It took me a while to feel comfortable using a tripod, but now that I’ve come to really like it I find it’s one more thing I have to tote around with me when out taking photos. I started looking around for different ways to carry one comfortably and found a wide variety of straps, bags, and backpacks. Like so many things in photography, there is no one perfect answer. Every solution creates a yin-yang counter-action or problem as a natural, unavoidable result of the chosen solution.

While bags and backpacks might be good for long hauls, they don’t make it easy for quick setup should a fleeting opportunity present itself. Straps are an option, but if you also have your camera and a long lens on another strap, it’s just one more thing to get tangled up in.

I searched the web and various forums and found this article, The Fine Art of Carrying a Tripod,  by Bob Johnson at Earthbound Light. While it didn’t help me make a final decision, it is definitely entertaining and covers just about every conceivable method including “the shoulder perch” and “the antenna”.

For now, it looks like I’ll try to find a comfortable strap and use the bag that came with one of those folding canvas lawn chairs.