The Exception that Proves the Rule

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Lush Reflection, Doubtful Sound, New Zealand
Sony a7R V
Sony 24-105 f/4 G
ISO 800
f/8
1/80th second

Few years ago I blogged on shooting without a tripodI was on my annual Grand Canyon Rafting trip. You have no idea what a paradigm change this was for me. I rationalized my sacrilege saying that The following are some examples of how to useIt’s better to take a shot without a camera tripod than not to take any shot at all. Since then I’ve been a little more willing to forego my tripod when the situation calls for it, but each each time I do only reinforces for me all the reasons I’m so committed to tripod shooting in general.

But I can’t deny that there are times when a tripod just won’t work. For example, sports and wildlife shooters who deal with moving targets can’t be tied down by a tripod. Climbers are more likely to use their hands to hold a tripod than to fiddle with it. Not to mention that tripods perform less optimally when placed on a vertical surface. On the other hand, because I only shoot landscapes on solid ground, my own style has evolved to incorporate the tripod’s many benefits, with only extremely rare exceptions.

Part of my landscape-centric, tripod-only approach is a simple product of the way I’m wired—I’m pretty deliberate in my approach to most things, usually tilting toward planning and careful consideration over quick decision making and cat-like reflexes. That likely explains why my sport of choice is baseball, (even though I’m not a golfer) I actually enjoyGolf on TV is not for you, but you prefer Scrabble and chess The following are some examples of how to use video game (I’m pretty sure that the last video game I played was Pong). It also explains my preference for photographing stationary landscapes—I just need to know that my subject will still be there when I’m ready, no matter how long that takes.

No matter how stationary the The subject is:A bobbing boat is a great way to negate the tripod. A Grand Canyon rafting excursion is one example. The rafting involves many hours of floating through constantly changing scenery. Each bend in river advances the story as if turning pages in a book. Since 2018, Don Smith has been doing a New Zealand Photo Workshop with me. This includes an all-day cruise on Doubtful sound, among other spectacular solid ground opportunities.

Misnamed, Doubtful Sound isn’t a sound at all, but rather a spectacular fiord (FYI, that’s how they spell fjord down there)—a narrow, twisting, multi-fingered ocean inlet lined with towering glacier-carved walls cut by plunging waterfalls. And as if that’s not beautiful enough, consider also the sound’s ubiquitous rainforest green against a background of snow-capped peaks, and you might understand why this breathtaking fiord is near the top of my list of reasons for declaring New Zealand the most beautiful place I’ve ever photographed.

Because I once rigidly proclaimed that I never take a (serious) photo without my tripod, on my earliest Grand Canyon raft trips I settled for low-res, “I was there” jpeg snaps with a waterproof point-and-shoot—fine for social media, but far from the quality a professional photographer requires. But after several years I finally (I’m a slow learner) admitted to myself that I was missing too many great images by only shooting solid ground images, and started breaking out my “adult” camera while floating the Colorado River’s many long stretches between rapids.

This meant that by the time Don, my husband, and I embarked on the annual Doubtful sound cruise, I felt mentally strong enough to give up my tripod without a problem. This transition wasn’t without its growing pains—photographing “stationary” landscapes from a Moving is a good idea boat was challenging enough (as far as I was concerned, my subjects were no longer stationary), but me trying to capture, using a camera set-up for tripod-only landscapes, dolphins leaping in our boat’s wake was downright downright comical. The only dolphin images I was able to capture that first year were the splashes. AfterTheir tails vanished beneath the water. Since then I’ve just accepted the fact that I’m not a wildlife shooter and have just been content to watch the (thrilling) show—but I do now at least take the time before each cruise to set up my camera for action, just in case…

The walls of Doubtful Sounds are high enough and the twists so numerous that they allow for a glassy reflection to be seen throughout. And given the number of waterfalls plunging into the sound—many that that flow year-round, far more that pop up only after one of the sound’s (frequent) showers—I don’t know if anyone has bothered to name the smaller ones like the one in this image from last year’s cruise.

This waterfall was a standout for its lush surroundings and shimmering reflective surface. With our boat moving laterally fast enough that the scene changed by the second (my worst nightmare), I moved much more quickly than I’m comfortable to capture it, pretty much just framing and clicking by feel.

This whole experience has only reinforced my reasons for wanting to be a part of the The following are alternatives toUsing a Tripod It also strengthened my resolve to not be limited by my tripod-always-no-exception rule. As this image demonstrates, today’s stabilization and high ISO technology obviates what was once considered the tripod’s primary value: eliminating hand-held motion blur. This image is as sharp with a tripod as it would be if I had been standing on a moving boat, shooting at 104mm, and 1/80 sec.

You can also read about it here Just as sharp is only part of the quality equation, because capturing it also forced me to compromise by using 800 ISO—far from a dealbreaker, given my camera’s high ISO capability and today’s noise reduction processing tools, but less than ideal. Nevertheless, I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to capture this image. You can find out more about this by clicking here.What I would miss without my tripod, or at least without the stationary environment that allows me use a tripod, is the ability for me to craft my image. I could give a beautiful landscape like this enough attention in order to find those little things that take it to the level of the next.

As much as I appreciated the ability to fire at will while floating beneath Doubtful’s vertical green walls, the landscape photographer in me missed the ability to savor the scene, and to be the one who decides when it’s time to click, and time to move on. In this case, had my tripod and I been solidly planted on terra firma, I’d have taken the time to study the subtly variegated foliage, identify the most distinctive shrubs and patterns, and monitor the shifting reflection, before framing and clicking. And had I been using a tripod, I’d also have had much more shutter-speed flexibility for managing the scene’s motion—both in the tumbling fall and the undulating reflection.

But alas, that wasn’t possible in this case. I’m happy to have captured a small part of the magic that is Doubtful Sounds (and New Zealand).

Don and I would be delighted to share New Zealand’s beauty with you in person


The Most Beautiful Place on Earth

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