Here’s another great video showing a TrekPod in action at sea from the Digital Photo Academy.

John Bentham is an award-winning photographer specializing in documentary & portraiture.
His images have been widely reproduced in periodicals & books. He photographs on assignment for magazines, record companies, design companies and advertising agencies. His clients and publications include AUDI, CitiGroup, Ericsson, Fidelity Investments, Forbes, Mercedes-Benz, Newsweek, The New York Times, People Magazine, Pfizer, Rolling Stone, Sony, Time, United Technologies and Vanity Fair.

John has photographed such public figures as Harrison Ford, Philip Glass, Valerie Plame Wilson, author Frank McCourt, SEAL, Todd Oldham, David Bowie, Uma Thurman, Mark Morris, Julianne Moore, Kofi Annan, Jessica Simpson, Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, Maroon 5, The Black Eyed Peas, the late Kurt Vonnegut and the immortal Evel Knievel.

John is an instructor at the Digital Photo Academy who participated in the Trek-Tech Trek New York photo walk. Here’s his take away after giving his new Trek-Tech gear a workout.

“Everything in photography is a compromise, but in some cases, you need a specific tripod. The best case tripod is a light, rugged, versatile, relatively inexpensive tripod with a decent height range. This is where the Trek-Tech products fit nicely. Using high strength materials and quality manufacturing techniques, Trek-Tech has managed to minimize weight, yet still offer height and versatility in a well built, rugged system. The tripods also disassemble, which makes them compact, and fit nicely in the location bags provided.

The Trek-Tech GO! Pro has collapsible legs, which are a nice feature on a Monopod. Ordinarily, when using a Monopod, you need to lay the camera down in the dirt, or rest it on something, to retrieve a filter out of your bag. With the Trek Tech system, you simply set your foot on the GO! Pro leg, thereby keeping the camera and lens aloft, and freeing up both hands to mount a filter (or eat lunch).

Sometimes, when working in tight spaces, there is no room to situate a tripod. No matter how you try, you can’t find room for the legs and still get the camera in the right position. With the Trek-Tech GO! Tripod, the legs are quite a bit smaller, as is the footprint, and it fits great where a conventional tripod would not.

My favorite piece of Trek-Tech gear is the T-Pod - their small, rugged, table-top tripod. It’s great for those times when you didn’t bring a tripod, and discover you needed one. Or when you’re packing really light. The T-Pod is now a permanent addition to my camera bag.

I also like the fact that the Trek-Tech system is compatible. You can take parts from the T-Pod and attach them to the GO! Pro, if you need to add an extra foot of height. You can set up a camera anywhere, between a few inches off the ground up to 6 ft, a range usually not possible in one tripod. This makes the system flexible, which is what location shooting is all about.

The Optimount is a very useful gadget. It has a universal mount that can be attached just about anywhere. Sure, you can attach it to the GO! Tripod to achieve a lower camera position, but you can also easily and quickly attach it to a chair, a table, scaffolding, tree branch, car door or roof rack (the possibilities are endless). It’s so small, you can toss it in your bag and not worry about hauling extra weight, but it’s there when you need it.”

A sweet video from the instructors who led the Digital Photo Academy’s New York Trek-Tech Trek.

Jeff Revell the PhotoWalkPro - Photograph by Robert Klimkiewicz, Jr

Jeff Revell, the PhotoWalkPro, gave the TrekPod GO! Pro a workout on his Washington, DC stint of the Worldwide Photo Walk. He just published a review and it’s making us blush.

You can read Jeff’s whole review but here’s his bottom line: “The Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro is an incredibly versatile piece of photo equipment that will really come in handy for anyone that enjoys hiking and photography.”

“There are three kick-butt features that really make the TrekPod unique.  First off, there’s the quick-release system. The system is fast, secure, and incredibly solid.

The quick-release system is perched on another great feature of the TrekPod, a ballhead.  The big problem with most monopods is that you have to tilt the staff to aim your camera.  With the ballhead, you simply turn the lever on the side to loosen the ball and then point your camera at your subject and re-tighten the lever.  I use a ballhead on most of my tripods and having it on the TrekPod just adds a new level of functionality to the system.

Okay, so the quick-release and the ball head are pretty cool but this last feature is what really caught my eye and made this a piece of equipment that I would definitely take on a photowalk.  On the bottom segment of the staff is a piece of Velcro that, when released, let me spread out a small set of tripod legs that supported the rest of the pod and let me use it for my group shot.  See, I hate carrying a tripod on photowalks because the only time I use it is for the group shot.  Having these small legs on the bottom of the pod kept it functional as a stand-alone support for my camera and still useful as a walking stick/monopod.

The Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro is an incredibly versatile piece of photo equipment that will really come in handy for anyone that enjoys hiking and photography.  The quick-release system allows for quick and easy transformation from walking staff to monopod and back again.  When deployed, the tripod legs add a huge measure of stability to the staff and, while not as flexible as a full-blown tripod, it is usable for situations where you need more stability or even a group shot of your photowalk group.  The TrekPod Go! Pro is available directly from Trek-Tech for $229.99.  If you have been considering purchasing a monopod, or even a hiking staff, you should give some serious consideration to the TrekPod Go!”

Thanks for the kind words Jeff.

Photograph by Daniel Fox - The Wild Image Project

I got the chance to meet Daniel Fox, the man behind the Wild Image Project, last Friday at the PushDot Studio in Portland. Daniel is a photographer and adventurer who is traveling the world and photographing the last truly wild places, mostly from his kayak. I spoke to him about his vision of blending art, environmental activism and adventure. You can track Daniel’s Wild Image Project trek on Kontain.

We also chatted about the gear he uses and the gear we make at Trek-Tech. From there one thing led to another. Daniel will be using the TrekPod XL carbon fiber - hiking staff, monopod and tripod - on the next leg of his expedition to Argentina. He will also be putting an Optera flexible tripod to the test. The Optera will be lashed to the deck of his kayak. His point and shoot camera, which he uses to shoot video of his adventures, will be clamped with a MagMount. We’ll let you know how it all works.

Daniel Fox - The Wild Image Project