Very high tripod??

[jonathan_lipkin]

I was shooting on a beach today and managed to take a few shots from an unoccupied lifeguard chair before I was thrown off. I very much liked the vantage point and want to shoot from on high again. Can anyone think of a way to get the camera fifteen or twenty feet off the ground? If I were clever and meticulous I suppose I could calculate focus and tilt using scheimpflug before I put the camera up and so wouldn't need to see the ground glass. Or maybe use a high ladder so I could reload. I think I remember reading about a photographer who did something like this with a LF camera. Or perhaps a 35mm digital with a tilt shift lens and a remote?

[Colin Graham]

I always thought a personal dirigible would be pretty sweet.

[Frank Petronio]

Personally, I'd look for a used Gitzo Giantlux 505 or 504, one of them is 112-inches, 9-feet. Add a center column for another 18-inches. Then set it on top of a pick-up truck (3') and use a short ladder yourself. So you'd be 12-13' and solid enough to use a 4x5 and long exposure. Camera rise would get you the rest of the way maybe, but you can't see over things unless you actually are over them.

Professionally, you'd want to build a scaffold or use a Hi-Boy lift or a camera crane. $$$

Casually, you'd stick a digital camera with a remote on the end of mono-pod duct-taped to a long pole or tree limb, then hoist it up and "spray and pray". I've done it and it works. Here's an example, probably ~16-feet high, I (~7' w arms out) stood on a step ladder (3') with a digital camera attached to a set of Bogen Auto-Poles (~9').

Be careful now... and don't sue me.

[Kirk Gittings]

i've never tried one but Gordon Hutchins once showed me a ladder like this he shot his 8x10 from. He actually mounted a tripod head on the top step.

http://www.tallmanladders.com/tripod.html

[Walter Calahan]

Perhaps you can get your tripod to smoke some medical marijuana to get it high?

Get a tall tripod if you can't find a personal dirigible.

[Wade D]

My old Majestic tripod goes to about 8' so I need a step ladder to work the camera. Very solid even at that extension for a 4x5.

[ki6mf]

Assuming you want camera movements a 12-16 foot aluminum ladder may be your best bet. Easy to car top, relatively light. I would get the kind with 2 front legs as opposed to the Tallman because of stability on soft ground. If going onto the beach cut some plywood to put under the legs so the legs have a broad. go to the local home improvement store and get angle iron or large diameter PVC pipe that can be mounted on the ladder to use as tripos supports. A monopod in a PVC pike works too. Sporting good stores sell wheel attachments for canoes that can be used to trailer the ladder as opposed to carrying it when you are walking to your shooting sight.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

This is something you should be looking for. Except this one on Fleebay is much too expensive and ugly.
http://cgi.ebay.de/2-Hollywood-FOBA-...item255c7c6477
Those show up now and then on German E-Bay in a good condition for a fair price.
You can extend it to any height you wish using FOBA tubes. But the idea with the aluminum ladder is great for a fixed height.

[jonathan_lipkin]

Hmm - looks like the high ladder with some clamps may be the way to go, although the derrigible is tempting. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Mark Sawyer]

Ansel Adams had a platform on top of his car, and used it for many images. It meshes well with the old adage, "there are no good photographs more than fifty feet from the road."