Tripod as Weapon

Hwy 36 to Boulder (And…First Light on the Divide). Boulder, Colorado, 2015

Well, now we have one more thing to worry about as photographers: that someone will call the local S.W.A.T. team on us after misidentifying our collapsed tripod as a machine gun. Yes, indeed. It just recently happened in the United Kingdom–here’s THE PetaPixel LINK to the story.

Luckily, it all ended well with the photographer and the police posing together for a smiling group picture.

Deadly Tripod. Boulder, CO, 2015

And luckily none of the Highway 36 Denver-Boulder commuters called the police on me as I checked out a potential sunrise photography site this morning in the freezing-ass cold (15 degrees Fahrenheit, with breeze) wee hours.

Still, the idea of tripod as weapon is not that outrageous of an idea. The notion is that the tripod could potentially be used as a sort of Grog-like club, especially with the legs just slightly extended. That ballhead and tripod platform at the top is pretty weighty and has some pretty sharp corners. For urban (humans) or wilderness (animals) defense it could come in handy. In both kinds of situations–but especially with an aggressive human–you’d want to be pretty sure you were going to be successful or you could actually make matters worse.