Around the World With a High-Speed Zoom
Eduardo Gutierrez visits the Maldives, Dubai, and East Africa with the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 RXD lens.
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By Jenn Gidman
Images by Eduardo Gutierrez
When Eduardo Gutierrez first met his future wife, Marisa, while in summer school in Beijing, little did he know that just a few years later, he’d be traveling the world with her, camera in hand to document all the places they visit together. “We make an excellent team,” says the photographer from Guadalajara, Mexico. “I’m the one who takes the photos, while Marisa is the creative force behind the scenes—she’ll find the best spots to take pictures, pick out what we’re going to wear, and map out the overall design and style of the shoot.”
Eduardo’s goal when he creates and shares his travel images: to forge a sense of connection between the viewer and the people, wildlife, and landscapes in front of his camera. “Many folks aren’t able to travel to some of the places I’ve been to,” he says. “When they look at my pictures, I want them to feel a sense of place, like they’re right there with me, whether I’m staying at a luxury resort or in a tiny remote village.”
On his most recent travels to the Maldives, Dubai, Tanzania, and Kenya, Eduardo packed the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 Di III RXD lens for his Sony mirrorless camera. “If you dropped me onto an island for a week and told me I could only bring one lens, it would be this one,” he says. “The images I capture with that lens are always so colorful and vibrant, especially in the videos I shoot with it, which is especially important when I’m trying to show the vibrancy of a destination. Plus, the autofocus drive on this lens ensures really fast, smooth focusing, and the lens is super-light, so it’s a great all-around lens for a day of shooting.”
Oceanside adventure
Eduardo first tried out the lens during a trip to the Maldives, a small nation of islands in the Indian Ocean. “We were there for six nights, and for five of the days we were there, it was raining hard,” he says. “I couldn’t take any pictures. Then, finally, we got about a half-day of sunshine. I simply placed my camera on a table and set it up to take this shot, which was bathed in all of this naturally beautiful light. In the editing process, I tried to merge where the sea met the sky as much as possible, to create an illusion of infinity, where you almost can’t tell where one ends and one begins.”
28-75mm (28mm), F/2.8, 1/1600th sec., ISO 80
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The couple was also fortunate enough to enjoy a meal at the Maldives’ 5.8 eatery, the world’s largest all-glass undersea restaurant, located 20 feet below the surface. “It was a spectacular experience, and I wanted to take some pictures, but it was too dark at the time we went,” Eduardo says. “So we asked the manager if we could come back the next day when the sun was out, before anyone else arrived. I set my camera up so it could capture Marisa and myself strolling down the main aisle, with that gorgeous light streaming in through the glass.”
28-75mm (28mm), F/2.8, 1/1000th sec., ISO 800
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Heading west
Moving on to the United Arab Emirates, Eduardo went as wide as possible with the 28-75 on the sand dunes of Dubai to show off the stunning landscape. “Using the lens in this case, placing myself in the middle of the dunes for a sense of scale, really shows how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things,” he says. “I just wanted to freeze that moment in time, with no movement, so the viewer could concentrate on the expanse of the dunes and the texture of the sand. I was happy to get that neutral, one-color sky, so that the focus stayed on the rest of the photo.”
28-75mm (28mm), F/2.8, 1/400th sec., ISO 100
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From there it was on to Africa, where the 28-75 enabled Eduardo to shoot fun photos of their road trip to the Kilimanjaro volcano in Tanzania. “Marisa and I loved not only showing the animals and scenery we photographed on this adventure, but also the story between those photos,” he says. “In other words, what we were doing as we were traveling to our destination, such as trying to read the map. It’s cool to bring something like the map home as a souvenir, but it’s even better if you can capture it in a photo that shows you using it.”
28-75mm (29mm), F/2.8, 1/2000th sec., ISO 320
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Eduardo positioned Marisa as a foreground model to capture other details from that excursion. “We wanted to remember the truck we drove in, and Marisa loves doing goofy poses, so that’s where that photo comes from,” he says. “In the final picture, where she’s jumping while holding her binoculars, we’d just finished a hot-air balloon ride. You can actually see the men in the background, through her legs, dealing with the deflated balloon on the ground.”
28-75mm (57mm), F/2.8, 1/1250th sec., ISO 100
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28-75mm (32mm), F/5.6, 1/1250th sec., ISO 250
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Mingling with the giraffes
A final destination where Eduardo put the 28-75 lens through its paces: the Giraffe Manor, a boutique hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, with a resident herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes. “This was an amazing experience, with once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities,” he says. “They told us to be ready for the first one at 5 in the morning. We didn’t know what they meant, but sure enough, as I was making coffee, this giraffe came up and started hitting the window. We opened it up and fed it these nutritious dried grass pellets the resort gave to us.”
28-75mm (36mm), F/2.8, 1/200th sec., ISO 200
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Across the front lawn from the main mansion is the resort’s giraffe center, where visitors interact with the giraffes on a feeding platform, offering them treats from their own mouths. “The feeding encounter is very safe, because they’re quite tame,” Eduardo says. “I zoomed in a bit more with the 28-75 to capture Marisa after she put one of the treats in her lips and fed one of her new friends.”
28-75mm (61mm), F/2.8, 1/160th sec., ISO 5000
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On Giraffe Manor’s website, the resort promises patrons “the most unforgettable bucket-list breakfast in the world,” where the giraffes wander right up to the dining room and stick their necks through the large open windows. “Before your own breakfast, they give you 20 minutes or so with the giraffes, where you drink coffee and the giraffes can dine on more of those pellets,” he says. “After your interaction, they close the windows and you can then enjoy your own breakfast. I set up my camera so I could capture myself dining with my giraffe companion. What a crazy, wonderful experience.”
28-75mm (28mm), F/2.8, 1/60th sec., ISO 160
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