvador is renowned for its colorful cuisine, music, and architecture—with an emphasis on “colorful.” “You can use this local color to illustrate some of the elements that make a place what it is,” explains Costantini. “What you include, or don’t include, in the image can give clues into what your image is about. For instance, in one of my shots of a dog poking his head through the gate as I passed by (shot at 28mm at 1/1000th of a second), the hanging clothes and surfboard lent insight into the type of place it was that I was photographing.”

This onslaught of color continued as Costantini wandered the winding roads of this colonial metropolis, emerging in the form of brightly hued tiled mosaics that are scattered throughout some of the less-affluent areas of the city. Shooting at 1/640 of a second, F/4.0 at the 28mm end of the 28-75mm’s focal range, he was able to use the 28-75mm lens to freeze the action of a young local girl dancing in the streets.

Freezing the action with the 28-75 remained Costantini’s M.O. as he cruised along the Salvador coastline, comprised of more than 30 miles of beaches and luxury hotels. From his moving vehicle as they zipped along local roads, Costantini spotted a man being pulled by his horse against the backdrop of a grey-green sea. “Using the 28-75 lens, shooting at 1/1000th of a second was enough to freeze the action in this shot,” he says.

Religion plays an important part in Salvadoran life, especially Catholicism—60 percent of the city’s residents are Catholic, and there are hundreds of churches to reflect this affiliation. Costantini spent some time visiting religious sites in Pelourinho, the historical center of Salvador that has been deemed a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“I took a photo (shot at 55m, F/2.8, at 1/60th of a second) inside a historical church in Pelourinho,” he says. “This is a view looking from one side of the chapel over to the other, with that image of Jesus just slightly askew. Over time, I guess it’s become the church’s office.”

On the outskirts of Salvador is the island of Itaparica, located in the “Bay of All Saints” and accessible by car-ferry or passenger ferry (a one-hour boat ride from Salvador). Costantini took the ferry over to Itaparica to revel in the isle’s beaches and lush vegetation. Once on Itaparica, they wandered into an empty bar, deserted save for a picture of Mick Jagger. “All the lights and colors were pretty much as you see them,” says Costantini. “Why Mick Jagger? No idea—but I liked the idea of this Western icon sitting in the midst of this remote island. I used a long 10-second exposure with the camera sitting on a table to stabilize it; the lens was at the 28mm end of the focal length.”

The evening ferry back to Salvador gave Costantini the chance to once more appreciate the speed and low-light capability of the 28-75 lens. “If the lens were any slower, the shutter speeds I was using on the ferry would have been way too slow to get a clear image,” he explains. “Sometimes having that extra speed in the lens is the difference between a clear shot and a blurry one. At 1/15th of a second, you can see slight movement.”

Costantini captured one of these nightly mass exoduses from the island to the mainland on the ferry. “It was a holiday, so waiting on line it took about six hours to get on the boat back to Salvador,” he recalls. “Like I mentioned earlier, what you include or don’t include can frame your story. One of my scenes of the people on the boat, shot at 1/15th of a second at 28mm, F/2.8, is more about the mood of the people than where they are. You may not be able to identify exactly where these people are, but you get a sense of the emotional state that they’re in.”

Harnessing an energy similar to that found in the streets of Salvador during Carnival, however, was a young boy who remained unfazed by his exhausting day on Itaparica. He perched in the shadows on one of the cars being transported back to Salvador as the ferry chugged across darkened Brazilian waters. “I used a high ISO of 4000 and slow shutter speed of 1/25th of a second so I could handhold this shot,” Costantini explained. “Thanks to the 28-75, I was able to shoot this using just available light with the F/2.8 lens wide open.”