The blog of adventure photographer Michael Clark

2025: Year in Review

12.22.25

This year marks the 30th year I have been in business as a professional photographer. Just typing that out is pretty mind-blowing. Thirty years in the photo industry is basically an eternity. I am very happy to say that I am still pursuing epic images and trying to push the envelope of what is possible. I am still just as passionate about photography as I ever was, and I am looking forward to the next ten or fifteen years of adventures. I am not sure at the start I would have ever dreamed I would make it this far and looking back it has been an incredible three decades.

2025 has also been a been a year of ups and downs. The photo industry has been in a rough spot since early 2024 (as I said in my 2024 Year in Review), but even so I have a number of clients that keep me busy. I can’t really complain. The start of the year was rough to say the least. In April I had five assignments lined up and then the new tariffs were announced and all five were cancelled the next day. One of the companies I was slated to work for said they would not be shipping any product to the USA for the next five months and that they would also not be spending any money on marketing until they see how the tariffs shook out. Those damn tariffs have been a huge blow to the photo industry — and the greater economy as well. As Stephen Colbert said in a recent Late Show episode, “I think we can all agree that 2025 blows.” But, with all that said, it has still been a decent year for me.

Yet again, this year saw me working with the Red Bull Air Force several times as well as creating images on my own. Without further ado, here are what I consider the best images I have created this year.

Red Bull Aerial Performance Camp
Grand Bahama — The Bahamas

My seven day assignment with Red Bull at the 2025 Red Bull Aerial Performance camp in the Bahamas in March was by far the most exciting and amazing gig I had this year. I had never been to the Bahamas before so I didn’t know quite what to expect, but holy chihuahuas it was amazing. As can be seen in the images below, the color of the water and the reefs was an incredible array of blues from turquoise to emerald green.

This training camp included Red Bull’s aerial athletes from around the world–in all around 45 athletes from a wide range of disciplines. Hence, there was a lot going on all the time and it was a constant task to keep up on the next thing I needed to document. I wrote an extensive article about this assignment in my Summer 2025 Newsletter. There are so many amazing images that we created at this performance camp that it is hard to pick just a few to share here.

In addition to the images shown above many of the best images created during the performance camp were a collaboration with the athletes. In most cases these were all created using GoPro cameras mounted on helmets or on the aircraft. This year I did a lot of experimentation to get the best possible image quality out of the GoPro Hero 12 and Hero 13 cameras–and in most cases I set up the cameras to capture images using the timelapse intervalometer built into the GoPros. I would sometimes set them to capture JPEGs at two frames per second and other times I set them up to capture one RAW image every three seconds. The RAW images out of the new GoPros are far superior to the jpegs. (Sidenote: Oh, how I wish the GoPros could capture raw still images at three or four frames per second–that would make them much better for this type of work.] For some of these images I pushed the record button on the GoPros (just before the plane or helicopter took off) to start the image capture process and in other cases the athlete started the GoPros and initiated the image capture process. So, I cannot say these are my images alone–they were a team effort and I will indicate that below each image.

Perhaps the best image from this year is the one below captured by Amy Chmelecki who had a GoPro mounted on her helmet during a sky dive where they met up with Luke Aikins and his experimental airplane known as the “Silver Bullet.” This image just blew our minds because of the orientation of skydivers right on the horizon and the incredible colors and textures in the water below. Amy did a fantastic job moving farther away from the entire group to get this image and luckily the camera fired off a few epic images at just the right moment. I set the GoPro up in the raw capture mode which meant it fired once every three seconds. That was a tough decision as there are only a dozen or so frames of the sky dive but the images it captured are all incredible. To be clear, I managed the camera, Amy turned it on and captured the images and then I worked them up in Lightroom. Regardless of how it was captured, this is one of my favorite images from 2025 hands down. A huge thanks to Amy for getting this image–it is one of the best images from my many years of working with the Red Bull Air Force.

*Image by Amy Chmelecki in collaboration with Michael Clark*

One of the other top images created using GoPros during the performance camp is the image below where Kevin Coleman is flying upside down while doing his aerobatic routine. The wild blue colors of the ocean below him feel like a sky. When I downloaded the images this was the orientation the image was in which is the opposite of what it really is–Kevin would be in the top part of the frame if it was oriented normally. With a few tweaks in Lightroom the GoPro RAW image really came to life and the colors are just out of this world. The soft pastels and the reflection in Kevin’s visor are what really make this image for me. A huge thanks to Kevin for letting me mount the GoPro in this prime position just in front of his cockpit to get this image.

In the same vein of remote camera images, I mounted a few GoPros on Kirby Chambliss’ plane when he and Kevin did a flight together in extremely close proximity. For this flight Kirby Chambliss flew upside down above Kevin Coleman over the Grand Bahama and the two images below were the result. Likewise, the third image below is of Aaron Fitzgerald doing his helicopter aerobatic routine over the ocean. No matter where you put the camera basically every perspective was amazing.

On the very last day, Issa Kalfon (a brand new Red Bull athlete) flew his jet pack over the West End Point of the island and this image of him just floating their over the water really struck me as something wild. All of the athletes were pretty awestruck at this jet pack and wanted to see Issa fly every time he went up. It is not everyday you see a human flying a jet pack so this was a wild, awe inspiring thing to watch.

While I had other fun and exciting assignment this year, this week-long gig in the Bahamas was far and away the wildest assignment and as you can see here yielded most of the best images that were created this year–whether they were made with a camera in my hands or by remote mounted GoPros documenting what the athletes saw as they danced in the sky. My sincere thanks to Red Bull and all of the athletes for such an incredible week in the Bahamas. Fingers crossed we can get back out there again one of these days.

Bisti Badlands
De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico — USA

This past spring, I spent a few days exploring the Bisti Badlands in the De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northern New Mexico. This once little known area has exploded in popularity since many Instagramers have promoted and tagged its location, showing the wild hoodoo landscapes. The first time I went there very few people could even find it, much less explore it. Back in those days, it took me quite some time to actually find it and even longer to find any of the formations on that first trip nearly two decades ago. When I went back this spring I was surprised to find a parking lot with signs and abundant information, making it easier than ever to explore the main area of the Bisti Badlands.

