"Tamron Recipes" with Cecil Holmes

Images copyright Cecil Holmes. All rights reserved.

by Skip Cohen

​Think about your favorite restaurant - the atmosphere, the food, and most importantly, the staff, especially the chef. My wife and I have one of our favorites where we've gotten to know the chef. His cooking is remarkable, but his style and personality are part of what keeps bringing us back. Tamron Recipes isn't just about the images but the personalities of the "chefs" who create and capture them. The analogy between chefs and artists works all the time. Each one is different in the way they capture/create images (or cuisine) that, in turn, capture us!

Cecil Holmes is in the Tamron Kitchen, and he's the perfect guest chef to bring the 2022 series to a close. It's not just his images that have appeal, but spend a little time with him, even just a phone call, and you'll meet an artist with an unmatched passion for the craft. Nothing complicated - just a great guy in love with his family and friends first and his camera second!

I wanted to share a statement in his bio that describes his love for the craft, far better than I can:

Rather than list a "resume" of every accomplishment I have had or received, I would prefer you to look at my art to determine my qualifications. I do put a lot of work and pride into it, after all. I am up really early on some days, out really late some nights, and some days I do not sleep at all when I am in search of a photograph. I also spend quite a bit of time behind the keyboard in an effort to further perfect my art. I can only hope you see this dedication and pride in each of my photographs. If you truly need a list of accomplishments, feel free to reach out to me via email and I'll gladly send one over.

Cecil is all about sharing what he captures - and I find myself living vicariously through his travels. So whether it's wildlife in Alaska or hanging out in the Grand Tetons, there's always something to make me smile. We shared two of Cecil's images this month for two primary reasons. First, they're at opposite ends of the range of focal lengths, starting with Tamron's 50-400mm and then moving to a shorter zoom. Second, landscape and wildlife photography have become two of the most popular genres over the last few years. 

Coming out of the pandemic, more of us are staying within the US and traveling to all those bucket list parks we've had visions of for many years. And then comes Cecil, right on target for places so many of us want to visit!

Ingredients

Wildlife
Camera: Sony A1
​Lens: 50-400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD
Focal Length: 400mm
Exposure: 1/3200 sec @ f6.3 ISO2000 
Handheld
Location: Crescent Lake in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
​
Landscape
Camera: Sony A1
​Lens:  28-75mm F/2.8 Di III VXD G2
Focal Length: 32mm
Exposure: 1/8 sec@ f11 ISO100 
Location: Grand Teton National Park at The Snake River Overlook.

Cecil loves hitting the parks in the West. After dozens of phone calls and even a few guest appearances on the SCU blog, I finally got to meet him LIVE at IUSA several years ago. What a kick to meet both Cecil and one of his sons on the convention floor. 

One more thing about Cecil - it's his love for his family, and it comes out loud and clear on his about page:

I live in Huntsville, AL with my family that consists of my wife and 4 boys. They are all awesome. I have heard people smarter than I say you take on the personalities of people you spend a lot of time with. So either I made them awesome, or they made me.

Cecil needs to be on your radar. Click on either of his images in today's post, to link to his website. If you're hitting IUSA in January, swing by the Tamron booth (#823) and they should know where he is too!

It's holiday time and Tamron has some outstanding savings going on right now - including the 28-75mm G2 lens Cecil talks about in the short podcast and used in the landscape image above. Tamron is manufacturing some of the finest glass in imaging today - but they don't stop there. Check out their scheduled programs - all designed to help you raise the bar on your skill set!

Happy Holidays!