Lens Tips

It’s November, and that means retail stores and malls are shifting into end-of-year holiday decoration mode. Soon the red-suited elf will be shaking his bell outside the train station. Is it rushing the season? You be the judge. One thing we know for sure: it’s not too early to pick up a few new ways to give your holiday photos that extra sparkle.

Got a new camera? Great feeling, no? Here are 10 camera accessories to enhance your photography pleasure. A few of them are downright necessities.

7Artisans just released the updated Mark II version of their popular 7.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens and it’s about the most fun a photographer can have for $139. We borrowed an early sample in Fujifilm X mount and here’s what we discovered.

I tend to travel on the wide side when it comes to lens selection, so it was exciting to get a hold of Tamron’s new super telephoto zoom—the SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 (Model A022). And what better way to give this big beauty a try than to take it on safari? Admittedly, this “safari” was of the local variety with a quick trip to the recently renovated Audubon Zoo barely two miles from my home in New Orleans. I also spent an afternoon with the Tamron 150-600mm G2 ($1,399) on one of the many bayous running through Southern Louisiana to shoot some gators and less exotic wildlife.

There are various ways that you can use to focus very close to small subjects. Here is a list of choices.

Macro Lenses. You can purchase a lens that is specifically designed to focus closely. These are called “macro” lenses, and they are available in focal lengths between 50mm and 200mm (figure A). They can also focus to infinity so you can use them for landscapes, portraits, etc., but photographers buy them primarily to use in close-up work.

Lynne Eodice is an accomplished writer/photographer and a regular contributor to Photographic magazine.

Throughout the decades, artists have depicted still life scenes--arrangements of inanimate objects--in paintings and photography. Shooting still life subjects is one of the best ways to sharpen your photographic skills. You can take your time, and your subject...

Long lenses are wonderful photographic tools. Their longer-than-"normal" focal lengths magnify everything, allowing you to get "close-ups" of subjects you can't (or don't want to) approach closely. The shorter long lenses (those in the 85--120mm range, for 35mm cameras) are ideal for portraits, because they produce a good head size at a...