The HOV Lane Blog

I see I’m not the only one who would leave their high-priced tripod in a picturesque setting for a random to gift himself or herself. Turns out, Ellen who writes for Inside Aperture had a similar experience to one of mine when photographing in the Sequoia National Forest a couple of summers ago. Here’s her article.

The point of her article: to keep up with all your gear, routine is key.

I could not agree more. Learned this one the hard way.

I had pulled off the side of a desert highway to photograph the sun dive in the beautiful Sequoia National Forest: Post 1, Post 2. It was an evening of absolute perfection. It was stunning and it stunned me right out of my normal routine. After shooting, I uncharacteristically left my tripod standing away from the car, off the road a bit. Upon nightfall, I packed everything up and hit the road.

The next morning, I stopped to take an early morning shot to discover my tripod was no longer riding shotgun. I instantly knew where it was. At least, where it had been. I frantically drove back into the desert to discover it was gone.

A random had happened upon the tripod and must have decided, “Oh, there’s mypod.”

Lesson learned. I hope.