Posted by Dan Harbour on June 15, 2008 at 11:18 AM
I see mentioned using a boogie board and beanbag on a mudflat. There is some wicked gumbo mud around here with some nice shorebirds. Can someone give me a little more detail about this technique, Please?
Thanks
Posted by Mia McPherson on June 15, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Dan
I can't speak for Rob Drummond, which is where I think you saw the boogie board mentioned on his recent post, but I have used similar items in the past when taking photos too.
As I am sure you know I often laying flat on wet sand or tidal mud to get my images, and it can be problematic especially in sand because there is a risk of sand getting on or in the camera & lens, plus the possibility of accidentally dropping a camera into the wet mud, sand or even water.
I have at time used my backpack to lay my camera and lens on to take shots if I am worried about the camera & the sand.
If I were to try to low crawl across the tidal flat like I often do the sand to get closer to the birds, I'd use a boogie board too, because you can slide that along with your gear on it. With a bean bag it can act as a tripod to stabilize your lens. You have VR on your 70-300mm so you probably don't need the bean bag, just use your arms on the board as a tripod.
There are gadgets that serve the same purpose and you can buy them (can't recall the brand names), I've heard of some people using converted frying pans and large frisbees.
You get a great low angle while keeping your camera out of the mud or wet sand, but remember your hands have to stay clean too or it can transfer to the camera & lens!
Posted by David Bostedo on June 15, 2008 at 12:48 PM
The nice thing about gadgets is that they accept tripod heads, so you can keep the whole rig really low. Most people call those "ground pods" (although sometimes that means a really short tripod). If you google, you'll find some. Here're a couple of links :
Discussion
2 repliesThanks
I can't speak for Rob Drummond, which is where I think you saw the boogie board mentioned on his recent post, but I have used similar items in the past when taking photos too.
As I am sure you know I often laying flat on wet sand or tidal mud to get my images, and it can be problematic especially in sand because there is a risk of sand getting on or in the camera & lens, plus the possibility of accidentally dropping a camera into the wet mud, sand or even water.
I have at time used my backpack to lay my camera and lens on to take shots if I am worried about the camera & the sand.
If I were to try to low crawl across the tidal flat like I often do the sand to get closer to the birds, I'd use a boogie board too, because you can slide that along with your gear on it. With a bean bag it can act as a tripod to stabilize your lens. You have VR on your 70-300mm so you probably don't need the bean bag, just use your arms on the board as a tripod.
There are gadgets that serve the same purpose and you can buy them (can't recall the brand names), I've heard of some people using converted frying pans and large frisbees.
You get a great low angle while keeping your camera out of the mud or wet sand, but remember your hands have to stay clean too or it can transfer to the camera & lens!
NSN Skimmer Ground Pod
Build Your Own Ground Pod