Why Leaving Your Tripod Behind Can Be a Good Thing for Your Photography

Tripods and landscape photography tend to go hand in hand. And while they are great for both maximizing the technical quality of your images and for enabling certain creative methods, they can actually be a hindrance at other times. This interesting video explores why sometimes, it is better to avoid using a tripod.

Coming to you from Henry Turner, this great video discusses the idea of leaving your tripod behind more often in landscape photography. Traditionally, landscape photographers use tripods to enable the ability to use the lowest possible ISO for maximum image quality or to explore long exposures for creative effects. And while they are certainly highly useful for both those things, I think Turner is on to something with the idea that tripods can be a hindrance simply because they add cumbersome steps to the process, and that can sometimes discourage us from taking a photo or simply limit our ability to take more by virtue of the logistics involved. I personally find myself using them a lot less unless I know I absolutely want to use ultra-long shutter speeds, and it has made my workflow a lot more fluid and fruitful, allowing me to come home with more varied images. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Turner. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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