Fred Picker

[Kevin Crisp]

"We used to dream of having pine sticks and duct tape...."

[Drew Wiley]

That was only half the story. He dunked a $3000 Zeiss lens too, and tweaked his foot. It was in one of the remotest places in the High Sierra two divides away from even a trail, and a week from the road. Duct tape on his ankle too. The lens was later salvaged in a dessication chamber, just like I've used a couple of times for my own stupid dunkings of spotmeters in snowmelt.

[Daniel Unkefer]

I've read quite a few comments here saying that Fred's tripods SUCKED. Well, that wasn't my experience at all! I used both the "lightweight" and standard (for 8x10) tripods through 18 long winters in Vermont without a care as to where I placed them. I photographed in below 0 temps, hip deep snow, blowing snow, in and along the brooks, etc, and never once had any issues. As a matter of fact, winter was my favorite time to photograph there.

For example, one November I was photographing along a brook near Moss Glen Falls with my 8x10. I saw an image that I wanted to make, but it required me to get into the water (usually does) to get the camera position I wanted. There I am standing in thigh-high freezing cold water with the 8x10 tripod and camera in the water, too, of course. I exposed two sheets of 8x10 film and when I climbed back out of the brook, I realized I couldn't feel my legs! Anyway, back to the tripod...it was simply lowered back down and tossed into the trunk; with a bit of ice formed on the legs at this point. When I got home, all I did was open it back up at full extension and let it dry out. This, of course, was not the only time I abused either of Fred's tripods! Again, no issues EVER...

Same with me and the lightweight model. I threw it into my cargo minivan at least 500 times, never any damage. Did beeswax the side slats and put washers and tightening washers on all the knobs, Fred recommended that and it helped. Made of ash, if I remember correctly. Never could break it and I did try! Now it's cleaned up and ready to use again. And I'm looking forward to it.

I have five or six really heavy tripods, and this is in the top five for me.

[chuck461]

Try our wet warmer Spring snows out here. The wood takes in water, refreezes, and the leg sections won't slide. Same thing with winter tents. Something that stays dry in a powder snow might soak through or condense in wetter snow. I probably couldn't count how many times I've been in ice water. Had a friend who broke two legs off his expensive Gitzo CF tripod slipping on a rock in a high country stream. I whittled prosthetic legs from whitebark pine sticks and duct-taped them on. Now that was a hokey tripod, but it worked!

"We used to dream of having pine sticks and duct tape...."

LOL
Thanks for a good laugh

[Alan9940]

Try our wet warmer Spring snows out here.

I guess the Spring snows out on the left coast are somehow "wetter" or different than the Spring snows we got in Vermont. Plenty of snow dumped on where I lived during the month of April and it was many times pretty wet and heavy. Still used my Zone VI tripods in those conditions with nary a thought. Come to think of it...all of Fred's equipment held up better in the winter than I did!

[Drew Wiley]

Much wetter, much deeper. After the early powder snows, the skiers contemptuous call it "Sierra cement". The surface melts fast, it glazes over, more deep snow, then serious avalanches. Backcountry skiers generally wait until March when things potentially compact better; but it varies from year to year. I've been in serious blizzards every month except July. When you've got a wall hundreds of miles long over 14,000 ft high in places parallel to the Pacific Ocean, that attracts a lot of water-loaded weather that chills with elevation, and in a century ago produced the deepest recorded annual snowfalls on earth. But things are changing. Did you make a set of snow baskets for your tripod feet? I did some snowshoeing with the Z6, and it froze up rock solid every time. If Fred had done his homework, he'd have known beeswax collects grime and gets sticky over time. But it was long a custom to do that for sash windows too, so I understand. Ries would spray-can water-based urethane on their maple legs which wore off almost instantly. Apparently just for cosmetic new-look purposes because they didn't have proper drying conditions or time for anything serious. But their time-tested leg cross-sections don't freeze up so easily. Parts don't rust either.

[Randy]

Fred gets the credit (blame) for me getting into large format. I purchased his Zone VI Workshop book in the very early 80's, when I was shooting 35mm and medium format. Learning that I had been metering wrong all this time was a revolution for me.
Anyway, I still use my Zone VI dark cloth that I have had since the mid 80's. I did purchase a used version of the controversial wooden tripod several years ago, for use with 8X10. I use it "headless" as another member on the forum suggested. Works fine for my purposes.
I have to say though - I loved Freds writing and his technical abilities, but I was just never crazy about his images. Perhaps if I could have seen some actual prints, rather than just reproductions in his books...?

[Alan9940]

Fred gets the credit (blame) for me getting into large format.

LOL! For me, it was "The Portfolios of Ansel Adams". I was happily going along shooting 35mm when my wife bought this book for me for Christmas one year, and I was like "That's the kind of work I want to do!" Not grand landscapes, but the clarity and smoothness of tones.

[bob carnie]

LOL! For me, it was "The Portfolios of Ansel Adams". I was happily going along shooting 35mm when my wife bought this book for me for Christmas one year, and I was like "That's the kind of work I want to do!" Not grand landscapes, but the clarity and smoothness of tones.

For me it was Man Ray.. I only use 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 , roll film can work but not with the same precision when trying to solarize.

[Peter De Smidt]

I wouldn't be doing LF if it weren't for Fred. I stumbled on a Zone VI catalogue about 1992. I had just been shooting 35mm. I bought the newsletters and that was that.