For more details and another video on the Induro Hi-Hat Tripod, check out the Induro site. Stay tuned for breaking news regarding the features and availability about the most-anticipated Induro product yet!

Marine also writes about the Hi-Hat, “This is one of those products that has actual production people in mind when it is being designed. Not only can this guy take literally any camera that’s currently being produced, but it has an accessory arm for all sorts of different purposes.”

The buzz is definitely mounting about this model since it was unveiled at NAB. Several photographers were offering large sums of cash for the display models. We’re very excited to be releasing this model in the next two to three months. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks to Joe and nofilmschool.com for the early coverage.

While living in Hawaii as a college student, his mother gave him a Canon Digital Rebel. “I could see I had an eye, but I could tell I was far away from being a good photographer,” he recalls. This was the beginning of his career as a photographer. Being a writer of software, he’s very technical, but photography gives him “the opportunity to be both technical and artistic at the same time,” he feels.

How often do you see eye contact like this in a wildlife photo? ©Ali Elhajj

The nonprofit he runs is called Bethlehem Christmas Project, which goes to Palestine and Israel to deliver Christmas gifts to orphans, special needs children, and children with post-traumatic stress. In this way, BCP attempts to unite Palestinians and Israelis. “When you’re over there, there are times there’s shots you have to just nail,” Elhajj says. “You may not be in that moment again, or you may not see that place you’re currently at, so to be able to capture the moment became very important very quickly, and that’s when I started to really dig in and understand photography as a science. To understand the nuances of the aperture and film speed is everything.”

Elhajj is self-taught. He began with reading his camera manuals, then bought a few books, then read tutorials online. Relentless experimenting, he feels, helped craft the style he’s shooting in a the moment. “My style tends to be pretty dramatic,” Elhajj says. “I really gravitate to these moments between the real and the surreal, or when something is about to happen.”

©Ali Elhajj

Stressing the difference between shooting what you want and what you might shoot to pay your bills is an important factor for photographers to decide every day, Elhajj feels. “Sticking to your guns really gives you that freedom to decide what you want to do as a photographer,” he says. “You’ll make more mistakes, but it is much more rewarding, I think, and much more exciting.”

Living in Florida has helped shape an aesthetic Elhajj is partial to. “I live in Wintergarden, which is a very picturesque, sort of historic downtown, and that helps me quite a bit,” he says. “It’s such a beautiful place to shoot with so many opportunities.” The ever-changing light of Florida has also helped foster his interest in HDR imaging. The surreal vibe appeals to his out-of-the-ordinary aesthetic and Elhajj’s interest in all things technical continue to keep him experimenting with HDR.

©Ali Elhajj

“Because I gravitate towards the surreal, I saw you can create that with HDR,” he explains. “It is highly-technical. A lot of post-production has to happen, and you could easily overdo it. I love it because I am technical and very obsessive. I have that OCD sort of thing. I’m a perfectionist at heart. HDR just sort of requires that type of mindset. I love the process, but it’s not just about the process for me. It’s about, ‘I can show something here you have not seen before,’ and that’s what I like about it.”

A few months ago Elhajj spent six hours at NASA. He got to see the crawler, the massive vehicle which moved shuttles to their launch pad. He also spent considerable time in the vehicle assembly building where he shot the Endeavor. These photographs have brought him a considerable amount of attention.

©Ali Elhajj

Shooting a Canon EOS 50D as his main body, and favors a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens and an EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. Skipping the Canon EOS 7D, Elhajj will be getting a new Canon EOS 5D Mark III. He uses Think Tank bags.

To keep his gear steady, which is absolutely necessary for HDR, Elhajj uses an Induro AT213 tripod. “I’m really excited about that tripod,” he says. “I recommend them over [just] about any other product out there. If someone says, ‘Hey, what’s the best bang for your buck?’ or ‘What’s something you really recommend,’ that tripod is easily the first.”

©Ali Elhajj

Initially unfamiliar with Induro, Elhajj was unsure the tripod would give him the stability he needed. “It’s really solid,” he says. “When I first bought it my expectations weren’t super high because they were a new brand. It’s exceeded every expectation I had. I really do like it quite a bit. I’ve used it in the Middle East, at the Daytona 500, and everywhere in between.” He currently has a Manfrotto 498RC2 ballhead mounted on it, which he owned before getting the tripod.

His blog contains some beautiful examples of his work, plus tutorials and tips many new photographers will find useful. With images spanning the globe, his subject matter lends itself to different degrees of HDR. His non-HDR wildlife shots span a wide range of species. From the vivid colors of HDR to black and white, Elhajj shoots what he wants, and this is a good thing for photography fans.

