Picking out the perfect lens is very challenging. As landscape photographer Michael Shainblum explains in a new blog post, “Purchasing new lenses can prove to be overwhelming and stressful.” Shainblum breaks down the four crucial factors in selecting a new lens and offers landscape photographers options regardless of their budget.

Photographers should consider four crucial factors when selecting a landscape lens: range, price, quality, and weight. The range is the focal length range of a lens. The wider the focal length range, the more versatile a lens is for a diverse range of landscape photos.

Kickstarting Shainblum’s recommendations is the “budget hiker/backpacker kit.” This kit includes two lenses, the Sony FE 16-35mm f/4 G PZ lens and the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD lens. This kit offers focal lengths range 16mm to 200mm, which is suitable for nearly every landscape scenario. It is also a relatively lightweight kit that costs under $2,000.

A slightly more expensive kit that compromises a bit concerning weight is a pairing of the same Sony 16-35mm f/4 lens with the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD lens. This “budget kit” loses the 36-49mm focal lengths but adds 201-400mm.

For photographers with a massive budget, the “$$$” kit sets someone back nearly $7,000. The three lenses are the FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM, Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS, and the Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS. With focal lengths coverage from 12mm to 400mm, this premium kit does it all.

While that may be the best trio of landscape lenses money can buy, it is different from the kit that Shainblum himself uses. He shoots with an older Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE f/4 ZA OSS lens, the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD, and the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS telephoto zoom.

All the kits Shainblum outlines, which include more than what is discussed in this article, include multiple lenses. What if a photographer wants just a single lens to do it all? Shainblum thinks the Tamron 28-200mm zoom is a great option. While it is not extremely wide by landscape lens standards, 28mm is plenty wide for many situations, and the lens is versatile, lightweight, affordable, and a strong overall performer.

Further, while Shainblum mentions lenses for Sony E-mount, the general “type” of lens in each of his kits exists for other lens mounts. While sometimes a lens is not precisely the same for other camera systems, similar lenses are readily available.

As Shainblum also explains, a great way to save money on any new photography equipment is to purchase it used. There are many places to buy high-quality used gear that has been professionally inspected and graded, including Adorama and MPB.

More of Michael Shainblum’s photography is available on his website and Instagram. His excellent YouTube channel is regularly updated with insightful new videos for photographers of all skill levels.

Image credits: All images © Michael Shainblum

I moved to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, at the age of five, and instantly fell in love with the river. The Nile snakes through the city, offering one of very few public places to escape the sweltering heat. It was always where I felt happiest as a child, and now as an adult.

The Halfaya Bridge, pictured here, is one of the newer bridges in the city. It connects two of the capital’s three main neighbourhoods: Omdurman, where I grew up and still live, and Bahri, to the east of the Nile. Under the bridge is a little tea shop, a common sight. It’s the perfect place to pause, relax, watch the world go by and catch the breeze blowing in over the water. The river is treated like a public space in Khartoum. The various classes and communities that make up the city all come here to chat and look out over the Nile. It’s a place where people come together in a city that can otherwise feel divided.

It took me a few trips to get this shot. I want every image I take to capture what I felt when I was in that place. Here, it was the sense of time stretching out ahead of you, and a feeling of peace and calm. It was part of a series documenting the river, but I like that in this image what’s most important isn’t the water itself but the space it offers for human relationships. I took the shot a year and a half ago. Then, just the other day, I came across it again. I was hit with a sense of nostalgia. Since conflict broke out in the city a few months ago, these spaces have been largely abandoned. It’s unthinkable that I could while away an afternoon there now.

Khartoum is not the same place we all lived in. When I started the river series, I was documenting life in the city as I lived it. But now that is history. Many people have fled and places like this cafe sit empty. The shot commemorates a happier time when Khartoum was still at peace. Even if the conflict calms down, I don’t think it will return to how it was. What scares me is that the fighting is shifting from political oppositions to tribal ones, which are much more complicated to solve. It’s what happened in Darfur, my birthplace, 20 years ago. It feels as if history is repeating itself.

I think we in Sudan have so many social issues that could be resolved through art. We need to talk about both our differences and our similarities as people. So many of Sudan’s issues relate to questions of identity, how different groups live together and how different classes interact. I want my photography to be a way to have conversations. This image commemorates one of the places where such interactions were possible.

As a self-taught photographer, the way I take pictures has changed a lot. I’m no longer looking only for a beautiful image, I’m looking for a specific feeling. I want each image to capture an essence of a place. Photography has changed me: taking pictures of Khartoum has made me a much better observer of it. I understand the city more deeply.

To be an African photographer who photographs Africa is not always easy. In the case of Sudan, because the country has experienced many years of conflict in various forms and various places, sometimes that is all the outside world sees of us. Of course, those things matter – I don’t think our conflicts are well enough understood and it’s essential that they are. But there is a world beyond conflict here that is rarely seen. I think it’s the role of artists and photographers to tell stories that journalists don’t reach, to produce a counter narrative – showing the joy and beauty of this place and its people, not only its suffering.

