Tall, portable tripod recommendations please

[Harold Clark]

I have a client that I shoot a lot of shopping plazas for. These shoots involve photos of various angles of the buildings, including the parking lot, landscaping etc. They have expressed an interest in having some of the photos shot from a higher point of view to get over the tops of cars.

I hauled out my Davis & Sanford, which goes up nearly 8 ft, but it is built for at least 8x10 and is quite bulky. My plan is to frame the shot and level the camera, then extend the column upward for a higher viewpoint, tripping the shutter with a remote release. Portability and speed of operation are important, as I will be carrying the tripod around each site as I work. The Davis & Sanford may end up being the best option in the end, but any ideas would be most welcome.

[mouse]

Borrow or rent a pick-up truck and shoot from the bed.  Very portable and convenient.

[Colorado David]

I've been known to shoot from the roof rack on my Land Rover.  Also very portable.  You can also carry a cooler of bottled water to avoid heatstroke.

[LenR]

What are those paint poles realestate photographers use?
They take a tripod head and go up quite a bit... Like 20 feet.

[rgs]

Ansel Adams had a platform on the roof of his car. Maybe that would work for you.

[David Anderson]

I've been looking for the same sort of thing and have come to the conclusion that the big Manfrotto boom stand I already have combined with something like the Cam Ranger will do the job better than a big tripod.

[rgs]

How high do you need to be? Do you need slow shutter speeds?

You could use a ladder like this either hand held or clamp some type of tripod head mount to the ladder and climb down to trip the shutter with a remote. These kinds of ladders can adapt to many different kinds of ground and they come in many different sizes that fold up enough to fit in a trunk.

[David Eichler]

I have a client that I shoot a lot of shopping plazas for. These shoots involve photos of various angles of the buildings, including the parking lot, landscaping etc. They have expressed an interest in having some of the photos shot from a higher point of view to get over the tops of cars.

I hauled out my Davis & Sanford, which goes up nearly 8 ft, but it is built for at least 8x10 and is quite bulky. My plan is to frame the shot and level the camera, then extend the column upward for a higher viewpoint, tripping the shutter with a remote release. Portability and speed of operation are important, as I will be carrying the tripod around each site as I work. The Davis & Sanford may end up being the best option in the end, but any ideas would be most welcome.

Manfrotto makes a camera stand that goes up to about 24' and has leveling legs for uneven terrain. Costs about $650. There are masts that go higher than this that cost considerably more. If you are only doing this occasionally and want maximum versatility as to height, I would suggest hiring a cherry picker or scissors lift as needed, and factor that into your fee, or get the client to provide one.

[nik]

I agree, get a cherry picker. Get someone to operate it for you while you do the photos. Much faster.

I would suggest hiring a cherry picker or scissors lift as needed, and factor that into your fee, or get the client to provide one.

[brianrybolt]

Get a Drone.

[Harold Clark]

Thanks everybody for the variety of innovative ideas. Portability and speed are the main criteria as several dozen locations have to be covered each summer, and these are large, sprawling shopping plazas. That rules out lifts, stepladders etc. Used to have a Land Rover ( Go anywhere Stop anytime ), a roof platform would be useful in many instances but too slow for this project, which could be described as a fusion of architectural and catalogue photography!

A height of 8-10 feet would suffice, I just became aware that Gitzo has an extended center column available that adds over 5 ft to the tripod height so that is worth investigating. These photos are all done in sunlight so shutter speeds are high.

[Torbjörn Tapani]

If shutter speed is high then there are poles used for panoramic images by companies like nodal ninja. Basically just a carbon monopod but taller.

[duane_bolland]

So 8-10 feet is all you need, with an emphasis on portability and speed?  No problem.  I sometimes put my camera on my monopod, and then preset focus, exposure and two second delay, and adjust tilt on the monopod head.  And then I click the shutter and hoist it over my head and align it within 2 seconds.  With a bit of initial practice (and shooting slightly wider for cropping), you can get a 50% keeper rate.  A height of 12 feet is easy.

[Ajoy Roy]

Thanks everybody for the variety of innovative ideas. Portability and speed are the main criteria as several dozen locations have to be covered each summer, and these are large, sprawling shopping plazas. That rules out lifts, stepladders etc. Used to have a Land Rover ( Go anywhere Stop anytime ), a roof platform would be useful in many instances but too slow for this project, which could be described as a fusion of architectural and catalogue photography!

A height of 8-10 feet would suffice, I just became aware that Gitzo has an extended center column available that adds over 5 ft to the tripod height so that is worth investigating. These photos are all done in sunlight so shutter speeds are high.

As long as you can drive it to a location, a rooftop platform will definitely be faster than setting up a camera on a pole or tripod.

[Ellis Vener]

How about one of these: http://www.filmandvideolighting.com/matthews-studio-equipment-crank-up-stands-crankovator-super.html

 with a motorized, panning and tilting head on top, with both the head and tripod driven by an iOS, Mac or Android app: http://camranger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wireless-Camera-control-tethering.jpg + http://camranger.com/camranger-pan-tilt/  About the only major thing you can't control on the camera with the CamRanger is the focal length setting on a zoom lens.

[melchiorpavone]

I have a client that I shoot a lot of shopping plazas for. These shoots involve photos of various angles of the buildings, including the parking lot, landscaping etc. They have expressed an interest in having some of the photos shot from a higher point of view to get over the tops of cars.

I hauled out my Davis & Sanford, which goes up nearly 8 ft, but it is built for at least 8x10 and is quite bulky. My plan is to frame the shot and level the camera, then extend the column upward for a higher viewpoint, tripping the shutter with a remote release. Portability and speed of operation are important, as I will be carrying the tripod around each site as I work. The Davis & Sanford may end up being the best option in the end, but any ideas would be most welcome.

IT'S NOT WHAT THEY WOULD LIKE, IT'S WHAT THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR.

[duane_bolland]

IT'S NOT WHAT THEY WOULD LIKE, IT'S WHAT THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR.

True.  And the OP shouldn't deliver something better than what they are willing to pay for.

[Hezu]

How about these fiberglass (up to 4 m) or carbon fibre (up to 6.5 m) poles, which I know have been successfully used for taking 360 degree panoramas?