What's your windy day technique?

[Vaughn]

"Hanging" things from the tripod. Left hanging, or is the weight touching the ground?
Is a stake in the ground with a rope tightly tied up to the tripod a workable solution?

[Drew Wiley]

Oh gosh, I just got my backyard all done with my commercial 4-cycle trimmer. The wind is already picking up, and by tonite there will be a red flag warning for the hills inland, along with deliberate electrical shutoff in those zones to prevent potential fires from falling utility lines. Just outside the shop I have one of those portable event tents set up as a shade, but in my case, all tensioned with lines to keep it from blowing alway or tearing apart. One of the half-grown cats was having trouble finding a spot to himself out of the wind, so spent the night sleeping atop on of struts underneath that. How he got there is remarkable enough, but sleeping on that narrow piece of aluminum all night is a real demonstration of feline ability. But the only reason he does this is because he's deficient in another feline ability, to fight, and is the wimp of the litter, so tries to avoid other cats as much as possible.

[Tin Can]

Tight fitting sunglass, that keep dust and tree branches out

and always with my Stihl trimmer, blower, etc

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah, gotta protect your eyes, ears, and body from flinging debris. But now it's not like when I had ranch property, just a basic city yard instead. Yet even under these circumstances, I find a trimmer much more reliable than a mower, and a lot easier to use if the grass is high or wet. I let it dry out a couple days and rake it. The 4-cycle type are relatively expensive, but are far more efficient, more durable, quieter, and don't put out all that smokey exhaust which 2 cycle trimmers do. A Stihl would last only a year or two where I came from, under that kind of torture; while my 4-cycle trimmers are now over 30 years old and still going strong (made in Germany by the Dahmer factory, owned by Makita, just like their top-end chainsaws).

But one of the few ways to make really good money up in those hills is by offering a repair and maintenance service for gas-driven mowers, chainsaws, and trimmers, especially Stihl (which is mostly Chinese made). Commercial logging is largely all gone, except in the salvage and clearance sense after fires, which is crazy busy at the moment. Since salvage loggers are just subcontracted, and not real pros, they use all kinds of less than ideal equipment, with less than ideal safety practices too. Here on the coast, real pro outfits are being used instead. But their teams all have giant 4WD cherry-picker trucks costing a couple hundred thousand apiece, with long articulated arm full-sized chainsaws attached (not just the little pole extension kind). But the temp workers show up in a beat-up pickup, probably drinking beer and smoking too - a big no no in high risk fire zones. I suspect Smokey the Bear was actually of the latter category, and might have started more fires than he put out.

Ordinarily, the strong winds were only for about two weeks in October up in the hills, excluding high country blizzards. Now it seems to be an end of July to December event, with high fire risk nearly year round. I'll check our local coastal forecast again tonite, and maybe wait till Thurs to take my weekly photo hike. They think the high winds will begin to subside around noon tomorrow. If not, medium format is the ticket. I don't want to be flying bellows-shaped kites.

[Vaughn]

For my <0.1 acre, an electric weed-whacker does the job just fine. Light, quiet (relatively), no stink nor trips to the gasoline station.
Wind has picked up here, too.

[r.e.]

For my <0.1 acre, an electric weed-whacker does the job just fine. Light, quiet (relatively), no stink nor trips to the gasoline station.

When I was a kid I used to cut the grass a few times per summer for a neighbour down the road called Madame Baranofsky. She was a member of the Russian nobility and an extremely talented woodcarver. I used her scythe

[mike rosenlof]

I'm on my back deck right now. The wind is gusting enough that I'm afraid my beer might spill. My technique is keep the bottle in my hand.

My photo technique would be Hasselblad.

I'm certain I haven't added anything useful to this discussion. Sorry.

[John Layton]

...my photo technique would be to cut to the chase - and go with the beer...hand-held of course!

[ericantonio]

These are all great! You guys are hilarious.

This is what I did BTW. I know you guys are gonna roast me for this. Hahah.

[Tin Can]

Never criticize success