What is not clearly marked out is how to find some of the northerly formations like the Bisti Wings, shown below. It is still quite easy to get lost if you are not paying attention (or have a compass or GPS). This desert landscape is ruthless to those not thinking clearly. It is a very serious flash flood zone so you have to pay very careful attention to the weather. Even walking in to some of the formations after it has rained can be very difficult or nigh on impossible because of the nature of the clay-like soil. It is also wicked hot in summer–and can still be quite hot in the spring and fall. Regardless, it is still a place of stunning beauty.

If you do go visit the Bisti Badlands, I implore you to please tread lightly and to refrain from touching or hiking on or near the hoodoo formations. This is a very fragile landscape and some of the iconic formations have already collapsed due to poor judgement by some visitors. By all means, go explore and enjoy this area but also show respect to these incredible formations.

Cowboys
Santa Fe, New Mexico — USA

This summer, I taught the same workshop twice for the Santa Fe Workshops. That workshop was called The Western Portrait. Both were a total blast to lead and the participants were excellent. The Santa Fe Workshops did a fantastic job setting up this workshop and bringing it all together. Luckily, here in Santa Fe, we have quite a few western landscapes and resources, i.e. ranch hands and movie towns, to work with. In fact, if you have seen a western in the last forty years the odds are extremely high that it was shot at one of the several movie ranches just south of Santa Fe.

For this workshop, one of the locations we worked at was with Clint and his son Wyatt Mortenson. who oversee the Eaves Movie Ranch and are often actors and facilitators working on whatever western movie is being shot on their properties. We had them riding their horses and lassoing cattle during these workshops and I was able to create some wild motion blur images of them on the run as shown below. The top image here is my favorite as it is quite a painterly motion blur but the horse and riders are still sharp enough to make sense of the scene. The last photo below shows the Bonanza Creek film set and the main street that runs right through it. This film set was used for films like 3:10 to Yuma, and many others.

Bridge Rider
San Francisco, California — USA

Another wild assignment for Red Bull this year was with Sean MacCormac, who dreamed up this idea of grinding the San Francisco Bay Bridge while skydiving with his snowboard nearly a decade ago and finally made it happen on Saturday, August 23, 2025. There were several photographers documenting this event (as well as a huge video crew) and I was positioned in a helicopter just next to the bridge which afforded quite a wild perspective as shown below. Sean had been practicing for this by skydiving and landing on a wire (over land) for a few months before he attempted it on the bridge. Sean skydived twice and landed on the wire both times so we only had two goes at capturing images, which made it especially intense.

In addition to the wild sky dive, the perspective of San Francisco from helicopter was also pretty exceptional. We were out right at dawn and the fog that engulfed the city made for some interesting images as well. I have included one of those “landscape” type images of San Francisco here as well.

Aurora Borealis
Santa Fe, New Mexico — USA

Amazingly, in early November this year there was a major corona mass ejection from the sun, which then created a strong Aurora Borealis in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 11, 2025. I think this is only the second time that I have ever heard of an aurora being visible in New Mexico. This one was a Kp 9 and was the brightest aurora in more than 20 years. Luckily we had clear skies. I went out in our backyard and photographed the aurora with the 100-year old windmill that lives on our property. It was so bright that you could see it with the naked eye just as it looks here in these images–which is not always the case with auroras.

There are certainly other images I could share from 2025, but I figured I would leave it here–and just share my favorites. I had several other assignments where I documented the action but those didn’t rise to the level of the images you see here. As many might have noticed, Red Bull has become one of my main clients and it is always a pleasure to work with them.

So long 2025. My thanks to Red Bull and all of my other clients with whom I worked this year. Thank you for taking the time to check out some of this year’s highlights. Feel free to comment on any of these images and tell me which one you think is the best of the best from this year.

2026 is already shaping up to be an adventurous year with flights already booked for Alaska, Nepal, Bhutan and Hokkaido, Japan — and that only covers January and February. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to you all. Here’s hoping your 2026 is filled with even more adventurous travels and amazing experiences!

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Fall 2025 Newsletter

11.12.25

The Fall 2025 issue of the Michael Clark Photography Newsletter is now available for download. If you’d like to sign up for the Newsletter just drop me an email and I’ll add you to the mailing list.

This issue of the Newsletter includes an editorial entitled The Grand Canyon Newsletter, a review of the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler geared tripod head, an article detailing a recent photography assignment photographing Aaron Fitzgerald flying his Red Bull aerobatic helicopter in Hellhole Bend, an editorial entitled A Seismic shift in Photography Education, and much more.

The Michael Clark Photography Newsletter goes out to over 8,000 photo editors, photographers and photo enthusiasts around the world. You can download the Fall 2025 issue on my website at:

http://files.michaelclarkphoto.com/fall_2025.pdf

If you’d like to check out back issues of the newsletter they are available on my website here.

Please note that the newsletter is best viewed in the latest Adobe Acrobat reader which is available for free at www.adobe.com.

If you are a subscriber and you have not already received the Newsletter, which was email out yesterday please send me an email with your current email address and/or check your spam folder.

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2025 Updates to Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

11.03.25

Wouldn’t you know it, predictably, Adobe has updated Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC with a slew of new features right after I released the 8th Edition of my new the e-book, A Professional Photographer’s Workflow: Using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. As updating my e-book would take considerable time, instead I will here run through the new features and how the software has changed–and also include a few videos from Adobe that explain the new features quite well.

The YouTube video from Julieanne Kost (shown below) gives a very good overview of the new features including updated remove tools, automatic dust removal, Point Color Variance, Enhanced Masking and other great new features.

In even bigger news, Lightroom will now have assisted culling and auto-stacking of images in the latest beta versions–available on the Creative Cloud. Below is another video by Julieanne Kost showing some of the capabilities of these new features.

I have to say that the culling option is extremely limited to portraits and will not be useful for a huge swath of images. This makes that feature (at the moment) not that useful unless you are primarily a portrait photographer. I can see the auto-stacking feature being much more useful for those that use stacking. For myself, I don’t use the stacking options in Lightroom so I probably won’t use this new option either.

ASSISTED CULLING

As I indicated above, the assisted culling is fairly limited in the type of images it is designed to cull. From the examples given in the above videos, it was clear that the culling is designed for portraits. To test it out I selected a variety of portraits from an assignment with some whitewater kayakers and set both the Subject Focus and Eye Focus sliders to 80 to see just how well it would do (as shown below). Amazingly, it chose the same images I had chosen when I previously went through this same set of images–so that is quite promising.

