Pro tip: Always check your tripod legs before a shoot

I was out at a dark sky spot near Lake Wenatchee last August, trying to get a clean shot of the Milky Way. Set everything up, got my focus dialed in, and then the whole rig tipped over when a leg suddenly collapsed. Turns out I hadn't tightened the locks after carrying it through some brush. Spent the next 15 minutes shaking sand out of my camera bag and hoping the lens wasn't scratched. Has anyone else had a catastrophic setup fail like that at the worst possible time?

3 comments

3 Comments

umar496d ago

Oh man, that's brutal lol. How long did it take you to realize the legs weren't locked tight? I've had a similar thing happen with a tripod in the wind, except it was my own fault for not checking after I hiked up a hill with it slung over my shoulder. The sand in the camera bag part really hits home for me. I spent like two hours picking little grits out of my lens threads after a beach shoot last year. Hope your gear was okay in the end, cause that's a real heart-stopper.

lunah126d ago

Grabbed a can of compressed air and blasted every crack and crevice before I even touched the threads with a q-tip, then used a soft brush to sweep the lens mount area clean. Took the whole dang thing apart actually, popped the tripod head off and shook it out over a towel to get the sand out of the twist locks. Put a silica gel packet in my camera bag after that too, helped keep moisture from making any leftover grit stick. Gear survived fine thankfully, but now I always do a full shake test on my tripod before I leave the beach

michaelgrant6d ago

Not something that happened to me but a buddy of mine had the exact same thing happen up near Leavenworth. @umar49, you mentioned the sand in the camera bag part and that's basically what he dealt with except his tripod went straight into a shallow creek. He was trying to get a long exposure of the water and didn't notice one of the leg locks had loosened up during the hike in. The whole setup splashed down before he could grab it, camera and all. He had to drive two hours back to Seattle with a soaking wet bag and spent the next week carefully drying everything out with rice and silica packets. The camera survived but he still talks about that sinking feeling when he saw it go under.