Dealing With Photography Gear Failure in the Field

If you have been a photographer long enough, you have had a piece of photography gear fail you in the field. Maybe it is a lens that stops focusing, a camera shutter that breaks, or a tripod leg that gets loose—any number of things can potentially impact an outing. Are you prepared for this?

I consider myself a reasonably prepared photographer. After years of higher-pressure situations like photographing events, corporate headshots, and other such photography, when I switched to predominantly landscape photography, I brought a lot of those preparations with me—or so I thought.

In early fall, I traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to spend several days doing landscape photography in the area. One of the days, we headed up a trail to photograph some streams and cascades. After a relatively short hike, we reached a promising spot and went to set up our shots. I unstrapped my tripod, got my camera out of my bag, and went to attach it to my tripod. I turned the screw knob as far as it would go, but the camera still wasn’t secure. I took the camera back off, placed it carefully back on, and turned the screw knob for the clamp again as far as it would go. The camera still wasn’t secure.

Puzzled, I put the camera back down and looked more closely at the clamp. After a little bit of study, it seemed the screw knob had been bent and now would not close all the way. This was preventing me from properly attaching my camera to the tripod. Uh-oh.

Given we had hiked up to this area specifically to photograph moving water, making a tripod especially handy, I had a moment of near panic. Thinking things over, I did have a spare tripod that I had left in the 4Runner, which I usually used for video. It wasn’t the sturdiest tripod, but it might at least work for the rest of the trip. However, I wasn’t going to hike all the way back to the 4Runner for this portion of the trip.

That left me relying on the vibration control of the camera and lens to help me handhold, even for slightly longer exposures. It took a bit of practice to find the right balance of shutter speed for what I could handhold steadily without camera shake. After several practice shots and experimenting, I finally settled on a combination that worked for the rest of our stream photography that day.

In reflecting on that day's failure, I think there are three key elements to consider when dealing with photography gear failure or preparing for the worst. Let’s take a look!

Attitude

Attitude is key when gear fails in the field. I certainly had a moment of panic—here I was, ready to photograph streams and cascades, and my ball head broke, rendering my tripod useless. As someone who uses a tripod most of the time, it would have been very easy to get frustrated and ruin that part of the trip, or maybe even the whole trip.

Instead, I took a few deep breaths and thought about my options. First, I did have a lightweight tripod back in the 4Runner, so I probably only needed to figure things out for this one part of the trip. That helped ease the pressure a bit.

Next, I thought through what I had with me. There were no spare ball heads in the camera bag, so that meant I was going to need to handhold these photos. Though I usually use a tripod, I do practice handheld photography as well, so I had plenty of experience photographing that way—it just isn’t my preferred landscape photography method.

The point is, it would have been super easy to get frustrated, mad, angry, and just give up. I could have had a rotten attitude about the rest of the trip. Instead, I knew I was still outside, I could still enjoy the experience of being out in nature, and I still had tools to take photos along the streams, long exposures and all!

A positive attitude can get you through a lot of difficult situations.

Flexibility

Flexibility is another important element when facing gear issues in the field. As mentioned above, I typically always photograph moving water from a tripod. If I were inflexible, I would have potentially given up and not fully considered my options.

By being flexible and willing to consider those other options, I was able to make the best of the trip and still capture stream images handheld. There is nearly always more than one option—you just need to be flexible and consider those other possibilities.

Continuing with flexibility, there were times I wanted to focus stack a few images. Handheld focus stacks are not something I practice regularly or am very good at. For a few photos, the person I was with was also flexible enough to loan me his tripod for some key compositions I wanted.

I would work my compositions, find one I really wanted to use a tripod for, and then he’d loan me his tripod for a few minutes so I could set up and capture it. Having friends who are flexible is also a great thing to have around! (Don’t worry, I paid him back later on the trip by loaning him a spare camera battery when his was running out!)

Gear Strategy

A solid gear strategy can also help one be more prepared for gear failures. I generally consider myself well-prepared. On more extensive trips, I usually have a second camera body with me. I have a trio of lenses, so if a lens failed, I might lose out on a certain focal length, but I’d still have plenty of options. I carry spare batteries. I carry spare memory cards. I even have ways to back up photos and videos while I am traveling to help protect against gear failures.

I even used to carry a full-sized spare tripod and ball head on trips. But over the years, I got a little lax on that and settled on using my video tripod as my spare stills tripod. Unfortunately, I had downsized my video tripod to something lightweight, forgetting that while it worked for my video camera, it wasn’t the greatest for my heavier stills cameras and lenses.

That’s where I made the mistake on this trip. While it worked, my spare tripod really wasn’t the best tripod option, especially with my heavier lenses or if there was wind.

The key point here is, be sure to think about what gear can serve as backups for other gear so that if something fails out in the field, you have some options. And as your gear changes over time, make sure that doesn’t impact your gear backup strategy! It is always good to be doing a running mental inventory of what you are taking with you!

Have you had a gear failure in the field? How did you overcome it?