Joe McNally: A Tripod in the Desert!

I’m a perennial idea recycler. I’ve had picture notions rattling around in my head for years that have never met the click of a shutter. They’re the things in the attic of my head that go bump in the night, the meandering pinballs I try not to lose in the drain and keep frantically flipping up into the bumpers (otherwise known as clients) that might occasionally ring a bell, or sound a siren, and thus get done.

I’ve always wanted to illustrate the stability of a tripod by letting a gifted athlete literally play with it. Now, this may be a harking back to the early days of my career, when we all grew up seeing ads picturing Lester Bogen of Bogen tripods famously (and uncomfortably, I would think) sitting on his tripods. “Before Lester Bogen put his name on this tripod, he put Lester Bogen on it.” Below, one of those ads, from years and years ago.

I’ve used Gitzo tripods for years and battered them literally senseless. I lost one in the Hudson River, a huge, monster tripod, which was recovered for me by Port Authority divers—for $300. Worth it, as the tripod cost over a grand. I gamely sent it in for repair, simply citing “water damage.” I overlooked the other reasons, such as, “incomprehensible stupidity,” and “turning your back on a 12’ silk frame in the wind on the end of a dock.” Which of course tore loose from its sandbagged moorings and literally flew across the dock and knocked my tripod into the river. It came back to me in fine shape.

Technology has progressed with tripods, as it has with all photo things, and now there are super adjustable, lightweight, carbon fiber, jet propelled (I make joke) types and styles of tripod, and Gitzo remains in the lead in this regard.

They also said yes to using one of their big tripods as a jungle gym.

To assist in this regard, I asked for the help of two amazing ladies, athletic and graceful to a fault. Daria Shemiakina and Anna Melnikova got the tripod early and started to work their magic with it, getting used to it and seeing what aspects of their gymnastic, artistic wizardry would be possible atop such a contraption. The tripod is simply the over the counter tripod, additionally adorned only with a small rubber pad, gaffer taped to the base plate, to make it more comfortable to grap for tk and for tk to rest her head. Yikes.

Settings for picture above, from my Mylio dashboard:

 

 

 

Our setup was as spare as the desert. One tripod. Two Profoto B4 packs and heads, each fitted with a narrow beam reflector, winged out to the sides of the set, to rim light the ladies in hard fashion, matching the raw quality of the blazing desert sun. Late in the day, we switched to one B4 through a 5’ RFK Octa, which produced a more rounded light, as we approached sunset. We also set up a B1 head for frontal fill, but didn’t really use it much.

The notable MD Welch, a Reno based shooter and Photoshop instructor, came aboard as our videographer for this adventure and you can see his efforts below, now published on our YouTube channel. He’s a good shooter and has added value as an on set diversion, as I’m fairly certain he can recite all the dialogue from Predator, verbatim, on command. Which could lead one to marvel at such an act of memory virtuosity, or shake your head and chuckle nervously about someone with that much time on their hands.

Be that as it may, my thanks go out to the gang at Manfrotto, and Gitzo, who didn’t roll their eyes overmuch when I brought this idea up to them…again. And especially to Daria and Anna, who brought their marvelous skills out to the desert for us. And to Adam Silversmith and Timber Brown who were our expert spotters for the balancing ladies. And of course to our guys in the studio, Michael Cali and Jon Cospito, who worked the set with me and shot BTS stills.

Settings for above, again from Mylio:

As I say in the video, this is not an invitation or suggestion to start putting the kids, or spouses, or the family pet up on a tripod. We used marvelously trained athletes, and had two spotters hovering at the edge of the frame. This was also one shoot where I could not demonstrate to my talent exactly what I wanted from them atop the tripod. Gitzo tripods are strong, but there are limits.

Gear used:

Nikon D810, with a 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Profoto B4 and B1 strobes, with narrow beam reflectors, and an RFI 5′ Octa softbox.

More tk….

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