Of course, because the culling here is limited to a certain type of images it is not that useful for anything other than portraits. I hope that the AI culling feature in Lightroom improves rapidly and will be updated to work with all types of images, not just portraits. It would be great if Adobe can use AI to cull any and all types of images without any check boxes needing to be selected. That would be easier, and more useful, if and only if the AI software can actually differentiate which images are superior.

NEW ADOBE ACR SIDECAR FILES

One of the new features that seems a bit redundant are the new sidecar files for raw images files. If you apply Denosie AI or some of the other AI features in Lightroom, the software will now output not just the XMP file but a second ACR file for those additional adjustments. As someone who has been exporting XMP files for years, I don’t see the need for this second file to be exported and would have preferred that Lightroom just keep using the XMP system as it has been. This new file type just leads to a bigger mess of files in the original file folder.

AUTO DUST REMOVAL

The new auto dust removal sounds like a good idea but I will need to do further testing to see how well it works. As someone who regularly cleans my camera sensors to make sure there are few if any dust spots to worry about this isn’t a big issue I face when working up images. If you really need this feature then it is a serious warning sign that you need to clean your sensor, which is not that difficult.

In the image above, which is an old image of mine created with a now Ancient Nikon D2x, there were a lot of dust spots. I clicked on the check box next to “Apply” down in the Dust removal section of the Distraction Removal dialog and voila, Lightroom found quite a few more dust soots that I could even find. Many of the dust spots it removed were incredibly small.

In this second example (shown above) I ran the Auto Dust removal and it found all of the debris floating in the river and removed that. Interestingly it did not remove everything and left some of the floating debris in the river. Hence, as with any automatic tools, the auto Dust removal can be very powerful but you will still need to zoom into your image and check to see what it did and decide if the tool did what you wanted to do or not.

POINT COLOR VARIANCE TOOL

It is great to see a new tool, the Point Color Variance tool, added to Lightroom’s local adjustments HUD. This new tool has a variety of uses, but primarily (as shown in the video above) will be a great way to adjust skin tones and the gradation of skin tone colors in portraits. As shown below, I tried this out on a portrait. In this image, Amy doesn’t really need any adjustments to her skin but just as an example here I first made a mask of her facial skin and then used the eye dropper to select a point on her skin that seemed to be a middle ground between the brightest and the darkest areas. I then moved the Variance slider (highlighted in red) to -52. This effectively compressed the range of colors on her face and smoothed out the tones.

In this before and after images (shown below) you can see that the skin tones were compressed ever so slightly. If you look at her nose you can see in the before image on the left that there are a bit more red tones than there are in the after image on the right. It was a cold afternoon while we were out rock climbing, but even so, I am not sure I would apply this to her skin tones.

I have to say that I tried out this new tool on a variety of portraits and found it challenging to apply without it looking quite obvious and not really that appealing. In other cases it basically looked like I had applied a bit of colored makeup to the face and not all that evenly. Hence, for this application, as in smoothing out skin tones, I would say less is more. I would say be very careful how strongly this tool is applied as it can quickly look fake.

IMPROVED REFELCTIONS REMOVAL

The improved reflections removal feature is welcome. This isn’t a feature I will be using ever or if so, very rarely. But as I noted in the e-book, it did not work that well in my testing so it is great to see that Adobe has improved the feature. I don’t have any examples to show this feature in use but I thought I would mention the upgrade here.

IMPROVED LANDSCAPE MASKING

The improved Masking for landscapes will be a very welcome addition to Lightroom. In previous versions it occasionally did not do that great of a job identifying various parts of the landscape so any improvements here will be very useful. As shown below, the new Landscape masking has an extra check box for “Natural Ground” that seems very accurate. In this screenshot (shown below) I have selected both Natural Ground and Mountains.

CHANGES TO THE LIGHTROOM PREFERENCES

Along with the above changes, Lightroom has also changed a few things in the Preferences dialogs. There are now a few extra options in the External Editing preferences (as shown below). These new options allow for setting the preferences for how both SDR (normal) images and HDR images are exported to Photoshop and other external editing software. You can see my settings below for both Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex.

There are of course other new features and improvements to Adobe Lightroom Classic that are featured in the videos above. Some of these are very useful (for my work) and others not so much. Of note, there have also been some performance improvements with the software itself helping to make Lightroom run even more efficiently and faster than previous versions.

Overall, I have to say that some of these new tools just seem to overcomplicate Lightroom unnecessarily. The new Assisted Culling feature seems clunky at best. I am guessing that the AI culling will be the one feature that hopefully improves rapidly and will be updated to work with all types of images, not just portraits. It would be great if Adobe can use AI to just cull the images without any check boxes needing to be selected. For some of my assignments, where I need to go through thousands of images quickly, and then process them right away that would be a major time saver.

Of course, what hasn’t been included in the new update is just as interesting as what has been included. There are a number of AI assisted software options out there that will cull your images (using AI) and then also go through your Lightroom catalog to see how you generally process your images and automatically process your images using AI in a manner that is similar to how you have processed other images. The software that will do this type of culling and processing include Evoto, Imagen and Aftershoot among others. Most of these of AI Software options I am referencing here are aimed at portrait and wedding photographers and would not work very well for a wide variety of photography genres. I have not tried these alternate software options out extensively but from what I have seen they can certainly cull and edit your images but the results may not be exactly what you wanted. Even though they might cull your images down you will most likely still have to go through and see if the software chose what you feel are the best images. Likewise with the image processing, for the select images I would definitely still go through the images and see what they look like and how the images look at 100% to make sure they weren’t over processed–or if they were processed as you wanted. Hopefully one of these days we will get there and AI can be used to both cull and process our images–that will be a massive time saver for photographers. I have a feeling Adobe is hard at work on this–I know internally they have been talking about this for decades.

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2025 Fine Art Print Sale

10.28.25

To get the ball rolling for the fall holiday season, I am happy to announce a 15% off sale on all of my fine art prints until December 31st, 2025. How this works is very simple, just take 15% off my standard fine art print pricing, which can be found here, and contact me to order the print. This sale includes both paper prints and metal prints. Also, note that my print pricing includes free shipping (in the continental USA) as well as free print mounting on DiBond (for paper prints). All metal prints come ready to hand on the wall.

