Bossons

"I try to extend my center column minimally as well".

I didn't mean to imply that I use a centre column. I haven't owned a tripod with a centre column in over fourteen years. I shoot with Gitzo 3 and 5 series tripods and RRS and Arca heads. I understand many baulk at the price of Gitzo and RRS, but I make my living from photography and can fully justify the cost.

The point I meant to make was that one should not base a buying decision on such a gimmick.

Amazed by how many that find this tweak to a centre column amazing. The best thing you can do with the centre column is to never extend it or remove it entirely. To maximize the stability of your tripod keep the camera as close to the spider as possible.

I must agree with other contributors that the article covers a number of pertinent topics for a reader that may be new to this area of photography.

However, all but one of the sample landscape photos completely failed to "convey an emotional sense of place" to this viewer. In particular the first photo which was underscored by the statement "A successful landscape photograph conveys an emotional sense of place to the viewer." Surely a professional landscape photographer based on one of the most photogenic islands in north western Europe would be capable of producing a selection of breathtaking shots to illustrate this statement in action.
A number of strong photos would also have added a degree of authority to this article.

Bossons.