All new tripods and monopods for me!

In all the years that I have been a photographer, it is not often that I change the brand of products I am using. You know how it is when you get used to something and it works well...it is hard to make a switch. But after many years of using Gitzo tripods and monopods, I am making the switch to Benro. 

It is not that Gitzo products are not excellent, but they are really expensive, and with so many other high-quality offerings out there, it has gotten harder for me to recommend them when they are so much more expensive than other comparable products. 

(Photo credit: Emma Cable)

I tried to reach out to the people at Gitzo to find out why they were priced so much higher than the others, but never heard back from them. So I started to evaluate other companies that made higher-end tripods and monopods. I did some research online and also reached out to some of my photographer friends in the industry who I trusted the most. (Thanks to Moose Peterson for recommending Benro so passionately.) 

Numerous companies responded to me and sent me products to evaluate. My living room looked like B&H photo with tripods set up all over the place. I methodically went through and tested each tripod and monopod to test the following:

* Rigidity and Sturdiness

* Strength

* Weight

* Size

* Balance

I also took into account the prices for each item and the overall selection that each company had to offer. After a lot of testing, the one company that stood out was Benro. 

When testing the products, I consistently selected the Benro tripods (without looking at the brand name to know which brand I was using). I feel that the quality of their products is at the same level as Gitzo (which is saying a lot) but with a price point that is more reasonable for the average photographer or photo enthusiast. 

Right now I am using three of their tripods:

* Benro Mammoth

* Benro Mach 3

* Benro Rhino

I am also using the Benro SupaDupa Monopod which I really like. This monopod extends to a really long length. 

All of these products that I have chosen are made with Carbon Fiber, and feel solid as a rock. The overall quality is excellent, the movement of the hinges and legs feels smooth and solid, and they feel like they are built to last.

I know that Benro also makes tripod heads but I am sticking with the Acratech ball heads, because I still feel that they are the best on the market. I know that they are expensive, but I love that the high-quality build of the Acratech heads and I also love their Swift Clamp for my camera straps. 

I should mention that, even though I am sticking with the Acratech ballheads, I am using the Benro gimbal heads. They have two models which I am using right now. The first is the more substantial carbon fiber GH5CMini, and the other gimbal head I tested is their collapsable gimbal head (seen above) for travel. Both are really nice!

In talking to the people at Benro, I am really excited about their innovations and future products, with so much cool stuff coming down the pipe. 

I am proud to be a Benro Ambassador and super excited to use their products for my events in the Bay Area, on my photo tours, and at the upcoming Olympics. I look forward to seeing my image and name on their ambassador web page soon.

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• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Alaska and more. 

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After seeing the LA fires, it should make us all think about remote backups

Last week was complete devastation down in Southern California, with fires burning out of control. This reminded me of the fires up here in Northern California a couple of years ago. It is so sad to see so much destruction and the loss of so many memories. This made me think about family photos and the importance of keeping them safe. 

I highly recommend that you take your most important photos and get them into digital format (if they are not already digital images) and having them stored offsite. For offsite storage, you could use a cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud or many other offerings, or create your own solution. 

When both of my parents passed away, I took their wedding album and took photos of each of the black and white images. I then put all those images into a Dropbox folder so that my brother and sister could have them as well. Since they are in the cloud, I know that they will always be available.

I also went through all of my father's slides and scanned the best of the old photos to keep and share with my siblings. 

Speaking of my siblings, here is a photo of my brother, myself and my sister from 1966. I scanned many slides and then cleaned them up in Photoshop to remove the dust and distractions. 

Here is a photo of me holding a box of Kodak film in 1964. I guess I was always destined to be a photographer. 😀

Here is a photo I took of my son playing with my Mac way back in 1997 (and now he is a photographer too.) This photo and every photo I have taken since the early 1990s are stored on my QNAP NAS drive which gives me some peace of mind. But in order for me to feel that they are ultimately safe, I want them stored in a remote location as well. 

For those of you who have read the blog for a long time, you may recall that I have a redundant QNAP NAS drive located hundreds of miles from my home. They synchronize every day at 1am to make sure that every photo is in multiple places. I currently have more than 2 million photos stored in both locations.