All of my images are available as Fine Art Prints. You can see which of my images are in the Limited Edition category on my website. Any images that are not shown on the Limited Edition page are considered Open Edition prints. Available print sizes are listed on the pricing page. I will work with you to make sure the final print is the best it can possibly be and will look great mounted on your wall. All paper prints are made on the finest baryta photographic papers.

Below are a few sample prints to give you an idea of just how stunning these turn out when framed up.

Also, the metal prints I am offering, printed by Blazing Editions, are absolutely stunning as well and are also on sale. Just as with the paper prints, all of my metal prints come mounted (as they are printed directly on the metal) and additionally they come with a backing or frame so that they be hung on the wall straight out of the box. Below are a few examples of the metal prints on offer and the second image below shows a close up of one possible mounting option–a metal print with a black wood float frame.

Please contact me with any questions or if you would like to look at a wider range of images than are featured on my website.

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A Professional Photographer’s Workflow E-book Updated (8th Edition)

10.15.25

I am very happy to announce that my digital workflow e-book, entitled A Professional Photographer’s Workflow: Using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop (8th Edition), has been updated and revised. This new version is now the 8th update to the digital workflow e-book since it was first published way back in 2006! I have spent the last year working on this update of the book. It has been a long process with an incredible amount of work–especially since the e-book is 657 pages long! This e-book now includes an entirely new chapter on Storing and Backing up your images and also includes links to eleven (11) videos (a total of 2 hours 43 minutes of video content) where you can watch me work up seven images from start to finish in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. There are also four individual videos that dive into the AI Super Resolution and Denoise tools, the Remove tool, the Lens Blur dialog, and all of the new AI Masking tools. The e-book still includes a Photoshop Action that you can load into your action palette and there is a ReadMe PDF document that comes with the book to show you exactly how to load that action.

This e-book is an in-depth, intensive workshop in book form. This e-book covers the main topics of a shooting workflow then moves into a raw processing workflow with Adobe Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC. This book gets down to the nuts and bolts of a real-world, professional-caliber digital workflow. This e-book was completely revised and re-written over the last year, and presents a workflow that can be adapted by any photographer, professional or amateur.

I can honestly say that I have not seen any other book or video course on the market today that includes as much detailed and comprehensive information as this e-book does on a complete digital workflow from setting up the camera to backing up your images and everything in-between. I will boldly state right here and now that there is no other resource, be it a book, website or anything else, that has such a thorough and complete discussion on real-world color management issues as does this e-book.

A note here about the new price for the digital workflow e-book. The pricing for this e-book might seem a bit steep for some, and incredibly cheap for others. I have tried to strike a middle ground with the new price, offering a ridiculous amount of solid information for a fairly low price. I could have easily raised the price to $50 USD or even $99 USD. When you download the book, and see how dense it is, those higher prices don’t seem totaly off-base. I have seen quite a few YouTubers and less experienced photographers charging much, much more for their video lessons and courses that don’t offer anywhere near the level or amount of information provided in this e-book. Some are even charging up to $250 USD for their courses. Hence, when it came to the price, I figured somewhere in the $40 USD range was a solid price but not so expensive that the average photographer couldn’t afford it. I want this knowledge to be out there so that up and coming photographers can get reliable top-notch information on how to dial in their workflow. This book is not some sort of cash cow for me since I make the vast majority of my living photographing commercial assignments. It is in some ways a service to the photography community. With the above diatribe on pricing, I still want to make some money from all the effort put into this updated and revamped version of the book. Hence, the new price.

The first version of this e-book was published way back in 2006, when Adobe Lightroom was first launched—after I created images on assignment for Adobe for the launch of that software. Adobe even listed the first few versions of this e-book on their website as a resource to learn how to use Lightroom. Over the last 20 years, I have updated the book every three to four years as my knowledge grew and as I added new chapters to the book to make it more comprehensive. This 8^th edition is by far the most comprehensive version of the book that I have ever produced. In the five years since I last updated the digital workflow e-book, Adobe has added quite a few new features and all of those are discussed in this new version of the book.

Shown below is the opening spread of the new chapter, entitled Storing and Backing Up images, and a few other double page spread layouts form that new chapter. In previous editions of the e-book I had a section where I discussed backing up images but when I went to revise that section I felt like it needed a major upgrade. In the last few years I have done some online workshops specifically about backing up and storing images and content–and through those classes I massively expanded how and what I presented. In teaching those online workshops I also saw that there was a lot of demand for this information. There is a lot of confusion out there about the best ways to back up your data–and how to do it in a way that guarantees you won’t lose any images. Hence, the new chapter that goes deeper into all the ins and outs of backing up your images. This chapter is the most comprehensive material I have ever seen on the topic of backing up and storing your images. The list of topics covered in this new chapter include an overview of the risks (associated with backing up and hard drive failures), basic backup strategies, different types of hard drives, hard drive speeds, advanced backup strategies, RAID flavors, my hard drive recommendations and much, much more. There is also a detailed cost analysis section in this chapter that shows very clearly the actual costs of choosing one back up strategy versus another (i.e. a JBOD strategy versus a RAID back up strategy).

Every chapter in the book has been updated and revised. Adobe has added a lot of new features and tools, including all of the new AI tools like Super Resolution, AI Denoise, the AI Remove tool, the Len Blur dialog, and the new AI Masking tools. All of these and more are now discussed in detail in the new version of the book. In addition, because some of these are hard to really go through in great detail in a book, I created individual videos that dive into each of these new tools so you can see exactly how they work and how I use them.

Note that for those that purchased the digital workflow e-book in the last four months (as of the publishing date of this blog post), I have sent out a free copy of the newly updated e-book to you.

If you are looking to buy the book, you can find it here. Please note that you can use a credit card to purchase the book even if you do not have a PayPal account. Once you pay for the book make sure to leave the purchase page open and PayPal will redirect you to the download page.

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Equipment review: Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Geared Tripod Head

09.30.25

A few years ago, while leading a photo tour in Patagonia with Justin Black, we had a participant that was working with a 150 MP Phase One digital back on an Alpa Camera using large format lenses. That photographer, David Chew, is incredibly talented and showed us every day his incredible skill creating amazing landscape images. Along with his incredible high-end camera set up he also had along with him two tripods and two different tripod heads. It isn’t often that I see new, high-end gear that I am not aware of, but on this trip David had a few things I had never seen before. One of those was the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Geared tripod head and the other was the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system. I reviewed the Quick link system in my last blog post detailing various tripod systems and when I use them.

