Your Most Creative Piece Of Equipment Is Your Tripod

What would you say if someone told you that your tripod is the best piece of equipment to enhance your creativity? Perhaps you would point them in the direction of your latest lens instead. Or your camera bristling with buttons and switches.

Or perhaps you would tell them to go and bother someone else with their trivialities.

But, your tripod can really make you a better photographer. Sure, tripods are heavy, cumbersome and not exactly for the fashion-conscious. But they can really help.

How?

Well, firstly, setting up your camera on to a tripod actually slows you down. And by slowing down, you can start to think about what you are going to take pictures of. Think about where the subject is, where is the light coming from, what viewpoint you need to choose and how you are going to compose the shot.

Then, after mounting your camera on to the tripod, start to think about the exposure settings. Now that you have a rock solid platform, you can open your mind and think about shutter speeds and apertures. It is not uncommon for landscape photographers to use shutter speeds as long as 1, 2 or 4 seconds. The outcome of this is that you can use very small apertures or fantastic depth of field.

Or, alternatively, you can render light trails and human movement blur without risking camera shake. What possibilities can this open up for you? How will you use them? Now you open your world to great images of cityscapes, fairgrounds, water at night, car lights at night, softy lit buildings and many other possibilities.