I not only keep my photos stored in numerous places, but all my important documents are saved on these drives and in the cloud.

Regardless of whether you are a professional photographer, a photo enthusiast, or just someone trying to keep important photos and documents safe, I highly encourage you to have those files in more than one location, and far enough from each other to withstand mass destruction like we are seeing more often these days.

My thoughts go out to all those affected by the Los Angeles fires. 

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Alaska and more. 

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I am really honored to be a winner in this year's World Sports Photography Awards

A couple of months ago I was asked to submit some of my images to the World Sports Photography Awards. I know this may sound weird to many of you, but I never really enter contests. After some coaxing by my friend, I decided that I would throw some images out there to see if they would be considered.

More than 2200 professional sports photographers from over 96 countries around the world submitted more than 13000 images to this year’s competition, and there were some unbelievable images that made me feel like an amateur. 

I looked through the list of finalists and was blown away. I figured that there was no way I would stand out in this crowd!

You can see all the winners here: https://www.worldsportsphotographyawards.com/winners-and-shortlists-per-year/winners

I felt very honored this morning when I heard that this photo of mine won an award. It was one of my favorites from the Summer Olympics in Paris.

I took this photo with my Canon R5 Mark II camera and the Canon RF 70-200mm lens with the following settings:

* ISO 320

* f/8

* 1/2500th sec

Congratulations to all the other winners who captured some unbelievably amazing photos, and thanks for reminding me that I still have a lot to learn too.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Alaska and more. 

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I was going through my father's old slides and look at what I found!

Many years ago I had a chance to go to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge where I was able to capture photographs from the North Tower. It was an amazing experience, and one that I will never forget. For many years, I thought that I was the first and only one in my family to have this privilege. It turns out that this was not the case!

Here is a photo I took facing San Francisco (although the fog had covered the city in this shot).

I also took photos facing the North side of the bridge, facing towards Marin County.

About a year ago I found all my father's slides in a box and I went through hundreds of photos to see which ones I wanted to have scanned. As I was going through the slides and trying to make out what my dad had captured, I came across something amazing. In one of the boxes there were photos that HE had taken from the same location on top of the bridge!! 

Now, you have to remember that this is not open to the public and I have NO idea how he managed to get access to this spot. It took me many years to get up there. He was a doctor and I am assuming that one of his patients had connections, but I am not sure. My father died more than 30 years ago and I don't think there is anyone alive who would know this information.

This is my father's photo from the same North Tower, and as you can see, there have been some changes in the 50+ years that had gone by.

I also found this long exposure photo that he had taken of the Bay Bridge. I know that he had a Leica camera, and assume that he took all these photos with that camera. Back then, this shot was much harder to take since he was shooting film and could only guess at the right exposure. 

Here is one of my Bay Bridge photos taken from below the bridge, and look how much the San Francisco skyline has changed in all these years!

I know the spot where he took this photo, but this vantage point does not exist any more. I believe that this was taken before the road was built, leading to the fort.  He was low enough that we can not even see Fort Point (which has been there for more than 100 years).

Here is a more recent shot that I took from a similar location. You can see the retaining wall and road where a sandy beach used to be.

Here is an aerial photo that my father took over San Francisco. I am assuming that he took this out of a big airplane while coming into or out of San Francisco Airport.  It is crazy to see how few high-rises existed back then.

And here is an aerial photo that I took a couple of years ago from a small airplane, as we circled the city specifically for me to get photos.

This is a night shot that I took over the city, which would have been almost impossible to take back in my dad's days. I was using a Canon R5 mirrorless camera, pushing my ISO to 6400 and able to check my exposures as I was shooting.

Even though my father was an amateur photo enthusiast, it was really cool to see what he had captured back in his time. The funny thing is...I don't remember him taking many photos and never heard him talk about his camera. But all these years later, it is fascinating that we shared a similar rare and unique experience being at the same location on the Golden Gate Bridge and capturing images from the same vantage point. I love that!

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Costa Rica, Peru, Galapagos, Alaska and more. 

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