Tripods in the snow

[Michael Stathatos]

I use a Ries tripod and would like to know if there is a way to set it up in dee p snow. Does someone make snow shoes for tripod legs?

[Chris Partti]

Bogen makes them. Frisbees also work. So can large cross-country ski pole baskets if you can find ones that you can jam onto the tips of the tripod legs.

[Doug Paramore]

Michael: Living in Alabama, I don't have much business answering a question about tripods in the snow, but I have seen articles and pictures of folks using hinged plywood strips. Three plywood strips about four or five inches wide are hinged in the middle to a three cornered piece of plywood. The strips had small holes in the end for the tripod spikes. The whole thing folded into a compact unit for transport. The strips are long enough to allow the tripod legs to be extended. Also, I sometimes use a piece of old blanket when I am shooting in sand at the beach.

Regards,

[michael_1487]

try coffee can lids. they are small, you can poke your tripod's spikes through them, and they are cheap. plus, you get coffee as a bonus. mmm, jitter induced camera chake.

-m

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

Maybe I'm missing something?

I have an old A100. My approach has been to stick the legs through the snow into the soil beneath - as if the snow weren't there in the first place. Granted, it's not as easy to back and fill that way, but I don't have to worry about the tripod s - l - o - w - l - y sinking during an exposure either.

[Hans Berkhout]

Buy four bamboo ski poles in a junk store, garage sale etc. Pull off the baskets. The holes will be too wide for your Ries spikes , so attach them permanently for the winter season with a combination of copper snare wire and duct tape. Remove in spring or buy an extra set of "summer legs" from Ries. I have used this system for years with my J100: it's fool proof, works in 10-20-30 feet of snow and you'll never lose a basket which is nice when you're shooting in minus weather.

[tim atherton]

"I have an old A100. My approach has been to stick the legs through the snow into the soil beneath - as if the snow weren't there in the first place. Granted, it's not as easy to back and fill that way, but I don't have to worry about the tripod s - l - o - w - l - y sinking during an exposure either. "

Doesn't help too much when you need to wear snowshoes to stop yourself sinking waist high into the snow!!

Tim A

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

If you're waist high in snow, shouldn't you be shoveling?

[Julio Fernandez]

Sean: come on! you must be from the sunny south, ya'll come up and help us shovel the white stuff here in Canada, you hear? Now, we have to take care of Michael, who's got not one but four problems. The fourth problem, stabilizing the tripod in the snow was quite cleverly looked at, I loved the frisbee idea. Besides, unless you are sitting on a deep snow drift the chances are that there's something solid down below and hopefuly not too far down or else you may be out of luck. Since you brought your frisbees with you, hope you did not forget your snow shoes either. Now for the other three problems. Them wooden legs like water more than's good for them, oh yeah! Don't trust them wooden tripods, but a good urethane coating (not the oil modified but the real stuff, i.e. moisture curing or two-component urethanes) may keep them dry and straight. Where do you get that? boating supplies, of course. Be careful though, that the extra thickness of the coating may interfere with smooth sliding about the metal fittings. Hopefully Ries has taken care of this before hand, or else customers are going to start using carbon fiber tripods, which are also claimed to dampen vibration. (Creative writing: the epoxy matrix in carbon fiber tripods should become rigid at low temperatures and then you are back to metal.) Y'all agree, there is nothing perfect under the sun, except perhaps that guy with his head under the focusing cloth, Oh it's you Sean, compliments of the season.

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

We've had 19" in Northwest Indiana by 12/21/00.

Far as I'm concerned, if you've got to wear snow shoes, you should be inside - or in an airplane enroute to Jamaica! You never specified what "deep" was. carnsarn it.

[heidis]

Hey Sean,

So you're in Indiana too? Hmm, I would have guessed that I had Indiana's only view camera :) 19" in NW IN? We have 40+ in South Bend. Ugh.

[Bob Salomon]

As a point of interest the Novoflex Carbon Fiber tripod is made from 3 ski poles.

[Erik Ryberg]

I have had this problem many times with my 8x10 in the winter in Idaho. The way I solved it was by taking a roll film camera loaded with Tri-X and using my body, firmly planted on snowshoes, as a makeshift tripod.

My girlfriend keeps asking me why all the prints on our wall of summer scenes are 8x10 inches but all the winter scenes are 2x3 inches.