A few weeks ago I started planning an 800 mile motorcycle trip to Yellowstone National Park. I had to think of a good way to pack everything I needed in a minimal amount of space, I only had my saddlebags and whatever I could strap to a bike. I wanted to be able to take a lot of pictures and of course I wanted to be in some of them as well. There aren’t many options for a small stable tripod that will last and I’d seen Gorillapods before but had no idea they could hold an SLR. I figured they were more for point and shoots. I checked out their site and saw they had a variety of products and a few things that would work for me.

I picked up the Gorillapod SLR-Zoom, it holds up to 6.5 pounds and was small enough that I could slip it inside my saddle bags or strap it to my backpack. They have a couple other pods in that same range; The SLR holds about 1.75 pounds (not enough if you want to add lenses to your camera) and the Focus which is more for video cameras and holds up to 11 pounds.

Now the SLR-Zoom is great on its own but I didn’t really want to spend time attaching to my camera to it all the damn time, and it would just be a little to awkward to keep it on and try to carry it around the park, so I picked up the SLR-Zoom Ballhead (yes sex jokes galore I know) as well. The addition of this to the tripod made a huge difference for me, now I could leave the quick release tab on the bottom of my camera and mount it on the tripod whenever I needed it. Plus I got the added advantage of being able to rotate the camera after already setting up the pod in whatever place I needed. The quick release has a level to make sure my shot was straight. And the ballhead allows 90 degree tilt and 360 degree panning with just the twist of a knob ( I know, its so easy, the jokes are right there) Basically this set up became invaluable to me on my trip.

The thing about being the guy with the camera is that I never end up in any of the pictures, but I had to have some of me and my dad on this trip and I ended up getting some pretty good shots and Ive used it a whole lot more since Ive been home. The site shows pictures of the camera in all kinds of cool poses, and I’m sure you can get them that way but most of the stuff I did was done quickly and I still got good shots. I wrapped it around rotting fence posts and on car mirrors and rocks, or just set it on the ground. It made me a bit nervous more than once but it never fell, and its small enough that now whenever I go out with my camera I just stick it through the strap of my camera bag.

If you want to pick one of these up there are a variety of places you can find them, I got mine at a brick and mortar shop the day before I left but you can order from Joby.com themselves, REI, Amazon and most photography sites. The SLR-Zoom on its own was $50 then another $35 for the ballhead (well worth it) after taxes and everything it was about $90. Thats still less than most of your standard aluminum tripods and this is small and versatile enough that I can do anything I need to with it. If you do a lot of hiking or camping and want a great way to take better pictures and maybe do some long exposure shots this is definitely the accessory for you.