Tripod Number Three – Kathy From KeppenArt

There are pros and cons to using a tripod in photography but there are times when it’s absolutely necessary to produce the type of image desired.

Several weeks ago I bought a new tripod.  This is the third tripod I have owned.  They are/were all inexpensive tripods purchased at a big box store.

People who know me, especially those who have known me for many years, know that I am frugal.  Okay, I’m cheap!

Keeping up with the Jones or always buying brand name items has never been important to me.   I was so excited to get my first transistor radio.  I didn’t care that it wasn’t one of those expensive name brand ones that were all the rage.  I was just excited to have ANY small, portable radio. 

Saving money and putting emphasis on value is part of who I am and have always been.  Yes, you get what you pay for – most of the time.  However, sometimes when you purchase an expensive name brand item you are really paying for that name, not necessarily for a better quality product. 

Also it’s important  to consider how much and what type of usage an item will get before deciding on how much you are willing to spend and whether or not that big name will survive the conditions.

In regards to camera tripods there are also other considerations.  For one example, the less expensive tripods and especially the very cheap ones are lighter in weight than most of the more expensive ones.   That issue becomes even more important to me as I get older.  I am probably not going to haul around a heavy, albeit quality tripod.

Those are the reasons why I have been buying inexpensive tripods from that big box store.  Those nice, high quality, expensive tripods would have been heavier to carry and would not have survived my usage.

Take for example my first tripod.  I left it sitting in the driveway while I went inside to unload the photographs on the memory card into my computer.  I forgot to go back outside and put the tripod up before any vehicles drove into the driveway.

Thank goodness I had to take the camera off of the tripod to get to the memory card.  My camera was sitting there on my desk when my tripod was run over by the truck that backed down the drive.  Running over even an expensive tripod with a pick-up truck is going to cause unrepairable damage.

Traveling with my second tripod was also a disaster.  Loaded flat onto the bed of a pick-up put the tripod in a position to have heavy items stacked on top.  Another unrepairable damage issue on tripod Number Two.

That brings us to today’s featured image and Tripod Number Three.  Without this new inexpensive tripod the images that I captured this week of hummingbirds would not have been clear or acceptable to post.  I took many photographs, processed several and even used the three that I posted online to make a photo collage which is also posted on my site.

Money well spent and an intact tripod that can used again. 

Well, until the next mishap!

Thoughts and comments are always welcome and encouraged.

You can click here to view the featured image and explore several other hummingbird images on my KeppenArt site.