We all have to face reality, and I need to come clean about mine, I am a nerd. As a kid I watched videos of Richard Avedon and wanted a Hasselblad because he used it. Now that I am grown up, not much has changed.
Perhaps I am the person that makes product placement exist, or perhaps I believe that my work is a sum of its surroundings…
When I was 19 I went to San Diego with my friend Ben Horne and Fred Miranda. It was a camera geek outing where the three of us terrorized the Wild Animal Park rambling of technical facts about the world of camera gear. At the time we were not trying to make money off photography, we were trying to take great images and learn from each other.
I learned two things from Ben and Fred that day:
1 – Don’t use UV or protection filters
2 – Get a Gitzo
Until the time of our get together, I had been investing heavily in glass and cameras, yet used some kind of tripod that I bought at a Best Buy. Needless to say I had watched my equipment get tipsy a time or two.
Once I got back to Arizona, I started helping out a friend that was trying to convert his studio into digital (which was new at the time), and in exchange he bought me a Gitzo G2228… a tripod that is so old that when Gitzo called me last month, they had to look it up to see what it was. But that is what made it so special, the fact that I have not needed another tripod for 13 years.
Last month the phone rang, and as you have probably guessed from the previous paragraph, it was Gitzo. What was odd is that I was on their site shopping for a new tripod the previous day and part of me thought, “are they watching me?” But as irony would have it they were calling to gauge my interest on becoming an ambassador for their brand. I’m sure they thought it was weird when they asked what gear I wanted to try and I answered them before they finished the question.
As we continued the talks I found that they had an enthusiasm about tripods that Nikon does about cameras. It is a contagious excitement to always improve for the sake of photography. They wanted to see what is possible and create gear that helps create.
So it is with great pleasure that I can announce that I am a Gitzo Ambassador
…. and with that, a couple images that would not have been possible without my Gitzo
Congratulations, Sir! And the photos, as usual, make me want to sell all my equipment …
One thing: Last sentence, I guess it’s “…without my Gitzo” 🙂
Thank you a ton for the heads up.