Sand and tripod feet

[dreed]

When shooting on wet sand we can help to keep our feet on top by wearing flip-flops (and snow shoes in the snow), but when the tripod gets put down with many lbs of gear on top, those feet go dooooooooooown.

I'm thinking about trying to use CDs or something like that to give the tripod feet more surface area to spread its weight out.

What do others do?

[Riaan van Wyk]

Hi Dreed, when shooting in the surf I usually let the tripod settle in the sand , which it does after having a few waves swirl around the feet. It sometimes goes down about six inches or so but is then stable. Sand obviously gets in everywhere.

[Jens Peermann]

When shooting on wet sand we can help to keep our feet on top by wearing flip-flops (and snow shoes in the snow), but when the tripod gets put down with many lbs of gear on top, those feet go dooooooooooown.

I'm thinking about trying to use CDs or something like that to give the tripod feet more surface area to spread its weight out.

What do others do?

Frisbee.

[brianrybolt]

When shooting on wet sand we can help to keep our feet on top by wearing flip-flops (and snow shoes in the snow), but when the tripod gets put down with many lbs of gear on top, those feet go dooooooooooown.

I'm thinking about trying to use CDs or something like that to give the tripod feet more surface area to spread its weight out.

What do others do?

For a commercial product go to:  http://tripodcovers.com/index.html

[RobSuch]

I was photographing a house the other day and my ladder kept sinking in the soft, sandy garden soil. A large piece of astro turf solved that problem. What about something similar, something like a piece of carpet?

[ripgriffith]

A towel or piece of canvas, even very lightweight, larger than the spread of the tripod legs will prevent sinkage.

[Paulo Bizarro]

It depends. If there is layer of soft/wet sand and then some more compact sand a few cm below, I let the tripod legs go naked. Otherwise, if it is really mushy, I use some "disks" or tripod feet from Gitzo that I bought many years ago for that specific purpose.

Quite useful in steep sand dunes as well.

[davidh202]

buy three  of these...
    http://www.homedepot.com/p/DANCO-5-in-Flat-Suction-Sink-Stopper-in-White-89042/203193999?MERCH=REC-_-NavPLPHorizontal1_rr-_-NA-_-203193999-_-N

trim off the tab on top and silicon cement on one of these or something similar on to them...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/DURA-1-in-Schedule-40-PVC-Cap-C447-010/100347518

and you'd get a 5" somewhat flexible platform under each leg ;-)

[MattBurt]

I did something similar for snow with ski pole baskets on an old travel tripod. Works pretty well depending on the kind of snowpack you are dealing with.
Snowpod by Matt Burt, on Flickr

[polaris-14]

I usually let my tripod sinks. It also stabilizes the tripod. But damn, the sand is a pain to deal with after.