On Feb 28th, 2009 in Akumal, Mexico, my beloved tripod was stolen off the beach by an evil tripod bandit while I was in the surf taking pictures of a bride and groom. I’ll miss you, beloved friend.

The tripod (A Gitzo Basalt Reporter with a Markins M10 Ballhead) has already been replaced: I ordered its successor the moment I returned home. The only change this go around is I opted for the Really Right Stuff BH40 ballhead instead of the Markins. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

This may seem strange to some as tripods are usually not considered “sexy” by many of my contemporaries. Many of my colleagues’ tripods serve primarily for extra rear-wheel traction in winter: dead weight in a car trunk. So why do I love my tripod so much?

First off, I didn’t really love using a tripod until I got a really good one. My very first go with a tripod was a little Sunpack deal purchased before I went pro. It was clunky, wobbly, and drooped incessantly. My first “serious” tripod was a Giottos leg set with a Manfrotto ballhead. It was a step up, but the legs were clunky and the ballhead still drooped. Further, the plates were uncomfortable when used with a vertical grip, so I always took them off. That setup also wound up failing rather spectacularly, when in the space of a week the ballhead chipped and the legs split in half for no good reason.

After my $400 tripod setup failed, I decided to bite the bullet and go with the gold standard: Gitzo and an A-list ballhead.

One interesting thing is I’d always thought of tripod weight as a non-issue. I’m a big macho former SF-guy, so what does a pound or two matter for my tripod, right? Well, the funny thing is that when I finally owned a light and compact tripod (and a convenient Tamrac tripod bag), I started actually taking it with me more often!

Some of the reasons I love my tripod:
-It forces me to really THINK about my composition.
-Not only can I shoot in low light, but I can shoot in low light at clean ISO’s or with more than a hair’s breadth of depth-of-field
-I can use live-view with 10x magnification to focus my lens when I’m at f/1.2 or 1.4. Even a 1D won’t hit that critical autofocus 10/10, but I can do it manually!
-Even if your shutter speed is high, swaying in or out can also soften your pics at wide apertures. Not gonna happen on a tripod.
-HDR
-Composites made easy! Have trouble with a reflection from your light in a window? Shoot once with the strobe and once without…. easy fix!
-Panoramas (especially with the RRS Pano kit). Want a 50+ megapixel file?
-Depth-of-field stacking… want to get it ALL in focus?
-Using a tripod lets me stop looking through the viewfinder and get out from behind the camera. Richard Avedon typically didn’t look through a viewfinder when shooting, and connected directly with his subjects.

Anyway, I just realized I hadn’t posted in a bit so I thought a love-song to the tripod would be a good fit.

Cheers all!

Tags: Essays, tripod