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One frustration that I’ve always had with cameras when shooting in low light conditions is camera shake. The problem is that in low light, the shutter must open for a long amount of time in order for the image to be exposed properly. The general rule of thumb, is that you shouldn’t shoot with a shutter speed lower than the inverse of your focal length. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens - which I do quite often - you shouldn’t shoot freehand with a shutter speed lower than 1/60th of a second. When the shutter speeds get down to 1/20 and 1/5 of a second, the human hand cannot hold steady long enough, and your images will be blurry.

Now if you know a little bit about cameras, you will realize that opening the Aperture (which will result in a lower f/stop and narrower depth of field) and raising the ISO (which will result in noisier images) all help to expose the image properly, and reduce the need for longer shutter speeds. The problem is, lenses with very wide Apertures are very expensive, and cannot be used on a point-and-shoot camera. I read blog post after blog post touting the importance of tripods in photography, however, my main concern was the hefty pricetag. A tripod can easily add up to $200+, and was not a necessary investment in my mind.

Then I saw the GorrilaPods, and I fell in love. This is exactly what I wanted. A small, flexible, mini-tripod that was relatively inexpensive, and portable enough to bring anywhere. I picked one up from my local camera store for just under $35, and it is one of the best investments I could have made. I can now be much more creative in my photography, and experiment with long shutter speeds. For example, let’s take this photo that I took a couple days ago.

I saw this shot while I was carrying things in from the car one evening. I ran into the house, grabbed my camera, and began taking some shots. I wasn’t quite getting the dramatic feel that I expected. I wanted the light emitting from the street lamps to streak and look like rays coming from the sun. The only way to do that was to open the shutter for longer. The result of these shots can be found in the dark corners of the Internet. While I had got the effect I wanted, I fell victim to camera shake.

Then I remembered my GorrillaPod. I quickly grabbed it, morphed it into the shape of the car that I wanted to balance my camera on, and clicked the shutter button. Unfortunately, my hands shook the camera when pressing the shutter-release, and the image still turned out slightly blurry. Out of desperation, I finally decided to try one last thing. While putting my camera on the tripod, I set the camera to a self-timer mode, where it would take the picture automatically after 10 seconds. I clicked the shutter button, and stepped back and watched my camera, balanced on a GorrillaPod, balanced on my neighbours car for 10 long seconds. Finally, the shutter opened and closed, and I ended up with the beautiful, sharp picture I have today.

What did I learn from all of this? I finally realize that a tripod is a very valuable piece of equipment for any photographer. And it doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. If you shop around, you can find one with the features and the pricetag that you want. I love the GorrillaPod because of it’s portability and flexibility, however, you may find an alternative tripod that you prefer. Nonetheless, tripods, while not always convenient, produce much sharper images, and can help expand your creativity as a photographer.