Wanderlust Uncontained

Rylee Olsen’s Tamron 28-200mm and 150-500mm VC zoom lenses accompany him on every adventure.

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By Jenn Gidman
Images by Rylee Olsen


Rylee Olsen was born and raised in Utah, and his family of seven was no stranger to the outdoor scene. “Every vacation was to a national park or camping in a forest,” he recalls. “My parents always took the long, scenic route wherever we went.”

That love of the great outdoors continued with Rylee into adulthood, and he picked up a camera when he was barely out of his teens so he could document his adventures. “I wanted to be able to capture the awesomeness of everything around me—and, more importantly, the feelings I had when I saw these places,” he says.

Today, Rylee uses the Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD all-in-one zoom for his Sony mirrorless camera system, along with the 150-500mm Di III VC VXD ultra-telephoto zoom. “These two lenses go with me everywhere,” he says. “The 28-200 offers me the versatility to take pictures of all I encounter in my travels, from super-wide landscapes, to macro-style images, to zooming in on the details. If I’m taking a photo of the sunset on mountain peaks, for example, I can zoom in on a particular mountain, or zoom out to capture the entire range.”

Meanwhile, the 150-500 has proven invaluable for Rylee’s wildlife photos. “That’s the lens I pulled out when the eagle you see here suddenly started enjoying his dinner behind the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska,” he says. “I was able to zoom in enough so that you can see the salmon eggs dropping out of its mouth. If I didn’t have the 150-500, this photo wouldn’t have happened.”


150-500mm (155mm), F/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 100
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Rylee concedes it’s a struggle to straddle the line between photographer and adventurer. “It’s a balance,” he says. “My younger brother, who often travels with me, sometimes gets annoyed, because I keep stopping along whatever trail we’re on to take pictures. But then, after we’re back, he loves having the pictures as proof of our adventure.”

RYLEE’S QUICK TIPS

• Look for the light, lines, and textures.
If you’re lucky enough to capture a scene that’s been photographed thousands of times before when the lighting is really special (aka a spectacular sunset), that will set your picture apart. After that, I seek out leading lines, like you see here in the photo of my brother walking in the valley. Your eye goes first to my brother, and is then pulled down the trail in front of him and deep into the valley. Finally, I love looking for gradients and textures, like you see in the ice-climbing photo here. I hate looking at an image where your eye is stuck in one place.


28-200mm (33mm), F/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100
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28-200mm (54mm), F/5, 1/100 sec., ISO 100
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• Don’t place all your hopes in one photo.
My brother and I were glacier guides in Alaska last summer, and we saw way too many tourists who were obsessed with getting just that one image of, say, a picture in an ice cave. Unfortunately (for them), the glaciers are shifting all the time, and so there were no ice caves we could easily bring them to. They couldn’t seem to get past missing out on that one photo they’d set their hearts on. Meanwhile, they had this incredible, gorgeous landscape spread out around them, with endless photographic possibilities.


28-200mm (32mm), F/6.3, 1/160 sec., ISO 100
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• Respect the places you’re photographing.
One of the reasons I like to present a human element in my photos is not only to offer a sense of scale, but also to convey through my photos how small we are against these grand landscapes. Not that we’re completely insignificant as human beings, but I want people to be aware of how much bigger everything is around us. When I’m on a photo adventure, my motto is “Get in, get out, and leave no trace,” like the Boy Scouts. Because how upsetting is it when you’re in this serene location, taking photos of some of the most amazing scenery you’ve ever seen, and you stumble upon a Pop-Tarts wrapper?


28-200mm (37mm), F/3.2, 1/1600 sec., ISO 100
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28-200mm (31mm), F/2.8, 1/500 sec., ISO 800
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• Let your sense of humor permeate your photos.
I was on a trip to the Tetons with my brother and some friends, and when we were leaving, we passed the Palisades Reservoir, which because of drought, was at the lowest levels I’d ever seen. One of my brother’s friends dared him to try to drive us across the lakebed and we got stuck. After hours of trying to dig ourselves out, we hiked a couple of miles to a local campsite for help. This photo of my brother actually turned out to the highlight of the trip. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s the story we remember best from that getaway!


28-200mm (65mm), F/6.3, 1/125 sec., ISO 100
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To see more of Rylee’s photos, check out his Instagram.

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