Hand-Held Monopod

If you love to take photographs, like I do, you know that sometimes you need the help of tripods especially if you want yourself captured in the pictures (and none of your friends have the generosity to ask if you want your picture taken after you had just taken the lovely picture of them, the ungrateful sods).

But did you know there are different kinds? I now have three.

(1) The spider tripod. I love this because it’s so small and handy, so I can easily slip it into my tote bag, and it’s so versatile, with legs that can be wrapped around chairs or tree branches or  luggage handles. This has helped me record many a memory.

Spider tripod

My birthday tripod

Just last week, I had a new addition to my ‘pod family…

(3) The hand-held monopod. So-called because it only has one (mono) leg compared to the traditional tripod, this handy dandy gadget acts as an extension of your arms and allows you to take selfies (self portraits).

I first saw one of these bad guys years ago. I was walking downtown when a tourist suddenly posed in front of a building and threw out his camera, which was attached to the end of this gadget, smiled, and took a selfie. I was in awe of the sheer genius of the thing. One of my biggest frustrations when I traveled to Korea by myself for a work-related trip years ago was that I did not have many pictures of myself in Korea which is kind of the point of a trip, I think. Okay, so people might label you as “forever alone tourist” but between being on the receiving end of snide observations and not having any records of those memories at all, I think I’d rather pick the former.

“Forever Alone Tourist”

Then when my friend Chi and her hubby Punch came to Singapore for a vacation last month, they showed us that their fab finds in Funan, one of which was the monopod. They demonstrated how to use it by using it to take a group shot of everyone.

Chi and Punch using their monopod

I knew that I had to get my hands on one, ASAP. Not so much for the solo selfies which I don’t need to do much of since I never really travel solo nowadays, but for the group shots. When I have this, there is no need to take two separate pictures of one big group of people, with two alternating photographers, and then collaging the two pictures later on or something.

Two Saturdays ago, I finally got the chance to get my hands on one. I went to Funan Digitalife Mall with Maya and Gay and I walked into several shops, asking if they had a monopod, till I finally found one in this store called 25 CAM. I forgot which floor this was on, but here is a picture of it.

Actually Chi said there are cheaper versions of this in the Philippines, with CDR King selling them for P150. But I have low EQ so I couldn’t wait that long to buy one. ;P

Proof of my low EQ – I couldn’t even wait long to use the monopod! Mere moments after stepping out of the store, I put it to use and took this picture:

Okay so it looks like I am holding an umbrella handle or something, but I guess there are better ways to angle this thing. Will experiment in the future but in the meantime, I am very happy with my find. 🙂

UPDATE: You can also find one in Beadstreet (White Sands or Orchard Cineleisure) or online in Qoo10. You can find some examples of pictures taken with the monopod here. Below is another one. Genius, no?