My wife does a lot of wildflowers and has a rig which consists of some garden stakes, a sheet of plastic and some clothes pegs. In the field she sets up a wind break with this as needed and it works well. The other thing she has is a Plamp http://www.tripodhead.com/products/plamp-main.cfm which also gets used periodically.
Hey Patrick, I teach macro field workshop and had to come up with a cure for this problem as in Michigan it's winding most every day. I built clear pexiglass boxes that are duct taped together and fold flat for easy carrying. I have an 18"x18" for low spring flowers, and a 30" tall box for the later season and taller field flowers. I couldn't seem to get a picture to post with this comment, but go to my website, www.tinylandscapes.com, and click on the workshops link. Go to the bottom of the page and you'll see one of the boxes in use..
I use translucent white light discs (12" and 18"), a Bogen Super Clamp and sometimes a coat with a couple of small squeeze clamps (like big clothespins).
The light discs are small enough to fit in my camera bag, cheap, and weigh next to nothing. They're great for arranging as wind blocks, as well as diffusers to break harsh light. I mount my ballhead on the Super Clamp, then clamp it to one of the legs of my tripod. This lets me move the camera wherever I want without manipulating the tripod. In doing so, I can clap the coat (or a white t-shirt) to the tripod legs for a larger wind deflector/light difuser. Really handy, flexible, cheap and portable with virtually instant setup.
The plamp is good for holding diffusers, reflectors, holding back some clutter, but when clamping the stem of the flower, the flower petals still blow in the wind, so I've found it ineffectve, unless it's a calm day.
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5 repliesThe light discs are small enough to fit in my camera bag, cheap, and weigh next to nothing. They're great for arranging as wind blocks, as well as diffusers to break harsh light. I mount my ballhead on the Super Clamp, then clamp it to one of the legs of my tripod. This lets me move the camera wherever I want without manipulating the tripod. In doing so, I can clap the coat (or a white t-shirt) to the tripod legs for a larger wind deflector/light difuser. Really handy, flexible, cheap and portable with virtually instant setup.