©Ali Elhajj

Ali Elhajj blog
Ali Elhajj on Twitter
Ali Elhajj on Google+

Written by Ron Egatz

A random drawing will be held in which you can win the above Joe Brady original panoramic print of Monument Valley measuring 80 x 24 inches!

No entry fee required. If you wish to enter, please follow these simple steps.

1. Follow Induro on Twitter, @InduroTripods.
2. Tweet the following sentence exactly (without quotation marks): “I entered to win an 80 x 24″ print of Monument Valley from @InduroTripods and @kixnkeys. Enter here: http://bit.ly/Je0S8T“
3. Attend the seminar to be held on Thursday, April 19, 2012.
4. Fill out a short survey after the seminar.

Once a winner is chosen and announced, Joe will personalize and sign the print before shipping.

4/19/2012 1:00pm EDT

LIVE VIDEO SEMINAR:
Join host Joe Brady for this live video webinar on tools and techniques to create panoramic landscape images. Learn how to capture the best images possible in preparation for stitching together in Photoshop with the least amount of editing possible.

Joe will cover the basic technical issues of lens selection, color and exposure and help to simplify the more complex issues of nodal points and hyperfocal distance so that you can create stunning panoramic images with consistent focus and tone while keeping all of the foreground and background elements lined up.

If you want to improve your results with this type of photography that can be both fun and full of impact, join us for this free live video session.

Here are some of the topics that will be covered:

• Tripods and Tripod Heads for Panoramics
• Nodal Point rotation for clean foreground and background element stitching
• Measuring exposure for panoramics
• Lens Selection
• An Introduction to the advantages of Large Sensor DSLRs

Update:
Here is the link for the archived Webinar. Thanks to all who attended!

Carey’s review is fairly comprehensive and lists specs for both the tripod and head. He puts both pieces of Induro gear through some real world outdoor photography, including inverting the head so he can do some macrophotography on the ground in the forest. Carey has also posted the below video, which demonstrates the panning of his Induro test gear.

Carey concludes with good things to report about his review models. “Returning the Induro PHQ3 head and CT214 tripod tugged at my heart,” he writes. Citing the light weight of the carbon fiber tripod and versatility of the head, he explains the use of both was “comfortable and easy.” Thank you, Peter.

Look for more from Peter West Carey on our blog when he returns from his latest excursion. He hosts photo tours in Bhutan, Nepal, and India. More details can be found at Digital Photography School. His site has quality information very well organized. Don’t miss this valuable resource which covers photography tips and tutorials, cameras and equipment, and postproduction lessons.

Zwit writes the reason he carries a big Induro CT414 tripod and the Induro BHL3 ballhead is because, “The combination provides me the sturdiest platform for capturing the sharpest image possible regardless of which camera and lens I am using for the shot.”

Giving details about the type of glass he’s packing, the use of other tripods of varying mass, he says his Induro gear is, “built better than any of its competition.”

Thanks much, Brian. We’re glad you’re happy with your current Induro gear. Hope to hear more when you make that move to the CT214 or CT213!

Citing price and build-quality, Comtois explains his reasons for purchase, some of the standout features, and how he feels about his Induro gear.

In part, he writes, “I already have an Induro carbon fiber tripod and I knew the quality of that product was second to none, so I had no reason to suspect the ball-head would be any different. Reasonably priced as compared to RRS Ball-head which I considered, the BHL-3 had everything I wanted.”

He concludes with:

“If you are in the market for new gear and are looking for high quality products built in the USA, check out the line of Induro gear for yourself and see how it compares. I am extremely pleased with my purchase.”

Thanks, Patrick. Enjoy your new ballhead, and congrats!

©George Tenney

Tenney became hooked on photography after high school, and is primarily self-taught. In 1991, a friend was working as a photojournalist for a small paper in Southern California, and soon called Tenney with a job offer. Tenney accepted, and eventually moved within the corporation to shoot for a sister publication in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. “I worked pretty hard as a photojournalist out there,” he recalls. “That was a real crash course in photography, being the only photographer at the daily. I kind of learned how to tell stories with images back then. That was something very career-shaping for me. I still approach things the same way and a lot of the questions I ask to figure out what works and what doesn’t kind of come from that on-the-job training I got back then.”

©George Tenney

Transitioning to Denver, Tenney left behind the daily paper grind for a job with a business journal doing corporate-type assignments such as environmental portraits of executives. In the late 1990s, he moved back to Phoenix and took a job with Honeywell. The benefit to this was working more in a studio setting and concentrating on glamour photography of industrial products and settings. Tenney quickly realized how much he enjoyed this type of work, and it continues to be a mainstay of his business.

