While planning for my visit to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, I packed my camera bag with the assumption that my tripod would not be welcome at the museum. To stabilize the camera, I packed a Bogen Super Clamp.

My plan was to connect my Markins M-10 ballhead to the Bogen Super Clamp. My camera would then attach to the ballhead as it usually does---making it easy to maneuver it into the desired position. The entire setup could quickly be clamped to a nearby post or railing. The use of a tripod will most likely not be permitted during several of my upcoming photo shoots (e.g., John Hancock Obvervatory, the Rookery, etc.)--so this more creative solution might help me resolve the problem of stabilizing my camera.

Of course, I hardly placed my tripod on the ground before security informed me that the tripod wasn't permitted. I couldn't even carry it with me in the museum. It had to be checked!

But, I had my back-up plan in place. It wasn't quite as easy as I envisioned to get the clamp in a convenient spot, but eventually I got it there. I was able to squeeze off many photographs while getting all of the benefits of having the camera secured in place--low ISO setting of 100, multiple exposures for building HDR images, narrower apertures for greater depth of field, etc.

Contemporary staircaseStaircase designed by Josef Paul Kleihues at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at 220 E Chicago Avenue in Chicago, Illinois on November 19, 2013 As my photo shoot was coming to a close, I was once again approached by security. This time I was told that "clamps are not permitted in the museum"! I was also told that I could not lean over the railing even when hand-holding the camera. Fortunately, I already captured all of the photographs that I intended to capture for the session.