Over the course of that phot tour, David and I hung out quite a bit and it was very interesting to watch how he chose which tripod and tripod head to take on each outing. He had with him the amazing Arca-Swiss Cube as well as the smaller Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler, both of which I had never seen. The Cube is a great tripod head but it is massive and something I wasn’t ever going to be interested in since I often have to hike a long ways with a tripod. The Core 75 was a different story. David was aware of my interest in the Core 75 and let me borrow it on a few outings. As a ball head aficionado, I found the Core 75 to be a slower, much more methodical tripod head but I also saw that it was incredibly precise and allowed me to dial in the landscape compositions in an exacting manner I had not experienced before. David graciously offered to let me keep using his tripod setup on other occasions but I declined because I was worried I would get a little too attached to that stellar setup.

In the last few months, while using my older tripods I kept thinking about how smooth and efficient that experience was with David’s gear back in Patagonia. The seed was planted and it took a while for me to pull the trigger but here we are. I recently purchased the Really Right Stuff (RRS) TVC-24L tripod and the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Geared tripod head in an effort to level up my tripod game. As someone who has mostly used ball heads for decades now, I am very familiar with the troublesome scenario where you think you have the perfect composition, then you lock down the ball head and it settles ever so slightly to a different position that may or may not be level or exactly what you wanted. In my experience, the better (and more expensive) the ball head the less settling there is, but even with the best ball heads they can shift ever so slightly and if you are really trying to dial in a composition this can drive you nuts. Hence, the need for some thing like the Arca-Swiss Core 75 leveler tripod head.

I seem to be at that point where the usefulness of a tripod head like this really comes in handy–especially when photographing landscapes. Now that I have had this tripod head for a little while, I have found it a bit faster to use than I previously thought. It is just a matter of getting used to the controls so that they become second nature. The Arca-Swiss craftsmanship I do have to say is remarkable. This tripod head seems to be carved out of a block of steel. Even so, this geared head has a lot more moving parts than your typical ball head (like the RRS BH-55 shown below next to the Arca-Swiss Core 75) so if the weather is going to be really bad, I usually will take a ball head that can deal with sand, rain and snow a bit better — and not need a cleaning afterwards.

I opted for the screw knob lock on top of the tripod head for tightening down the camera mounting plates–most of mine are RRS camera plates so not the standard Arca-Swiss camera plates but very similar. The screw knob lock allows for a little more adjustment depending on whether you are using Arca-Swiss plates on your cameras or another brand, like the Really Right Stuff plates I typically use. At some point in the future I might change this top mounting plate out for a RRS flip-lock attachment. Time will tell if I can get along with the one already built into the top of the tripod head. So far it has been very easy to use.

As can be seen above and in all of the images of the Core 75 Leveler, I have the tripod head attached to the tripod with the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system (shown below). This system allows for easily changing out the tripod head without having to pull out the Allen wrenches every time. To change out the tripod head you simply rotate the locking collar on the Quick Link base and the tripod head will pull straight up so that another head can be inserted and locked down. This makes for a very nice system to travel with one tripod and multiple tripod heads if needed. It also allows for hiking with just the tripod legs (without a tripod head attached) and then attaching the tripod head at the location when you set everything up.

I realize that everything Arca-Swiss makes carries a hefty price tag. They are after all a Swiss brand and anyone who has traveled to Switzerland knows nothing in Switzerland is cheap. As is usually the case, you get what you pay for. In this case, Arca-Swiss has a sterling reputation and the level of build quality in their products comes at a price. The Core 75 Leveler sells for $725 USD, which makes it by far the most expensive tripod head that I own. I own a few $500 ball heads (some that I have had for decades) so this is just the next step up in price. What I have learned over the years is that tripods and tripod heads pretty much last forever if taken care of. Aside from the horrible first few shaky and cheap tripods I purchased at the very start of my career, I still have and use all of the high-end tripods and tripod heads that I have ever purchased. I am certain this Arca-Swiss head will outlast them all.

In use, the Core 75 Leveler can rotate 15-degrees side to side and up and down. While this may sound quite limiting, it is easy enough to lower one of the tripod legs to extend that range. The tripod head can also be mounted onto a ball head to massively extend the movement range–as with genres like macro photography. For my work, I don’t see the need to attach it to a ball head. On the head itself, there are two different tubular bubble levels that can help to level the tripod head. I tend to use the levels on the camera itself as they are easier to dial in and possibly more accurate as well. The Core 75 Leveler can also handle up to 66 pounds (30 Kg), which makes it the most robust tripod head that I have. By comparison, my venerable RRS BH-55 (shown above) can only handle 50 pounds (22.7 Kg) according to RRS.

The Core 75 Leveler also has a dual panning feature where you can pan the base at the bottom of the tripod head and also pan from the top of the tripod head. This top panning mechanism allows for very precisely creating panoramas once the camera is leveled. Of course for the best panorama images you will probably want to attach a nodal slider so that you can put the nodal center of the lens right on the panning axis. With my FUJIFILM GFX cameras and their 102 megapixel sensors I often create panorama images from a single frame by cropping the panorama from the full frame image. Especially now that we have the Super Resolution feature in Lightroom where we can upres images by a factor of four this works incredibly well and gives me a final file size in the range of 240 MP to 280 MP once the image is cropped to the panorama format.

As can be seen above, the Core 75 Leveler is also limited in that it cannot rotate the camera 90 degrees to the vertical position. Because of that, you have to have an L-bracket attached to the camera (as shown above with my FUJIFILM GFX 100 II). This is a small thing but just something to consider if you don’t have L-Brackets for all of your cameras. L-Brackets are not something I have on my cameras all the time as they can add a lot of extra bulk and weight, but for landscape photography they are very nice to have.

All in all, if you need or want a geared tripod head and want one that is fairly light then the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler is an excellent option. It is significantly less expensive than the Arca-Swiss Cube or the D4 that they make, both of which are over $1,000 USD. Arca-Swiss also make a smaller version of the Core 75, which is the Core 60 Leveler. The Core 60 Leveler is quite a bit smaller and lighter but only has 10-degrees of tilt. I figured that the extra 5 degrees of tilt that the Core 75 offers would make it more versatile and it is still quite small and light, especially compared to my heavy-duty ball heads. The Arca-Swiss D4 is another excellent option as well but it was bigger and heavier than I wanted to deal with. Of course, there are also many other brands that make similar style heads but once you work with an Arca-Swiss head there is no going back. They are works of art. For more information on the Core 75 Leveler and the Quick Link system visit the Arca-Swiss website.

