I was recently glancing at the Focal Point mailing list and I noticed that a lot of the names were new to the club. It occurred to me that it was only five years, or so, ago when I joined the club. Coming into the club as a fair weather, snapshot shooter, I had a lot to learn. My perception of what makes a good image and how much effort it takes to produce a good image has certainly changed over the past five years. And I'm still learning.

Assuming that some of our new members will soon find themselves taking some of the same steps up the learning ladder that I have been climbing, I thought I would pass along, in the Boeing tradition, some of my "lessons learned". Maybe a few of these lessons will help to prevent you from taking some of the wrong steps that I've taken. I'll try to stick with major lessons for now.

Tripods - If you don't have one, buy one. If in doubt, get one that's bigger and heavier than what you think you need, rather than smaller and lighter. If you buy a flimsy one now, you'll end up buying a bigger, heavier one later. The flimsy one will end up in the corner of your garage gathering dust with your old shovels and rakes. It may even end up in your garden holding up one of your tomato plants. Eventually, you'll probably decide that you need two tripods, or maybe even three. Tripods let you do two main things. One, they keep the camera steady and, two, they allow you to take the time to look through the viewfinder and really fine-tune your composition down to the last detail. Steady may not be a big deal if you're shooting fast film at 1/1000 of a second, but it's a big deal if you're using slow film and need a 1/30 second shot, or 5 seconds, or 30 seconds. Note that "keep the camera steady" is not the same as "hold the camera". You probably learned in one of your high school physics classes that a body at rest wants to remain at rest. Well, when the wind starts blowing, an 8 pound tripod will stay at rest much more so than a two pound tripod will. Here are some other considerations regarding tripods:

Why more than one? Because you may not want to carry your 10 pound tripod (with tripod head) when you take that 10 mile hike at Mt. Rainier, or catch that flight to Florida to photograph those crocodiles. You'll probably want to sacrifice some camera steadiness for convenience and use a lighter tripod sometimes.
When you buy that sturdy tripod, also buy a sturdy tripod, quick-release head. The "weakest link" theory applies to tripods too.
For your lighter travel tripod, get one that will fit into your suitcase. If you remove the head, you can get a bigger one to fit. My Bogen 3221 with the head removed fits into my suitcase. This is becoming a really big deal, more and more, because many of the airlines are getting really picky about the number and size of carry-on baggage. Also, if you pack the tripod in your suitcase, that's one less bag you have to lug around and keep an eye on.
Most tripods you see have legs with 3 segments, but some have four. Yes, the 4-segment tripods, when collapsed, are more compact. But, when extended, the 3-segment tripods are sturdier. Also, after you have extended and collapsed a 4-segment tripod a few dozen times, you'll probably wish it had only 3 segments. It's cumbersome and time consuming enough to set up a 3-segment tripod, so why make it worse. Personal opinion.
Some photographers hang their camera bag from the center post of their tripod for added weight and stability. That probably works best if you rig up a homemade harness. I've never done it, but I've thought about it, even before I heard and read about other people doing it. It's a good idea if you expect to stay in one spot for a while, but it might be a hassle if you tend to move around a lot.
After you have your camera steadied rock solid with your heavy tripod and sturdy tripod head, it doesn't make much sense to then grab the camera with your hand and push on the shutter release. Buy a cable release.
Don't extend all the segments of the legs if you don't need the height, particularly if it's real windy. The longer the extension, the less steady the camera. Extend the "fattest" legs first. The next fattest if you need them. Normally, though, you want to do what's comfortable so that you don't mess up your back. You don't want to be leaning and bending over your tripod for too long. But, who says you have to stand. Try sitting. I find myself getting down on one knee a lot.
I've read various opinions about how a tripod with carbon fiber legs can be as steady as a heavier tripod with metal legs. The laws of inertia would suggest not, but I'm not much of an expert on the vibration characteristics of elastic, solid bodies. After I made up my mind that I wasn't going to pay the money for what they want for carbon fiber, it didn't matter any more. Of course, someday I may change my mind.
What about monopods? I have one, but don't use it much. I even bought one of those niffty, extendable shoulder braces (Bogen) that fits between the monopod and the head. I don't use that either.

Well, this is taking much longer than I expected, so I think I'll stop with tripods for now. More some other time.

Sam Reichmanis

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