journal

My 4 Tripods

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I have 4 tripods. I'll use one or another depending on the situation and the camera I'm using.

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with any of these brands and I bought all of these tripods with my own money.

Phone Tripod

I bought this one at a physical store in Chicago (Camera Store Company) and I don't know the brand or model. This is the tripod I use with my GoPro, and I love it! Much better than my old Gorilla Pod.

I can't find it anywhere online, so I'll recommend this Manfrotto for your phone, GoPro or small compact camera: Manfrotto Tripod for phones.

Fotopro FY-583

This ought to be my favorite tripod ever. Designed for phones and very light cameras, the build quality is pretty bad and it's not that stable. These are compromises you have to make when you want the lightest and most compact tripod.

Before this one, I was using a Gorilla Pod, which I found unusuable to record myself operating the camera. It's just too short and the low angles were pretty weird.

The Fotopro changed all of that, and I believe that my videos are so much better because of this. I can show footage of me operating the camera now, as well as footage from the environment I am in.

The only option I had before I found out about this tripod was to use a "real" tripod. I bring a lot of stuff with me (vlogging gear, analog camera, digital camera, lenses, film backs, drone, filters...) so a second tripod wasn't an option at all.

I've used it for stills as well. It's a tripod you can bring with you even if you aren't planning on going on a shoot. It's a "just in case" tripod.

Fotopro FY-583

IMPORTANT: I just found out about a newer version of this tripod, taller and more stable, designed for heavier cameras. I will be checking out soon! I might have to change my recommendation for best vlogging tripod.

Fotopro FY-483

Manfrotto BeFree

This Manfrotto was my first "serious" tripod. It's a travel tripod so the main goal here is to keep it light, while still offering stability and good quality.

I bought it for my digital camera, and when I bought the Bronica I thought I'd have to buy a bigger tripod. Turns out, it works just fine with the beast. I used it for a year and a half in several National Parks and cities, in every weather condition, and it's just amazing.

I love it so much that my current BeFree is the third copy I own, after losing the first one and destroying the second.

Manfrotto BeFree

Manfrotto 055XPRO3

This tripod is incredible. The ball head alone is worth every penny, it's a true marvel. You can do very cool stuff with the center column, which can give you those angles you need for product photography.

I used it as my only tripod for stills for a few months, but I soon realized that it wasn't the best option for hikes and long outings. That's why I bought my thrid BeFree a couple of months ago.

Probably not the best option as your only tripod, but it won't let you down if you decide to go for it. Really, really good tripod.

Manfrotto 055XPRO3

When is an image made?

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The moment we press the shutter is hardly the moment an image is made.

It's not until we have a final image, either on paper or on a screen, that we can say we have made an image. That's the moment an image is born.

Winter photography: travel before the storm, photograph the storm

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One of the most beautiful drives I’ve done.

 

Winter is my favorite season for photography. There's just one problem, though: the weather.

Over the years, I've gotten caught in several snowstorms (and even worse, ice storms) all over British Columbia, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, California, South Dakota and of course, in the Midwest.

The trip through Northern California was the scariest one, I lost control of the car twice due to ice. That was the last time I drove through a snowstorm, putting yourself in danger for an image is not worth it. How do we do it, then?

This day, I had to drive 40 miles on frozen dirt roads to get to the closest town.

Travel before the storm.

That's what I did in South Dakota: I drove more than 1,000 miles in between two big storms and once the second one hit, I was ready and on location.

Photograph the storm.

It was mid-April when the blizzard came. Temperatures dropped to single digits (F) and the storm dumped almost a foot of snow. There was no one else around and no way to get to the Badlands after they closed the highway.

Winter wonderland.

I got one of my favorite images ever that day, and I had a winter wonderland waiting for me the next morning. Best of all, I was able to drive in and out of the park safely.

That's my advice for winter photography: avoid the road on severe weather conditions, be on location beforehand. If that's not possible and you still insist on making the drive, please make sure that you and your car are ready for the worst conditions.

Photography doesn't start with a camera

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While it's totally possible to get a camera and then find a subject to photograph, it's definitely much easier to find something you are passionate about and then start capturing it.

If you gave me a camera 10 years ago, I wouldn't have known what to do with it.

Instead, photography came naturally to me when I discovered my passion for the outdoors after moving to the Pacific Northwest.

A camera is a tool to capture what we see. I didn't see anything 10 years ago. I do now.

Your photography is a reflection of who you are

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Josef Koudelka doesn't spend more than a few months at the same place. For him, being constantly on the move is a requirement "to see, and if I stay longer I become blind".

Other photographers seem to thrive in relatively confined spaces, like Bill Brandt.

Similarly, some photographers need to be shooting all the time and feel depressed when they don't have a camera on their hands. Others are fine with taking photography trips twice or three times a year.

In the end, I think there's no right or wrong way to do it, your photography is just a reflection of who you are.

How shooting film can make your images better

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In this video, I go back to the beautiful Sil River Canyon. I was supposed to shoot film but my Bronica ran out of batteries. In the end and having to shoot digital, I felt like the video wasn't as compelling as it could've been if I shot the Bronica.

I believe that sometimes the story behind an image can be very important, even more than the image itself. Film can provide you such story.

The Mobile Darkroom: printing without negatives and enlarger

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I was sick for all of last week. This gave me a lot of time to think, and I came up with a little project: building a darkroom as basic as possible so I could bring it with me everywhere.

This is still an on-going project, and in this video I share my thought process and the first results. I expect to have a much more refined and polished process by next week, along with the first final, serious prints.

There are no rules

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"Photography is not a sport, there are no rules, everything must be tried and tested" - Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt is one my greatest inspirations. I love his landscapes, portraits and even the nudes (not a big fan of the genre, but the way he did it was just genius).

I think what I like the most about him is his approach to photography. For him, it was all about creating something with the medium, avoiding silly self-imposed rules.

He died in 1983, 5 years before Photoshop was created. That didn't stop him from completely changing his images in the darkroom. Actually, he admittedly did most of his work in the darkroom.

The image of the seagull is a good example. He added the bird afterwards, and the morning Sun years later.

He was brilliant, and we'd be wise to follow his advice to experiment and try everything.

PS: If you want to know more about Bill Brandt, I strongly recommend watching this interview from 1983 for BBC's Master Photographers.