Feeling like a nerd?

Here's something personal I wanted to share for a while. When I started using a tripod, I felt like a complete nerd. Absolutely. Hauling that thing around, especially at a somewhat "public" place, setting it up while people pass by, mounting the camera on it (with the camera pointing at "something" that passers-by will try to see)... it felt like I've got all the worlds attention on me with that huge thing in front of me. Like wearing swimming trunks AND having green colored hair - in winter!

Well, in reality, it's not that bad of course. First - people don't pay all that much attention. :-) And if they do, it's only positive. I never had someone approach me and go like "now look at that nerd with his tripod". :-P Never. If there was any conversation, it was with people who were interested in it, keen to know what I'm doing, that sort of thing (the only problem for me is to stay decent enough and not fall into photography-nerd mode; I try to reserve that for encounters with others photographers...) - most of the people would simply say "oh yes, it's nice light for making photos today". That sort of thing (to me, it sometimes feels like people appreciate the fact that someone at least tries to capture that beauty around us:-).


Pulverturm at Dusk (NIKON D70s, 6s @ ISO 200; f/11, 62 mm DX)

Oh yes, and tripods, as uncomfortable it might be to carry them around all the time, enable you to make pictures like the one above. I'm showing this particular photo again because it's one of the first good photos that I made from the tripod. It's the "Pulverturm" of Burghausen's castle (illuminated by artificial light of course), and it's taken from the path that leads around the Wöhrsee lake, which is more or less crowded with joggers and people talking a walk on evenings and weekends especially... the feelings that I described above are the ones from this very situation. :-P

Today, using a tripod feels like the most natural thing to me, no matter where (but I still don't like hauling it around and fiddling around with it, setting it up). Using the tripod somehow means being serious about photography. Not that it wouldn't be possible to make excellent and "serious" photos freehand, totally not! It's just that... for a planned approach, and maximum control over composition and framing, it's simply the best thing you can do (well, I don't know about you, but me I simply cannot freeze into a pillar of salt like Lot's wife to steady the camera... not to mention that releasing the shutter would be quite difficult of you're a pillar of salt, of course.)