A Tale of Too Many Tripods

If there’s one piece of gear that photographers will shirk at early on..

It is a nice set of carbon fiber legs.

Tripods seem to be the last thing on a photographers’ mind, why is that?

One could argue that after dropping some serious money on their DSLR and a lens or two, what is there left to purchase?

Let’s appreciate tripods for a moment as they help keep everything balanced and stable during an exposure.

Over 75% of my photography is taken from a tripod, while the other quarter is strictly wildlife/birds and some abstract shots.

A tripod helps free up the mind from worrying about so much camera shake in your hands and allows you to experiment with composition and working the angles.

There isn’t always going to be a rock or fence rail to stabilize your camera on!

And so as I write this, I’ve used about three or four different tripods before settling on a Gitzo Systematic (costing about a thousand dollars!) and a much cheaper Benro Travel Slim carbon fiber set of legs.

This took many hard times of watching gear fail and break before my eyes until realizing this..

It pays to pay for quality gear.

Maybe this is a lesson learned in time, and not one to learn early on?

Regardless, a high quality set of legs and head won’t let you down, and is just as important as the other equipment used to take the images.

In your experience, does a tripod make a difference for the type of photography you do? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts down below, thanks for reading!

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The ‘All Outdoors Photography Podcast‘ is a show where we discuss stories from out in the field, techniques and gear with two outdoor photographers and various guests.

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