What are your go-to troubleshooting tools when shooting landscapes?
Have you ever found yourself in challenging situations in the field that needed a bit of resourcefulness to create the image that you envisioned? Landscape photography can be a very technical and methodical craft and some of the best shooting experiences you will have will require a bit of troubleshooting. Some challenges come from flaws in the equipment that you have, some can just be simple limitations in what your camera and lens can execute, while some challenges come from the location and the limitations imposed by the environment.
On this video, I talk about 5 of my favorite tools that I always make sure are available when I know that a particular shoot will have its challenges beyond what my camera, lens, and tripod can overcome. These five items are not the usual camera/lens/tripod combinations but instead, small accessories that can either help you fix or manipulate your gear or be an alternative to what isn’t available at the time. Every landscape photographer has an entirely different set of experiences and I, of course, do not consider this a fixed and finished list, so feel free to pitch in your own favorite tools in the comments.
You can simplify all of this and eliminate excess weight in your camera bag with a Platypod with a multi kit or a Joby tripod for extra height. Those super clamps add a lot of weight, as do some magic arms that require a fair amount of fiddling. You can even simplify your panoramas with a pan and tilt head.
Youre right given that the setup isn't too heavy. With the weight comes the extra payload. As for the pan and tilt head, not really if you're working with wide lenses (as I mentioned that in combination with a long plate to emulate a nodal head)