Best vehicle for rooftop shooting?

[Tom Monego]

I have a Davis Sanford B Tripod that goes to 8ft fully extended, with a ladder, a Gitzo Rational 4 head works for LF. Having worked off cherry pickers and a fork lift with a solid pallet, neither would be good for large format, I shot 35mm and 2 1/4 which was fine off either.
I have thought about my Element but the top isn't that big.
Old long wheelbase Land Rover, great idea but parts aren't easy to find in the US and mileage is terrible.
A Dodge Sprinter or what the Mercedes model is, isn't bad though the suspension on the one my hospital uses for a shuttle seems very soft.
What did Ansel use, a 1930's caddy hearse?

Tom

[photographs42]

I have a '97 Gmc Yukon that I use regularly when photographing Hospital Projects. The top is solid and there is plenty of room on top. I can reach the top to put my gear up there from the ground and the hinges on the back doors protrude just far enough for foot holds to climb up. I only get 17mpg and I have 209,000 miles on it but it's still truckin along.

We design Hospitals all over the country and I can't drive everywhere, so I have to use rentals part of the time. I always get SUV's and they usually work out but the biggest problem for me with a rental is getting up and down from the top. Being 68 doesn't help.
Jerome

[rguinter]

Those look great, and not that expensive. Is it quick to setup?

To me it was moderately difficult to set up and takes about a half hour. I even did it once in the middle of a river.

But I've been a body-builder for 35 years and can bench press 300 lbs.

I'd say it is a 2-man operation to assemble for most people.

Requires 2-wrenches and is quite sturdy when put level on solid ground.

Comes apart easily and with a decent off-road vehicle there should be room to stash the parts. The seat / platform assembly is the most bulky. When heading for the woods I always pulled a small boat trailer with a bass-boat and canoe on top. There was room in the bass-boat for stuff like this.

Pardon the small format... but a sample photo attached.

Cheers. Bob G.

[rguinter]

P.S. On one trip to my uncle's cabin I left the hunter's stand in place for 2-weeks waiting for good light. Was deep in the woods East of Mt. Katahdin on an old abandoned logging trail... about 1/2 hour hard 4x4 driving to get to it from our camp.

This was the best shot I got with it that season.

Cheers. Bob g.

[rguinter]

I just lost a distant cousin (the kind you don't really know) to a deer stand incident. And while you can chalk it up to "user error" the fact remains that falls from deer stands killed two locals and put several more in the hospital. Seems pretty stupid but functional adults still find stupid ways to die... don't get impaled on your CF Gitzo!

Frank: How right you are.

I've been a safety specialist for most of my career. And there is a very fundamental human factor at work.

As a person begins to focus on an immediate task at hand they begin to lose focus on their surroundings and their overall situation as they get more immersed in the task. I see this all the time in accident investigations. I call it "loss of situational awareness" and for most people it occurs rapidly as task intensity increases.

We had a perfect example of this at my facility two years ago. A highly trained "dock operator" was assisting as a large ocean-going vessel was being tied-off at the pier. He had done this task many hundreds of times.

But this time, as he looped the rope over the pier stanchion, he curled his fingers under the rope. The tidal forces on the vessel suddenly changed and his fingers became caught between the rope and stanchion. He lost the tips of all fingers in the accident.

So yes you are right. Sad but true... hunting accidents every year with deer stands of all types are common. And I'm quite sure many are due to this very significant human factor .

Bob G.

[Vaughn]

"loss of situational awareness"

Sounds like SOP when looking thru a camera, with the classic example being the photographer hit by a race car out of control coming right at him. Or most of us with our heads under the darkcloth.

As one who tends to set up the 8x10 in odd and dangerous locations, I try to also keep some of my attention on my feet (and where they are). The whole world seems to be held on that GG -- far too easy to forget that a step back can be 20, or 200, feet down!

[Frank Petronio]

It would just be such an embarrassing obituary for your loved ones to have to deal with because you know everybody will be saying, "Dumbass" under their breath. I mean you don't want to be listed in the Darwin Awards....

And while I know I am a dumbass -- I once went to raise a dumptruck under a powerline -- I've fallen into a sceptic tank -- driven into stationary objects -- and spent the Summer in the hospital after a belay anchor and the rock it was anchored to levered out of the wall... well you get the idea, I'm more careful now!

For the money, the old Xterra was a good platform because of the design of the otherwise stupid roofrack. Its oversized oval tubing was easy to stand on, and the roof was strong enough for my 240lbs if I was ginger and not hoping around. Staying on the rack is preferable.

If I were hardcore about it, I would have attached a piece of plywood up there with holes for tripod legs, that would be pretty solid.

I also used to use my Ford F-100 truck bed all the time but it only gets you 30".

The other good practical option is the biggest Gitzo 505 (or whatever they call it) that hits 111" or 9'-ish. Just use a short ladder and stay grounded.

But if money were no object, well those old Land Rover Defenders are pretty sweet. The other luxe SUV-RVs seem too big to get into the rough.

[jim kitchen]

"loss of situational awareness"

far too easy to forget that a step back can be 20, or 200, feet down!

Or, a black bear that periodically sniffs and pokes your behind, while you are under the cloth...

My time under the cloth is always less than five seconds, where I exercise a quick 360 degree review, no matter where I am, or the time of day.

Just my two pennies again, complete with a wee bit of experience.

jim k

[Vaughn]

Fortunately the black bears down here in CA seem to be not so interested in photographers' behinds, tho an alpha elk bull started to make nasty comments towards me...never tore down my 8x10 so fast!

There are some big cats where I like to photograph, but I have yet to see any while photographing.

[Michael Graves]

It would just be such an embarrassing obituary for your loved ones to have to deal with because you know everybody will be saying, "Dumbass" under their breath. I mean you don't want to be listed in the Darwin Awards....

And while I know I am a dumbass -- I once went to raise a dumptruck under a powerline -- I've fallen into a sceptic tank -- driven into stationary objects -- and spent the Summer in the hospital after a belay anchor and the rock it was anchored to levered out of the wall... well you get the idea, I'm more careful now!

For the money, the old Xterra was a good platform because of the design of the otherwise stupid roofrack. Its oversized oval tubing was easy to stand on, and the roof was strong enough for my 240lbs if I was ginger and not hoping around. Staying on the rack is preferable.

If I were hardcore about it, I would have attached a piece of plywood up there with holes for tripod legs, that would be pretty solid.

I also used to use my Ford F-100 truck bed all the time but it only gets you 30".

The other good practical option is the biggest Gitzo 505 (or whatever they call it) that hits 111" or 9'-ish. Just use a short ladder and stay grounded.

But if money were no object, well those old Land Rover Defenders are pretty sweet. The other luxe SUV-RVs seem too big to get into the rough.

Frank, I'm sitting in a motel here in Rochester thinking, this is where Frank lives. It doesn't look like such a bad place to me. Then I read this post and understand why it is considered such a dangerous place to live.