Ala Kheir’s work is part of Reframing Neglect, in partnership with the Africa Center, Harlem, New York, 3 August to 5 September, then at Cromwell Place, London, 26 September to 8 October.

Ala Kheir’s CV

Born: Neyala, Darfur, Sudan, 1985
Trained: “Self-taught. But I was lucky to attend many masterclasses in Africa.”
Influences: “Robert Adams, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Eugène Atget.”
High point: “Going out in beautiful weather with two fresh roles of Kodak Portra 400 film.”
Low point: “Thinking about what is going on in Sudan now.”
Top tip: “Photograph what you feel. It will make your photography unique.”

Image of Farmall Tractor in Alpharetta, GaPhoto byImage by Author

How to Sell Your Photography Online in Alpharetta, Ga

If you are a photographer in Alpharetta selling your work online, or just starting out and want to kick-start your income, there is one site that few people are talking about.

Let’s face it, photographers can be some of the biggest snobs out there. After all, we are artists. We can’t be bothered by such mundane things as debasing our art to make money. Well, some can’t.

I’ve been a professional photographer in the Alpharetta area for about 30 years and I’ve heard these types of arguments over and over. One of the first and loudest came back in the early part of this century when digital photography became a thing.

“That’s not real photography!”

The first guy that mixed mashed berries with his soot for cave drawings probably got similar pushback.

But that was nothing compared to the natural offshoot of both digital photography and the proliferation of the World Wide Web. I’m talking about micro-stock. Suddenly, photographers were selling their work for a dollar or less. I know, I was one of those.

“It will be the death of photography!”

You’re probably hearing the same thing about AI art now. But here’s the thing. That was 18 years ago. My income from stock has grown steadily each and every year since then. Why? Because I’m not afraid to try something new and test the waters of innovation. And because I’ve built my portfolio from those first pictures of a seashell to over 30,000 images online.

As I told one naysayer early on, if you sell an image once for $1,000 or a thousand times for a dollar, that’ the exact same income. “But it devalues the product.” Keep telling yourself that. A few years later, he emailed me, wanting my help to get him started with micro-stock.

Picture of Fried Chicken Displayed as Wall ArtPhoto byImage by Author

But I could see the market shifting in 2005, and it’s still shifting. Ride the wave or get knocked off. That’s why I have a simple image of a plate of fried chicken I bought at the Alpharetta Publix that has made me thousands of dollars.

And that’s one photo in my portfolio. Cost to me? About 15 minutes of my time and $9. And I got to eat the chicken.

But about 10 years ago, I began expanding my photography into the fine art and Print On Demand (POD) markets. Fine art. That sounds fancy. Maybe I can make some money there.

And so I did. Fine Art America, is one of the oldest and best known and I sell quite a bit there to this day. Others I have used successfully include Saatchi Art, Society 6, and Displate.

But one site hit my radar early on, but I was a bit hesitant to try them out. They sold framed and unframed prints, just like the others, but that wasn’t their focus. They sold photographs printed on, well, pretty much anything.

I didn’t want my work on T-shirts and coffee mugs, did I? Then, I thought, why not? So, I finally caved and gave RedBubble a try. Since then, it has become my highest generator of income outside the stock photography market. They have literally hundreds of products and add new ones all the time.

I’ve sold my famous fried chicken image on a throw pillow. I don’t know either. I’ve sold images of Alpharetta churches on duvet covers. Twice. And yes, I’ve sold coffee mugs and T-shirts. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds.

The site is very easy to set up an account and get started. And, if you want, you can limit the types of products they sell your pictures on. Don’t want your epic landscape to show up on a shower curtain? No problem. You have control over that. You also have control over your markup.

And that brings up one subject you need to be aware of. Some of these products sell for a lot of money. Duvet covers, for instance. You want to get a fair markup, but you don’t want to price yourself out of the market. I tend to set my markup at 100% for the average products, and on a declining scale as the prices go up. On the really cheap stuff, sticker, pins, and postcards, I tack on a flat bottom line.

If you are a photographer in Alpharetta, who is, or wants to sell your images online, try Redbubble. It will not land your work in a museum, but it will generate income.

Portrait photography is a challenging but rewarding genre that requires not just competence with a camera and lighting, but the ability to direct subjects and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera. If you are new to the genre and hoping to improve, check out this helpful video tutorial that features an experienced portrait photographer discussing a range of helpful advice and actionable tips sure to help you take better photos. 

Coming to you from Manny Ortiz, this awesome video tutorial offers a lot of helpful advice sure to help you improve your portrait photography. One thing I think is especially worth developing as a new photographer is working the entire frame. A lot of newer portrait photographers become overly reliant on wide apertures to take care of busy backgrounds instead of creating more balanced images. Work on using a variety of apertures and adding a bit of context around your subject, and it will make you a far more versatile photographer. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Ortiz. 

If you would like to continue learning about the art of portraiture, be sure to check out our range of tutorials on the subject in the Fstoppers store