ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

with Cathy & Gordon ILLG

PHOTO TIPS

 

WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING TRIPODS

For as long as I can remember, photography instructors, including ourselves, have been stressing the importance of using a good tripod to improve your photos.  And while there will always be times when a tripod is beneficial, we are discovering many instances in which not only is a tripod not necessary, it is a hindrance that makes it more difficult to obtain extraordinary images.  This was most recently brought to our attention while we were photographing active animals at close range.

There are several reasons, all of them technological, that tripods are now gathering dust when they would have been enduring the elements in days past.  The first breakthrough was the invention of image stabilization/vibration reduction, which made it possible to hand-hold lenses at slower shutter speeds and still come home with sharp images.  The perfection of digital capture though, with no hesitation between button and shutter and the 5-fps-plus capability, is what truly freed many of us from shooting attached to a 3-legged anchor.

In most situations, a person shooting with a tripod will not miss many photos that a person shooting without one gets.  And shooting with a tripod will probably help with composition.  However, add an animal or two or three to the mix, preferably a species that feels a need to play or quickly explore a large chunk of territory stretching from the ground at your feet to the tops of the trees, and the person able to shoot without a tripod has a huge advantage. 

Based solely on the quality of the images we came home with, our recent Wildlife Babies Instructional Photo Tour is the best we’ve ever led.  And it’s not because we had better opportunities this year.  It’s because we were shooting with digital SLRs.  Why should this make such a huge difference?  The magnification factor (1.3 and 1.6 with the camera bodies we use) allowed us to use relatively short, light-weight zoom lenses (75-300mm and 100-400mm, both image stabilized).  Being able to raise the ISO to 400 or even higher and get quality results made it possible for us to not only shoot tripodless, even on overcast days, it allowed us to do so with a small enough aperture to get a reasonable depth of field.
Many of the situations we were photographing--wolf pups trying to beg food from their parents as the parents roamed at will; bear cubs running from tree to tree, climbing, jumping and attacking each other; coyote pups running back and forth around a hill, sometimes appearing at one end and sometimes the other; and a bobcat chasing a lure through the flowers--were difficult enough even with total freedom.  Tracking moving subjects with a lens on a tripod means walking around the tripod legs as you follow the subject, making a difficult job even harder.  When you have to pick up the tripod to follow the subject, often finding you need to shoot from lower or higher to get the best perspective, you find yourself messing with the tripod when you should be shooting.

Don’t get me wrong.  In spite of the title, we still use tripods for most photos.  We still find that long lenses are too heavy, and shutter speeds are too slow with the extremely small apertures and low light conditions common in scenic photography.  However, in the right situation, shooting without a tripod can make the difference between capturing the action and coming home with nothing.