Even though Anton Huo didn’t pick up a camera for the first time until 2001, the self-taught photographer has now parlayed his passion for imaging adventure into a full-time vocation. Using a special mobile studio (“it’s so compact I can even bring it with me in my kayak!”), the outdoor-loving photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area can often be found behind his camera in the heart of the Mojave Desert or in the Sierra Nevadas.

Huo has also created a niche for himself in studio work, from commercial and wedding photography to maternity and newborn shoots. “The essence of what I’m always trying to capture is based on the emotional bonding between my subjects, or on their personalities,” he explains. “Once I know them a little bit, I’m able to direct them and create a really nice narrative. For example, I’ll say to a husband, ‘Say something really nice to your wife’ and then try to capture that bond. Or I’ll say, ‘Stare at your wife and tell her what you said when you proposed to her’ to recreate that moment. That’s when people show their true emotions.”

Huo has been using a fast zoom lens for his studio work, but it was somewhat heavy and unwieldy. He’s been using the new Tamron 70-300mm VC USD lens for about four months and is impressed with its light weight. “If a shoot goes on for a couple of hours, that’s a long time to be carrying everything around,” he says. “The 70-300 definitely lightens my load.”

Using a telephoto lens allows Huo to fill the frame with beautiful close-ups without encroaching on his subjects. “Everyone has his or her own personal space, and we’re most comfortable to be ourselves within this space,” he says. “When you’re shooting in the studio from three feet away and asking your subject to smile, you’re going to get the weirdest smile ever. The telephoto lens also allows me to see the entire stage, from the signal from my assistant to my subject’s expression.”

The 70-300’s fast-focusing ability is also critical to Huo’s work. “When I create that special emotional moment with my subjects, I’m not going to have that laugh in front of me for five minutes—it might only be two seconds,” he says. “This lens is able to get right in there and capture that moment.”

Huo often has an idea of what he’s going to be shooting, but he also lets his clients’ reactions and personalities gently guide the process. “I always plan my shoots so I know what kind of shot I want to get, but it’s also somewhat organic,” he explains. “While I’m shooting, I get an idea of what kind of stuff the clients like or don’t like. I get to talk to them beforehand so I know a little about them before we even start shooting.”

Because Huo likes to move around the studio to shoot from different angles and perspectives, the 70-300’s Vibration Compensation (VC) feature comes in particularly handy. “I never turn the VC off,” he says. “I don’t use a tripod in any of my studio work—I go up and down a lot to get those high-angle shots and low-angle shots. With a tripod, there would be no way to get down fast enough to capture an important moment. Because I’m shooting handheld, the VC is on all the time to help me with that.”

For a recent photo shoot, Huo took advantage of the 70-300’s features to capture an elegant pictorial of a pregnant client. “I had her up against a simple background,” he says. “With the narrow field of view from the 70-300, you get that clean background without seeing the top of the background when shooting from a low angle.”

Because his subject was constantly moving and turning for the shoot, Huo set his camera on tracking to capture her movements and face. “In addition to her moving, we also had a giant fan blowing the veil back,” he says. “Because everything was going so fast, I had to set it for continuous shooting; the VC was especially important here to get really sharp images.”

Huo likes to blend ambient light with artificial light to illuminate his subjects: “When you mix both types of lighting, it’s very close to what the human eye actually sees,” he explains. For his pregnant client, he used a main light coming from her left, as well as a fill light from her right so you can see a bit of outline on her arm. “We also used two lights on the background to create that transition from light to dark,” he says.

Toward the end of the shoot, when his client was starting to become tired, Huo instructed her to sit down, relax, and focus on her baby. “I told her to think about how beautiful her baby was and what she would say to the baby when the baby was born,” he says. “You can see she has a really natural, loving expression on her face in that shot. Women still shine during pregnancy: Many women become more self-aware and critical of themselves, and I wanted to show how beautiful women still are during this time of their lives. This type of photo used to be strictly the specialty for celebrities—but now anyone can have a photo like this.”

A tip to get such a natural expression, especially for camera-shy subjects: “Tell them to breathe through their mouth instead of their nose,” Huo advises. “This will not only relax your subject, but she’ll also open her mouth just a little bit to get that nice facial expression.”

Establishing an equally relaxing, comforting environment is just as important when you’re shooting children and babies. “If you sit kids down in front of a camera and tell them to smile, they’re never going to do that or even stay in one place,” Huo laughs. “While my assistant is setting up the backgrounds and the lighting, I’ll ask them about TV stars or musical performers they know and play around with them. You have to start that connection somehow so they feel comfortable in front of your camera.”

Sometimes you might even have to catch them off-guard to get the perfect smile. While capturing 2-1/2-year-old Danica, a local toddler who was trying to get a Baby Gap modeling spot, Huo noted how she was very excited and bouncing around for much of the shoot. She stopped momentarily to look at her mother on the other side of the background, her head to Huo. “I said, Hey Danica’; she turned and I snapped the shot. To white out the background for this high-key image, Huo directed four strobes on the background and two on Danica herself.

Huo is also sensitive to the needs of his tiniest subjects—another area where the 70-300’s features come into play. While shooting a month-and-a-half-old infant, Huo was cognizant of the baby’s eye sensitivity. “With baby photos, you don’t use flash—their eyes are developing and flash can be harmful,” he explains. “The flash goes off and they start crying. This photo was taken with continuous light shining down on the baby. With continuous light, you’re shooting at a much lower shutter speed than if you were using a flash. When you’re shooting at that very low shutter speed with a telephoto lens, there’s no way you can shoot without that VC on. That helped me get this baby’s very first smile caught on camera.”

For more information on Anton Huo’s work, go to www.antonhuo.com.