Understanding the Art of Exclusion

Hey everyone, I'm professional photographer Ian Plant, and right now I'm traveling through the American West. And when I'm photographing landscapes I like to have a short telephoto zoom lens with me, so that I can reach out and zoom in on the more intimate details of the landscape. One thing that I think every landscape photographer needs to learn to master, is what I call "the art of exclusion," and a short telephoto zoom lens is perfect for this. I think one of the biggest challenges, for most beginning photographers, is that they tend to include too much in their compositions, and there's too much visual clutter and chaos, and they're not presenting a unified and coherent visual design to the viewers. So a short a short telephoto zoom lens allows you to zoom in and exclude elements that don't help the overall composition, and this forces you to think critically about what you should be including in your shot, and more importantly, what you shouldn't be including.

Right now I'm shooting with Tamron's new 70 to 210 millimeter lens. It's a little bit different from a lot of the other lenses in this class because instead of going from 70 to 200 millimeters, it has that extra ten millimeters allowing you to reach out just a little bit more, and pluck out those distant landscape details. When photographing landscapes I use a tripod to ensure maximum stability, and to make sure that I get the sharpest possible images. And when you're shooting on a tripod you don't need a super fast lens like an f/2.8 lens, which is going to give you an extra stop of light, and is great for wildlife and action photography, but it's also a lot heavier. So when shooting landscapes I prefer to have a lens that is lightweight and compact, so having an f/4 lens, as opposed to an f/2.8 lens, cuts down on the weight, and is perfect for me when I'm exploring a difficult landscape.

This lens is perfect for photographing patterns. It allows me to zoom in and to focus on the repetition of shape or color, and only include those elements that I need to support the overall composition. This lens also vibration compensation, so if I need to switch over to hand holding for a shot it'll help me get sharp images even in low light. Another thing I really like about this lens is that it's got a close focusing distance, which is well useful when you're working with a pattern or a detailed landscape that's relatively close to you, and this is particularly useful if you're shooting, for example, cracked mud patterns on the ground or something like that, where you need to get in close, you don't quite need a macro lens, but you still need to be able to focus closer than most lenses allow. Whenever I'm photographing landscapes I always bring along a short telephoto zoom with me, so I can reach out and grab those intimate details of the landscape and get great pattern shots, and the new Tamron 70 to 210 millimeter lens is perfect for the occasion.

I'm Ian Plant, and thanks for watching.