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Photography Tripods: A discussion of of various use case scenarios

09.15.25

Tripods in general don’t get a lot of mention. I am not sure I have ever really talked about the tripods and tripod heads that I use. As an adventure photographer most might not think that tripods are a big part of my world, but there are quite a few occasions where I need to use a tripod. As shown above, I often use giant lenses to document the adventure world and that is prime territory for tripods. I also create quite a few landscape images and studio portraits where a solid tripod comes in handy. Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of camera support gear. Here I thought I would discuss the tripods and tripod heads that I use and rely on–and when I take each out on assignments.

At this point I have three Gitzo tripods (see my gear on the Equipment page) and several different tripod heads–everything from a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head to a Wimberley Gimbal head. I don’t say this to crow about the gear I use but just as reference. I have a variety of tripods for various scenarios and sometimes need multiple tripods for assignments where I will be setting up remote cameras. On the high-end, I have a super heavy Gitzo GT5541LS tripod (one of the older top-end Gitzo tripods) that can handle just about any gear I will ever use. The modern equivalent of this tripod would be the Gitzo GT5543LS. The other high-end Gitzo–that I have had for decades–is an old GT2541 carbon fiber model. The GT2541 is quite a bit lighter and smaller than my bigger, heavier Gitzo. The modern equivalent of my GT2541 is the Gitzo GT2542. I have had both of these Gitzos, and another old Aluminum heavy-weight Gitzo 1340 for a long, long time. That old 1340 tripod (nearly 30 years old now) is at this point a museum piece but it still works extremely well–it is just a bit on the hefty side compared to my carbon fiber options. Tripods like these last forever if you take care of them.

In my lineup, I have had a hole of sorts for a long time. The GT5541LS is huge and quite hefty. I rarely take it on assignments unless I know I am going to use it a lot and don’t have to hike very far. On the flipside the GT2541 is so light that every time I use it I wish I had a slightly heavier tripod. In all honesty, I haven’t really ever loved the lighter GT2541, mostly because the center column design is a bit wobbly and also because the tripod is a little too lightweight for the heavier gear I tend to use on a tripod. In terms of designs, the GT2541 is extremely well crafted but I have just found that I do not like tripods with center columns. The center column is always the weakest part of a tripod so these days I am suspect of any tripod with a center column. I much prefer tripods that are taller without the need for a center column.

In the last few months, I recently purchased the Really Right Stuff TVC-24L tripod and the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Geared tripod head in an effort to level up my tripod game. Along with the new tripod gear I also wanted a way to quickly and easily change out the tripod head on my various tripods. To that end, I also picked up a few of the Arca-Swiss Quick link disks and receivers to add to my tripods and tripod heads. The end result of all this is that I now have quite a collection of tripods and tripod heads to choose from and which I can tailor for my assignments. The RRS TVC-24L fills the gap between my heaviest Gitzo and my lightweight Gitzo. I have a feeling that the new RRS tripod will become my main tripod for most assignments. And with the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system, I can now choose the tripod head and tailor that for each scenario as well. The upshot is that I now feel like I finally have a tripod system that will live in that goldilocks zone of being heavy enough to be rock solid but not too heavy where I wouldn’t take it along.

Shown above (from left to right) are the Gitzo GT5541LS tripod with the Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-55 ball head, the RRS TVC-24L tripod with the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Classic tripod head, the Gitzo GT2541 tripod with the Acratech GP-s ball head, and on the far right the tiny Oben tripod with a RRS BH-30 ball head. Note that the Gitzo GT5541LS and the RRS TVC-24L also have the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system attached between the tripod and the tripod head for easy and quick tripod head attachment.

In terms of tripods and tripod heads that I would recommend, as you might imagine, I would recommend the gear that I have researched and purchased. I feel like Gitzo and Really Right Stuff (RRS) make the best tripod legs on the market. There are many brands of tripods out there and I am sure many of them can work for any variety of scenarios but I have worked with these two brands and their gear for decades now and they have been rock solid. I have gotten some discounts on Gitzo tripods many years ago but aside from that short window where I got a slight discount I have had to purchase pretty much all of this gear at full retail. For my recent tripod and tripod head purchase I paid full price. I do have some lower-end super lightweight tripods (and I’ll discuss those below) but they are for very specific use case scenarios.

As for tripod heads, as eluded to in the first paragraph, here again I have a plethora of RRS tripod heads (the BH-55, BH-30 and a RRS monopod head), an ancient Kirk BH-1 ball head (that has served me well for decades), a Wimberley head I have had for fifteen years or more and now the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Geared head. All of these are top-end, incredibly well made options. They have all been a pleasure to use. I tend to opt for heavier, more stable tripod heads than lighter weight options. The BH-30 for example almost never gets used unless I need the lightest weight option. I have just learned that if I am going to take a tripod then going with a slightly heavier setup pays off every time–in terms of image quality and in terms of ease of use. In my experience, the tripod set up is not the place to scrimp on weight unless you absolutely have to.

As a result of owning all these tripods, I thought I would post up a blog here on the ins and outs of various tripod setups and how I tailor each tripod to different scenarios. I have found that having a variety of tripods is very useful. Below are several scenarios that I have found myself in on assignments — and each of them forced me to use a different set up. I’ll go in order from lightest to heaviest tripod setups.

Mountaineering Expeditions

On an expedition, where you are carrying all or most of your gear yourself, every ounce counts. The more you carry the more it wears you down. In my experience, going as light as possible is critical–especially if you want to have energy left over to actually create images. On my last expedition, in the Himalayas, we had porters that would carry the bulk of our gear. On that trip, I had the Gitzo GT2541 with me along with an Acratech GP-s ball head. This setup weighs in at 1,843 grams (4.06 pounds). For this assignment, I took my FUJIFILM GFX100 along with a few lenses and that setup never left basecamp since I was there to shoot video with a smaller camera system.

