Last Updated on 07/31/2024 by Chris Gampat
“One of the things that I try to take pride in is finding new compositions for heavily visited locations, or any location in general,” explains photographer Cody Conk to the Phoblographer in an interview. “I spend a lot of time scouting areas and utilizing different foregrounds to add depth to my photos. As I’ve continued to grow as a photographer, this has become a bit easier over time but still takes a lot of patience, trial, and error.” Truly, finding the composition that speaks to your heart in the kind way you wish for can be challenging. But with his Tamron lenses mounted to his Sony cameras, he has all the time in the world.
This article is presented in partnership with Tamron. All images by Cody Conk. Used with permission. For more by Cody, please check out his website and Instagram.
The Important Gear Cody Conk Uses
Cody first drank from the chalice of photography when he moved to Philadelphia. It started with him modeling for a friend, and then from there, he learned about compositions and such. After experimenting with his iPhone, he decided to buy a Sony a7 III. And from there, he found out how incredible Tamron lenses can be.
These days, he primarily uses the Sony A7r V for his stills. He also uses the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8, 28-75mm f2.8 G2, 70-180mm f2.8 G2, and a Sony 16-35mm f2.8 G Master. “I never want to be in a situation where I don’t have the right focal length for the shot I’m imagining,” Cody explains. “My most used lens is probably my 28-75 as it’s typically the perfect focal length. One of my favorite things to shoot is scale, so I’m typically using the 17-28 for those types of photos.”
The Vertical Format
Perhaps because of his nontraditional photography background, Cody breaks so many rules in landscape photography that have been set in place for decades. Because of this, his images are intriguing in fascinating ways. Staring at his photographs is like peering into a vintage Viewmaster and being in awe of the photographs right in front of you. Each one is beyond magical—they’re a piece of cinematic beauty. Cody started doing things this way to take up as much real estate as he could on Instagram.
Utilizing wide lenses like the Tamron 17-28 has been very crucial for allowing me to get the shots I’m looking for in a vertical format. However, over the past year, I’ve started to get away from shooting vertically for IG, and have been focusing more on shooting the scenes as I feel they should be shot.
Cody Conk
In the past few years, though, he’s been working to get away from only shooting vertically. Like so many other photographers, he’s realized there’s so much more to the art form besides shooting for it. And unlike many photographers, Cody’s work doesn’t look very dated. Instead, the Tamron lenses help Cody focus in on what’s important — translating a feeling into an image.
The Creative Side Made Possible by Tamron
Cody shoots mostly with Tamron lenses because he trusts them to complete any job he’s had to execute. “Their durability, lightweight, weather sealing, focusing, and sharpness give me all the reasons to make these my go-to lenses,” he shares with us.
For Cody, being able to document and capture a single moment that won’t be duplicated every again is something huge. This ties in his love of photography even more as he actively prints his images. “”…there’s nothing else like it, especially when it’s one of your own that you’re proud of.”
Transparently, Cody has got no issues with AI, but he doesn’t want that as part of his legacy. Instead, he wants to be known as someone making images with the tools that are given to him. He can sometimes still spend anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes editing a photograph. “I will sometimes do sky replacements and remove distractions from my photos, but that’s about it when it comes to the AI side of things.”
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
