OT - sort of - cheap and light portable tripod

In low light (for instance, think slot canyon) or for group photos with everyone in them, nothing beats a tripod.

If you're like me, your gorillapod, ultrapod, whateverpod is back in the car 'cause it's expensive or heavy or I had a brain lock while packing (the most likely reason) - fill in your own excuse.

I saw this excuse-proof version this morning and thought I'd share. A person could make half a dozen of these for a few bucks, cache one in every pack and always have one at hand.

Instructions here <http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-Tripod/> . Looks like it will attach to most anything. I've used the bolt idea before for a bicycle camera mount - I add a wing nut to tighten against the camera body.

~Rick

Bonus - a few photography tips here <http://androhanwillanswer.wordpress.com/improving-your-photographs/> .

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 11:37 AM, Rick rick@spanel.com> wrote: > In low light (for instance, think slot canyon) or for group photos with > everyone in them, nothing beats a tripod.

Cool! Thanks for the link.

I saw another nifty makeshift tripod idea when I went mountaineering a couple of years ago: one of the guys in our group got one of those black metal paperclips (like this: http://gb.123rf.com/photo_1639424.html) and drilled a small hole through the spine of the clip. Then he put a small bolt with threads that fit his camera through the hole and put a nut on the other side so it wouldn't fall out. Once you have one of these you can clip it to anything to mount your camera. It's especially nice for mountaineering, because you can just stick your ice ax in the snow and clip your camera onto it. Maybe not quite so useful for canyons, considering the lack of trees, bushes, and ice axes in many canyons.

--Bruce