In the image above, I use that tripod setup along with the GFX100 to capture some night scenes of basecamp and Cholatse in the background. If not for the porters I would have taken a much lighter tripod since we had to hike into basecamp for three days. For the above scenario the Gitzo and Acratech setup worked but I would say the large GFX medium format setup was on the edge of that tripods comfort zone. I like the Acratech ball head but it is a lightweight head and not my favorite among the tripod heads I own. It gets the jobs done. I do like that the ball of the tripod head is exposed because they are easy to clean and don’t get gummed up like some other tripod heads can in adverse conditions.

Shown above (from left to right) are the Gitzo GT2541 tripod with the Acratech GP-s ball head, and the tiny Oben tripod with a RRS BH-30 ball head.

On expeditions where I am carrying my own gear, I have an even lighter setup: a cheap Oben CT-2331 carbon fiber tripod and the RRS BH-30 ball head. The Oben tripod is an older model that they don’t make any more. When I purchased it back in 2014 it cost around $200. Along with the BH-30 ball head the Oben tripod setup weighs a total of 960 grams (2.12 pounds). I carried this setup on a photography tour that I led (with four intrepid adventurers) where we traversed the Patagonia Ice cap behind Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre in Argentina and Chile. We carried sixty to seventy-pound packs for ten days on that trip and all told we climbed over 15,000-feet in elevation gain. Hence, the weight of our gear (all of it) had a big impact on each of us. I took only one camera body and one lenses on that trip–a Nikon D810 and a Sigma 24-105 zoom. Hence, I kept the photo gear to an absolute minimum. The Oben tripod was so shaky that I rarely ever even extended the legs. Patagonia is also notoriously windy so having the tripod low to the ground helped the stability as well.

I will say that the RRS BH-30 tripod head is well crafted but not my favorite ball head. I purchased it because it was lightweight and well made. It cost significantly more than the tripod I put it on. It is not the nicest ball head to use as the lever that tightens the ball head hits the bottom of the Arca quick-release plate every time you turn it. But it did the job and was light enough for that scenario. I chose the cheap tripod because I knew it would get beaten up and I didn’t want to take a super expensive tripod on a such an arduous trip–plus those light tripods are all pretty shaky so I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on an ultra-lightweight tripod I probably would not use that often. It did the job and every once in a while I pull it out for an arduous assignment but it doesn’t go out with me that often these days.

Long Day Hikes

For those scenarios where I have to hike in quite a ways to photograph a landscape or create an adventure sports image there is always the conundrum of how much gear in total that I need to haul. If I and my crew are taking strobes then a tripod is going to be low on the priority list as we will have tons of lighting gear and lightstands to carry. If we do need a tripod in that scenario it will most likely be the Gitzo GT2541 and Acratech ball head (as discussed above). If I am only carrying a camera and three or four lenses then depending on the length of the hike I will usually take a heavier tripod kit–most likely the RRS TVC-24L and either the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler tripod head or the RRS BH-55. Even though the heavier tripod and head are a lot of extra weight, it is worth it to have a solid setup to work with once I get to the location.

A good example of this scenario is a hike I did earlier this year in the Bisti Badlands where I hiked in to photograph the Bisti Wings (as shown above). While this wasn’t a massively long hike it was still six miles (9.7 km) round trip. On that hike, I had the lightweight Gitzo GT2541 setup with me since I also had a medium format camera and three lenses.

Multi-Day Landscape Photography

When I am photographing landscapes on my own or leading a photography workshop, I am normally hiking in a little ways into a location (a mile or so at most) and in those scenarios weight doesn’t really matter. I could take my heavyweight Gitzo or the RRS tripod and whichever tripod head seems appropriate. The bigger issue is usually how much space I have in my luggage and if the larger, heavier tripod will push me over the airline’s weight limit. If I know the location is windy I will usually opt for the heavier Gitzo tripod. If I have plenty of space in my luggage–or I am traveling by car–I will often take two tripods, one lighter and one heavier so I have options depending on the location for the day.

A good example of a trip like this is the Patagonia photography tour I co-led last year. On that trip, I took both my heavyweight Gitzo and the lighter Gitzo GT2541 as well. On most days I used the Gitzo GT5541LS and my Kirk BH-1 ball head and on longer hikes I took the lighter Gitzo setup. Justin Black (as shown above), who owns Visionary Wild and co-led that tour, had with him a single tripod, which was a RRS TVC-24L and a RRS BH-55 ball head. His RRS setup seemed like the perfect tripod setup for that scenario, which is why I just purchased that exact tripod.

Shown above (from left to right) are the Gitzo GT5541LS tripod with the Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-55 ball head and the RRS TVC-24L tripod with the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Classic tripod head. Note that both of these tripods have the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system attached between the tripod and the tripod head for easy and quick tripod head attachment.

The two tripods shown above, the heavyweight Gitzo and the RRS TVC-24L are the two best tripods I own–and the ones I always want to be using regardless of the scenario. It is only a matter of weight and the distance I have to carry them that keeps me from taking them.

Assignments Close to the Car

For assignments where I know we will be close to the car then there is really no worries about weight. In these scenarios I will take the heavy Gitzo GT5541LS every time–usually with the RRS BH-55 ball head. If I need to set up remote cameras then I might have multiple tripods with me for that scenario. As shown below, when I created images for the launch of the FUJIFILM GFX100 back in 2019, I had with me the heavyweight Gitzo setup detailed above. With medium format cameras and the larger lenses a heavy weight tripod is just easier to deal with and much more stable–especially with the decently heavy FUJIFILM GF250mm f/4 lens shown on the tripod below. For that assignment I used my old Kirk BH-1 heavy-duty ball head. The BH-1 has been out of production for a while now but it is in the same league as the RRS BH-55 and has been a workhorse tripod head for decades.

In other scenarios, as shown above, if I am doing a video shoot or photographing the night sky then again I am typically taking the heavyweight setup. Especially for long exposures at night, a heavy rock-solid tripod is a must for the best image quality. Of note, in the video camera setup above I am using the heavyweight Gitzo GT5541LS with a leveling mount and a Manfrotto video fluid head. The leveling base is very useful for those times when you need to pan the camera and follow the action as it keeps the horizon from changing angles in the frame as you pan the camera.

