Improve Your Photography: Ask Santa for a Tripod

The tripod is often overlooked in today’s photography community, and it is a shame that it is. Perhaps photographers today think that a tripod is old school or that modern cameras have image stabilization, and therefore, a tripod isn’t needed. I disagree, and if you aren’t using a tripod for some of your photography work, you are missing out.

Not only do I have one tripod, I actually have three, and they all serve a different purpose for me. Yet, most photographers will give you numerous reasons why they don’t carry a tripod with them, or even worse, they don’t even own a tripod. In this terrific video by Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens, Morgan dispels several reasons people give for not using a tripod. He also provides a couple of reasons why you should carry and use a tripod.

The most substantial reason for using a tripod that Morgan gives and which I 100 percent agree with is that it forces you to slow down your shooting. Slowing down your shooting forces you to think about your composition. This is especially important if you are new to photography, as learning and practicing composition takes time. The more time you spend perfecting composition, the better a photographer you will become. Hand-holding a camera gives too much freedom to move around using the spray and pray method and hoping something interesting will be captured. Placing a camera on a tripod slows this process down and encourages the photographer to think through the image they are trying to create.  

Douglas Turney's picture

Doug Turney is a Connecticut based photographer who specializes in non-ball sport types of photography such as motocross, sailing, and cycling. But that doesn’t stop him from shooting other types of photography too. Doug believes photography is photography and doesn’t like to be typecast. Doug loves to travel and often shoots when traveling.

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4 Comments

I still have my first aluminum Velbon tripod from early 80s. Built like a tank but still fairly lightweight.

Tripod for a street photog, ha!

Yes, yes I did. And I thought perhaps it was worth sharing with the community.