This Week in Photo Pick of the Week
In episode 454 of This Week in Photo – All Shiny & Chrome the host Frederick named the Platypod Pro his pick of the week. Frederick feels compelled to carry a tripod with him all day everyday but that simply can’t happen. He is trying to do more with less equipment and overall carry around less stuff, but is frustrated with having to make tradeoffs when packing his bag.
Frederick goes on to call the Platypod Pro “deceptively small” and just slides it into a pocket in his bag and forgets about it. When he sees a shot that requires a tripod, he takes it out, sticks his camera on top of it, puts it on a table and takes stable photos and videos no matter what. When he first got the Platypod Pro he wasn’t sure if he would use it, but because it was small and compact, unlike bulky other mini tripods and gorillapods, he never has to consider it against other equipment he is packing, its always there. See the episode here or read the translated section below.
About the Frederick Van Johnson
Frederick is a photographer and host of the podcast This Week in Photo (TWiP) where he discusses trends and happenings in the photography industry. Frederick has been shooting since 1989 and enjoys shooting female portraits, take a look around his gallery.
Translated section starting at 57:09 – Frederick, host of This Week in Photo
"You get a plate with mounts for your tripod head or your traditional tripod mount, deceptively small, slides into any pocket in your bag. Little foot, think of it as a foot for your camera. It’s deceptively simply because normally when your out and about you feel compelled to to have a tripod with you, or some kind of mount so you can get the shots that are required by tripod. Or if you are shooting video of some sort and you need to stabilize your camera of course you will have to have your tripod with you.
But if you are in this whole world of less is more and you don’t want to carry this big camera bag and you don’t want lug around a tripod. This thing stays in my bag and I can stick my camera on top of it, stick it on top of a table and I can record stabilized video no matter what.
Its interesting its different. When I first got this thing I was thinking ok why would I use this over my gorillapods or whatever. The gorilla pods are also relatively bulky this thing literally slips into a pocket in my bag and I can continue shooting with it. This thing deserves to be a pick of the week because it is really really cool and its one of those solutions that is like “duh, of course - I need that thing and it should have been in my bag all along”." - Frederick Van Johnson on 2/4/16
