Ron Leach

Panoramic images have a unique impact all their own, and the video below will help you get started shooting dramatic panoramas with your DSLR. And the good news is that the techniques described are much easier than you might suspect.

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.

We usually turn to Mathieu Stern for insight on adapting bargain vintage lenses for use with modern digital cameras. But in the quick video below, Stern gives a 30-second tutorial on making eyes “pop” with Photoshop.

Joel Sartore is an acclaimed National Geographic photographer with an ambitious quest like no other: His life-long goal is to document the plight of our planet's animals by making portraits of every species in captivity.