©George Tenney

Learning quite a bit in a short period of time, Tenney loved this subject matter. He began to focus his marketing efforts on dramatic images of industrial scenes. This led to architectural shoots and automotive jobs. He now frequently specializes in capturing products in their gritty, natural settings.

It’s no small feat to make an industrial product look slick and attractive in the environment it was built to be used in. Tenney is influenced by the locations he often finds himself shooting in. “I like being up close and personal, looking at things in that in-your-face kind of way sometimes,” he says.

©George Tenney

Pointing to his shots of the ground-penetrating radar unit as a perfect example, Tenney was attracted to the natural patterns in the concrete floor, and realized it would make an ideal backdrop for the product itself. “Digital photography has kind of changed the way I look at things like that,” he says. “There’s a little bit of Photoshop enhancement going on in that image, too. I mess with the contrast to really bring out that texture. I look for those opportunities to apply those digital techniques. Another thing I really like about those types of products—that ground penetrating radar, for example—it’s all this stuff that you’ve never heard of. No one’s really bothered to take any cool pictures of at all, not even the manufacturers.”

Relishing the opportunity to go into areas no professional photographer has gone, Tenney sees industrial niches as both underserved and artistically challenging. As he explores these clients and their venues, he has modified his workflow over the years. “I used to drag in hundreds of pounds of lighting to do interiors,” he says. “Now I rely a little more heavily on my small Nikon strobes—my little army of those things I’ve got. They’re so much more portable and just as effective in a lot of these situations.”

©George Tenney

Tenney is shooting a Nikon D700 as his main body. He’s partial to it for low-light shooting, such as the jet taxiing and taking off. “It was about 9 P.M.,” he recalls. “I was at the extreme end of what I think was possible, shutter speed-wise and ISO settings. I was wondering if it was actually going to work. I thought the results were brilliant—certainly something you never could have done with film.”

Nikkor 17-35mm, 35-70mm, and 70-200mm zooms are the only lenses Tenney relies on. “I don’t have any need for anything wider or anything longer,” he says. An older set of Dynalites illuminates his shots. He uses RadioPoppers to trigger his lights. An old Minolta 4F is his lightmeter.

©George Tenney

An Induro CT414 tripod is often employed by Tenney. “It’s the only one I rely on,” he says. With some of his images, such as car shoots, Tenney composits 20 or 30 photos to get the effect he seeks. “A rock-solid tripod is what I need. If that thing moves a couple of millimeters, then it really creates headaches. A lot of stuff has to be redone if the images are not lined up just perfectly. It creates a post-production headache. That was one of the main reasons I finally broke down after a lot years with an old aluminum tripod and wanted something stiffer. My experience cycling made me think I needed a carbon fiber tripod, because when I changed to a carbon fiber-framed bike, I was like, ‘This is good stuff.’ I wanted a carbon fiber tripod, so I bought those legs. I can’t even tell you how important it is to keep that camera rock-solid. It has to stay still for a few hours while we capture all the images. With interior photography, I do so much of that, kind of in an HDR-way these days. I do a lot of multiple exposures and put them together. If you haven’t got a rock-solid set of tripod legs, you’re pretty much out of business there. Those are the two main places I think those things come into play. I don’t travel without them.”

©George Tenney

A feature Tenney likes on his Induro tripod is “the twist-locking system,” he says. “I remember years ago I had a Gitzo tripod and it was always a headache if you over-tightened one section of legs. You had those two or three twist locks, and if one was twisted too tight you couldn’t twist the other out. That way you couldn’t extend the legs the way you wanted. The Induro is set up so if you twist, the legs don’t actually rotate—they’re locked in with some kind of a channel to keep them from spinning, so the twist locks work just fantastic.”

©George Tenney

Telling stories within his vertical market is what keeps this photographer motivated and makes him stand out. Tenney continues to bounce back and forth between Arizona and New Jersey, servicing clients of all kinds. His specialty, though, is real-life products used in heavy industry. If you own, work in, or do marketing for a business where burly men wrangle big toys anywhere in the country, George Tenny can deliver the images you need.

George Tenney Photography
George Tenney blog
George Tenney on Twitter

Written by Ron Egatz

Smith recently posted some great shots of himself in action with his Induro CT214 tripod. He seems to really be enjoying the short center column. A few photos have him with his camera mere inches off the ground. From wind, ice and snow to cozy studio shoots, it looks like this soldier really puts the CT214 through its paces.

Don’t miss the series of Afghanistan photos by this modern day Joe Rosenthal. Keep up the great shots, Andrew—and, of course, thank you for your service!