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Dino Sokocevic put his Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 through its paces to capture street scenes in central Mexico.
Author: Jenn Gidman
Images: Dino Sokocevic
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Dino Sokocevic put his Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 through its paces to capture street scenes in central Mexico.
Dino Sokocevic had the opportunity last spring to travel with his wife to central Mexico for a friend’s wedding, a trip that also served as somewhat of a mini-honeymoon after his own recent nuptials. “We were mainly in the city of Santiago de Queretaro, though we also took a bus trip to San Miguel de Allende, which gave us a chance to see even more of the region’s stunning Spanish-style architecture and charming street scenes,” he says.
Dino wanted to bring just one lens to document their travels, and his lens of choice was the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 DI III VXD G2 standard zoom with Nikon Z mount for his mirrorless camera. “This lens is phenomenal, offering me a focal-length range that can capture almost any type of street photography,” he says. “The high optical quality was amazing, and the F2.8 aperture was key in some of the lower-light circumstances, such as inside the winery we visited. I also appreciated the 28-75mm F2.8 G2’s customizable focus ring function setting, which allows you to adjust how the focus shifts when shooting in manual.”
Although this type of photography isn’t as structured as the landscape photos that have become his bread and butter, Dino enjoyed his spontaneous meanderings with such a versatile, compact, and lightweight lens. “It was more ‘run and gun’ than I’m used to, where I was able to shoot right from the hip as we were wandering around,” he says. “The 28-75mm F2.8 G2 allowed me to quickly capture picturesque photos without being intrusive.”
DINO’S QUICK TIPS
Keep a lookout for standout scenes.
When shooting travel or street photography, I look for subjects that pop, especially those with vibrant colors. That’s why this doorway stood out—not only for those vivid blues and reds, but also for how the cactuses offer a stunning natural frame. I love doing center compositions, and this one allowed me to create a “frame within a frame” composition.
Go telephoto.
The longer end of the 28-75mm F2.8 G2 can help you isolate subjects and remove background clutter. I took many pictures while strolling through town, where there are so many quirky, interesting storefronts and other venues. That ballerina statue, so nicely framed by the doorway, was an instance where I wanted to emphasize the statue and its surroundings, but not too much of the surroundings—there were a lot of distractions just out of frame. At the longer end, the lens helped compress things a bit in the image, creating a tighter, more intimate composition.
That compression also came into play in my street scene of those red and orange buildings. Shooting at 75mm helped me “squish” the image, bringing the distant buildings closer and compressing the colors and textures into a flatter, more cohesive photo. This helped me accentuate the warm, early evening light, highlighting the interplay of light and shadow on the building surfaces.
And then go wide.
The wide end of the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 is perfect for capturing larger structures while maintaining perspective without heavy distortion. I shot this cathedral in San Miguel de Allende at 28mm to capture the grandeur of the building without warping its intricate architecture. The wider focal length also allowed me to frame the cathedral with a few palm trees, which offers viewers a hint of the warm locale we were in. Because the structure was so large and I wasn’t right on top of it, shooting at F5 allowed me to maintain sharpness throughout the scene. And yes, I used a centered composition here as well, as that enhanced the symmetrical beauty of the cathedral while preserving its scale in the frame.
Focus on the details.
Isolating particular elements of a scene allows you to tell a deeper story, and this is where the 28-75mm F2.8 G2’s versatility shines. We attended a wine tasting at the Vinos Santiago Apostol vineyard and I spied this basket filled with wine bottles and grapes. It was obviously staged near the barrels for people who wanted to take pictures, but I thought it was a great opportunity to test out the faster part of this lens, especially because it was dim in this part of the winery.
I went with a slightly narrower aperture of F3.5, but I didn’t go down to F2.8, because the basket was pretty large, and I wanted a balanced depth of field, keeping multiple parts of the image sharp while still creating a subtle background blur. If there had been just one wine bottle perched on top of a barrel, I probably would’ve shot it at F2.8.
To see more of Dino Sokocevic’s work, check out his website and Instagram.
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