The Human Tripod

Since coming to the west coast, Ajo & I have made a fair number of trips in and around the NV and CA area. Along the way, we developed an interest in photography and hence decided to upgrade our point and shoot camera to a DSLR. We have only a handful of photos with both of us in it and the reason is quite the obvious. We have to rely on others who usually accept our request to take  a shot or two of both of us together. Prior to the SLR, this was not a big concern since point and shoots are fairly simple to use and not bothersome for a passerby.

The numerous human tripods we relied on until then, caused a good amount of anxiety when we switched over to the SLR. A lack of confidence and security in our human tripods developed and hence we decided that we will never hand over the SLR to a stranger but continue to use the point and shoot camera in order to take a picture with both of us. What this meant was that we had to carry two camera at all times and that we would never have a picture together in the out SLR camera.

Gradually, we had to be compromise our decision and hence we started using other tourist who owned SLR's or people preferably young who seemed fearless to handle a complex camera. I have to say that there are times when our hearts are  pounding when some one is handling our camera. Regardless, the fear and the uneasiness we feel every time we rely on a human tripod, we continue to use them to get a shot together.