Surfing Photography (from the beach)

Photographing surfing has its own unique category of gear when it comes to tripods–especially if I am using a big lens like a 400mm f/2.8, a 600mm f/4 or an 800mm f/5.6. Anytime I am using one of these giant lenses, I take my Wimberley WH-200 gimbal tripod head that allows the lens to essentially float on the tripod. The Wimberely is an amazing tripod head and it is super specialized for these long telephoto lenses. Once it is balanced (as shown below) you never really have to lock it down. With all of the locks loosened at a moments notice you can grab the camera, swivel the lens over to the action and follow it as needed without any friction at all.

I used to use my Kirk BH-1 ball head with these giant lenses and that was a lot of work to keep the ball head from tipping over while tracking the action. It only took one or two trips where I was photographing surfing all day from the beach before I purchased the Wimberely head. Luckily for surf trips you generally do not have that much in the checked bags in terms of clothing so you can carry a heavyweight tripod and the giant Wimberely head. For surf trips in particular, I often take my ancient aluminum Gitzo 1340 tripod as it is a solid base and has very long legs. Setting up a tripod on sand requires a very tall tripod so you can push the feet into the sand to stabilize the rig. Pushing the feet several inches into the sand takes away some of that height so the taller tripods are perfect–especially when you are 6′ 3″ (1.9 m) tall.

Shown above is my ancient Gitzo 1340 aluminum tripod with the Wimberley WH-200 gimbal head. Note that I also have a Gitzo leveling base on this tripod as well that allows me to level the Wimberley head quickly and easily.

Of note, I also use the Wimberley head when using lighter weight telephoto lenses (as shown in the image at the top of this blog post) as well since it is so easy to use. I used to own the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 and now own the much lighter Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5. The new 400mm f/4.5 is so light that I don’t use a tripod with it that often but when I add a 2x teleconverter the tripod really helps to smooth out the movement if I am photographing action. If am going to be using a long lens and won’t be moving around too much then I always take the Wimberely head and a heavy tripod.

In terms of versatility, the Wimberley head is not a great all around tripod head. It is very specifically made for long, heavy telephoto lenses. Hence, if I am on a trip and need to use one tripod with both long lenses (say for photographing surfing) and also need to capture landscape images with shorter lenses I will usually travel with two tripod heads–the Wimberely and my RRS BH-55 or the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler.

Studio Portrait Sessions

In the studio, weight is of no concern. If I am doing a studio portrait I typically have hundreds of pounds of gear with me–and we usually roll that gear in on a giant cart (or even multiple carts). I also typically have an assistant with me when doing lighting. For portraiture it is not imperative that the camera is on a tripod, especially since the strobes will freeze any camera movement (no matter the shutter speed) but it is often nice to have the camera locked down if we are doing waist up portraits or headshots. With the camera on a tripod I can concentrate on the subject and often just have the camera set to track the face and eyes and don’t even look through the camera. This is an old-school technique where I can keep eye contact with the subject and then fire off frames as I see them. Often, I am also tethered in these scenarios with the art director or the client not far away so having the camera on a tripod is a safety consideration as well that helps to make sure the tethering cable doesn’t get pulled and the connections aren’t damaged.

As shown above, I often find having the camera on a tripod really helps when creating portraits. In this scenario, I was creating portraits of the Red Bull Air Force team members (in this scenario with the late Felix Baumgartner) and we would take five minutes to create a few portraits and then run out and continue with the action photography. I left the camera on the tripod so that it was ready to go anytime there was a few minutes in-between skydives to grab an athlete and do a few portraits. As you can see here, I also have my rock climbing harness on as well which was used to clip myself into a helicopter or a skydive plane and photograph the action out an open door.

Arca-Swiss Quick Link System

I have recently started using the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system for attaching my tripod heads to a few of my various tripods. I saw this system for the first time last year and I knew right away that it would be very useful for changing out the tripod head quickly and easily–as with the example of taking two tripod heads on surf trips. I have the Arca-Swiss Quick Link receiver base on both my Gitzo GT5541LS and also on my RRS TVC-24L. And I have the Quick Link disks (which slot into the Quick Link base) on most of my tripod heads. This setup makes it super quick and easy to switch out the tripod head from one tripod to another.

Shown above is the Really Right Stuff TVC-24L tripod with the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler Classic tripod head. The red arrow points at the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system attached between the tripod and the tripod head for easy and quick tripod head attachment. To release the tripod head all you have to do is rotate the collar on the Quick-Link and the tripod head can be lifted out.

I don’t have this system on my lighter Gitzo GT2541 as the Acratech ball head is pretty much the only head I use with that tripod. For the heavier weight tripods, as shown above, it makes sense that I might swap between the RRS BH-55 (my main ball head), the Arca-Swiss Core 75 Leveler geared head, the Kirk BH-1, or the Wimberely head. These days I often travel with one beefy tripod, typically the RRS TVC-24L, and take a few different tripod heads with me so that I have options.

The Arca-Swiss Quick Link system is rock solid. When I first saw the system (used by a fellow photographer in Patagonia) I was initially a little worried about play in the system and that it would make the tripod head less stable. But given that the photographer using it had a lot of experience with that setup, and shot on a 150 MP Phase One, it became quickly obvious that Arca-Swiss (who have a sterling reputation) had dialed this in. I have found the Quick Link system to be expertly crafted and there is no play whatsoever once the locking collar is closed. As can be seen above, the base plate (far left) attaches to the tripod and the disk (middle) is what attaches to the bottom of the tripod head. To attach the tripod head to the base plate you simply drop in the disk on the bottom of the tripod head and then the rotating collar on the outside of the base locks the tripod head into place. This is so much easier than pulling out the allen wrenches and unscrewing everything to change out tripod heads. I realize these are quite expensive at $180 per set but when you have such expensive tripods and tripod heads the Quick Link system is a nice addition.

Also, one of the great things about the Arca-Swiss Quick Link system is that it allows me to carry the tripod without the tripod head attached to it when hiking into a location. A tripod strapped to the side of a backpack is always a little precarious. Sure, you can crank the straps down so it doesn’t fall off but with a heavy tripod head on the top, it is always throwing the pack off balance. Also, if the tripod head is sticking up you can very easily start whacking trees, rocks and anything else that you walk by, which is not great for the expensive tripod head. Hence, this system solves a lot of those issues allowing for the legs to be the only thing strapped to the outside of the pack and the tripod head to be carried in the backpack along with the cameras and lenses. Once you are at the location it is easy enough to snap the tripod head onto the tripod legs (just like putting a lens onto a camera) and you are ready to go.

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