Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Working with real big lenses is fun, but often troublesome. Handholding with image stabilisation can help, but only until your arms get tired, which is where the trusty tripod steps in to give you a solid foundation on which to rest your lens.
But even when working with tripods, the view can sometimes be a little unsteady. In this video, wildlife and nature photographer Steve Perry offers us a few tips to help improve stability when using big long lenses on tripods.
Polaroid has devolved from one of the most commanding photography companies in the world to a label that gets slapped on third party accessories in an attempt to sell at least something.
Proving this further is the release of a brand new portable Polaroid Panorama Eyeball Head, designed to simplify the process of taking panoramic stills and video through the use of a remote.[Read More…]
Every once in a while someone talks about the violence in the realm of photography. We talk about the images used to ‘shoot’ photos, or ‘take’ photos, and if we’re lucky our gear can ‘fire’ 14 fps.
This incident, though, takes it to a whole new level and while many photographers carry a Canon around with them, one photographer in Pennsylvania was suspected of carrying an actual machine gun.
Turns out someone noticed a person walk into an office building with what looked like a machine gun and called 911.
A clamp is one of those few pieces of gear that will divide your life in two; before and after you got one.
Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but it really is a must-have piece of kit in any photographer’s or filmmaker’s camera bag.
In this next video Griffith Hammond shares with us nine of the ways he uses the ‘most versatile piece of gear’, the clamp.
Rather than just compile a list Griffin shares with us examples from various assignments, including some he did for Bloomberg. These are all real life scenarios that will help you realize you need one (or another one) of these in your bag as well.
When I type the word ‘Nikon’, what comes to mind? Cameras, optics and maybe speedlights? Whatever your answer was, I have a feeling it didn’t include tripods.[Read More…]
Many years ago as a newly qualified civil engineer I went to my first proper site knowing everything!! My new boss was much cleverer. I spent 6 months as a chainman helping a proper engineer, I walked miles carrying a huge wooden tripod and a bloody great wooden box containing a theodolite; I really hated them and severely abused them whenever possible, all to no avail as they were still there and working next day.
After starting a degree course in photography and obtaining some very expensive gear I bought a Manfrotto tripod for £150, although I never felt happy with my gear sitting on this on the rocks, or up a mountain in a gale on the west coast of Ireland.
A decision was made to combine the rigidity and strength of the theo legs with a quick release head for my cameras.
Who doesn’t love a good hack? Kai is here to share a handful of some of his favorite hacks as he shows you how easier ways to transport your tripod, create bokeh kits without having to cut tiny shapes out of paper, and support your camera without a tripod, along with a few other tricks. Some of the hacks have been around for a while, and some of them the majority of you will never find the need to try–but, with Kai’s dashing sense of humor, even if you will never try one of the hacks, you’ll at least have a good laugh while you’re learning about them.
Here you go:
A monopod made from string and a bolt is an old photographers trick that can help to eliminate vertical movement and greatly reduce horizontal movement while taking photos. While it’s not necessarily a full time replacement for a tripod, the handy DIY project can certainly help you out in a bind when you need stabilization but cannot use a tripod, plus it hardly uses up any space in your gear bag.[Read More…]
There are a lot of panning heads out there, ranging from cheap and light all the way to uber-expensive and heavy duty. None did a decent job with a D800 mounted with a Nikon 400mm f2.8 beast. This is the story about a building a dedicated motorized Pan-Tilt-Head, used for automated panoramic shooting, if you’re not sure what those are check out our world biggest Where is Waldo project.
You can find out more about John on his website or follow him on Facebook and YouTube.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
