Some are designed to double as walking sticks when there??™s no camera mounted
on top??”ideal for hiking. Disadvantage: They??™re not good for freezing the action when
you use long shutter speeds.
?– Beanbag support Instead of carrying a long tripod or monopod, you might instead
consider propping the camera on top of a beanbag. Beanbags are handy because they can
conform to the shape of the camera as well as to the shape of whatever you??™re placing
the camera on. As I mentioned in Chapter 6, if you don??™t have a beanbag, improvise. As
a scuba diver, for instance, I always have bags of soft weights when I go on dive trips.
They??™re filled with small beads of lead shot, and aside from being a lot heavier, they act
a lot like beanbags. You can buy custom camera-ready beanbags with tripod mounts built
in, like The Pod (www.thepod.ca, shown below), or get adapters that help you set
176 How to Do Everything: Digital Camera
your camera more securely on a standard beanbag, such as ones sold by Wimberley
(www.tripodhead.com). Disadvantage: Beanbag supports typically force you to put your
camera on top of a table, on a fencepost, or on the ground??”they don??™t give you a lot of
flexibility to shoot anywhere, at any height.
Choose a Tripod
If you??™re interested in using a tripod, you can probably make do with almost any model.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268