Photographer Tammie Maloney (@tnttown1) has traveled to many interesting places around the world, always with a camera ready to document the people and places she comes across. We connected with her to learn more about how she took the image while on a photo trip to Cuba with her husband and a group of photographers. Keep reading as she shares how she captured the image with her Sony Alpha 7 II and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master, and learn more about the gear she uses in What’s In Our Bags: Double Fully-Loaded Sony Alpha Kits For A Travel Photography Duo.

How a travel photographer broke free from the group she was with and used backlight, atmosphere and a hi-speed burst to get catch the perfect flame.

Photo by Tammie Maloney. Sony Alpha 7 II. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/80-sec., f/2.8, ISO 1250

The Scene

My husband and I visited Cuba in November of 2016 right after the United States opened travel to the country to regular tourists. The first part of our 21-day visit was with a group of photographers from our hometown of Tulsa. During our week-long adventure we traveled on a Cuba provided bus with a Cuban tour guide accompanying us through the countryside as we made our way to Havana.

One of our many stops was at a tobacco farm outside of Vinales. Tobacco is a major crop for the country and some of the farms are set up to demonstrate the process of growing, cutting, drying and rolling the tobacco into the highly sought-after cigars.

Towards the end of our tour of the farm, we were escorted into a tobacco drying barn where our guide demonstrated the rolling process. The barn was very dimly lit with sun streaming in through high windows and cracks in the wooden barn walls. As our group gathered around for the demonstration, I was able to position myself off to the side away from the rest of our group so I could get an unobstructed shot. This also gave me the advantage of having a backlight from one of the windows off to the side of the demonstration area.

Getting The Shot

I was shooting with a Sony Alpha 7 II and using my Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master lens to give me the length I needed to focus in on the scene. The low-light capabilities of the Sony allowed me to boost my ISO to 1250 without introducing noise and the lens at f/2.8 gave me just enough exposure to give me details in his face. I was able to handhold the camera at 1/80-sec. by leaning up against one of the barn’s support beams.
 
As soon as he finished rolling the cigar, he placed it in his mouth, struck a match and lit up. Placing the camera on burst mode, I was able to fire off about 20 shots trying to capture the light reflected off his face from the match. Fortunately, I caught the exact moment when the match caught the cigar on fire and put a glow on the man’s face. As a bonus, the light streaming in behind him caught the smoke swirling up from the tip of the cigar.

Shooting For Minimal Editing

I could tell from reviewing the shot in camera that I had captured the moment when all the lighting worked but still had to see it on my computer to make sure everything was sharp and it was indeed light enough to see detail in the man’s face. I was pleased to see the camera handled the light situation so well utilizing the fast 24-70mm GM lens. Little editing was needed in Lightroom, just slight cropping, a little noise reduction, and boosting highlights. Previous classes have taught me to make sure that I get the shot in camera as close to perfect as possible so there’s minimal post needed. I get the most pleasure from taking photos and do as little editing as possible.

See more of Tammie’s work on Instagram @tnttown1.