![\"Tripod](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/me-at-farmington-shooting-9684.jpg\" "\\"me-at-farmington-shooting-9684\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0Tripod shooting at the Great Salt Lake wetlands<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Tripod shooting is certainly not my typical method of photographing\u00a0birds.\u00a0 My best estimate is that less than 10% of my bird photography is from a tripod.\u00a0 When circumstances demand it however there’s simply no substitute for a sturdy but relatively lightweight tripod and a gimbal style head, especially for shooting birds in flight with my large, heavy lens.\u00a0 Some folks are able to hand hold this lens for hours on end and get spectacular results.\u00a0 I can’t, partly due to back problems.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Lens Cart<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Because of back problems I can’t carry my heavy lens, camera body, tripod and associated gear further than about a mile.\u00a0\u00a0 To help solve that problem I came up with this lens cart.\u00a0 It’s a\u00a0 pull-type golf cart that I modified to be able to carry my heavy 500mm lens with attached body in the pack and my tripod with Wimberly head attaches under the “tongue” of the cart.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s room in the pack for other assorted gear and I often hang a water bottle and extra body with my 100-400mm zoom to the pack.\u00a0 It’s very light and pulls effortlessly.\u00a0 The wheels are large enough to\u00a0handle fairly rough terrain.\u00a0\u00a0 The main limitation of this outfit is that it can’t negotiate tall vegetation or narrow paths between trees.\u00a0 Without this cart some of my favorite birding spots would be unavailable to me.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n My typical method of photographing birds<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This is how I do most of my shooting – from my truck.\u00a0 A vehicle makes a wonderful mobile blind for photographing birds.\u00a0 The advantages are many – most birds\u00a0 are much less afraid of a vehicle (even an incredibly red one like mine)\u00a0than they are of someone on foot, you can cover significantly more territory looking for birds in a vehicle than you can walking in a given amount of time, you don’t have to wait\u00a0for the birds to approach you – instead, you can\u00a0approach them, and\u00a0you can keep relatively warm even on the\u00a0coldest winter day.\u00a0 This method works very well for me because much of my shooting is done in wetland areas\u00a0interspersed with\u00a0dirt or gravel roads.\u00a0 However, this method does have some limitations – roads must go where you want to\u00a0photograph and the angles and directions you can\u00a0point your lens\u00a0are limited since you’re shooting through the window.\u00a0 Believe me, I’ve done some very creative\u00a0(crazy) driving to get access to a bird through my window with light coming from\u00a0the right direction.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Using a “noodle” instead of a bean bag<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n I’ve never liked bean bags for shooting from vehicle windows for a variety of reasons with the primary reason being problems with flight shots.\u00a0 In my experience, when trying to follow a bird flying horizontally with the lens resting on a bean bag, the large surface area of interaction between lens and bean bag causes too much drag and jumpiness – resulting in a high percentage of missed or blurry images.\u00a0 One thing I tried, and liked, was “pipe-wrap” – that tubular foam insulation for water pipes.\u00a0 I found it worked fairly well but didn’t last long – it broke down from the weight of\u00a0 the lens and would often blow off the window even at slow speeds.\u00a0 My good friend Mia suggested I try a Noodle – those tube-shaped foam swimming pool toys kids use to beat each other up.\u00a0 When cut to length, slit lengthwise to fit over the window and covered with colored duct tape to hide the neon colors and prevent slight squeaking they’re absolutely wonderful as a window shooting platform for large lenses.\u00a0 They’re cheap, very durable, light and easy to take on and off the window, they fit tightly over the window so they don’t blow off and even conform to the windows curve and can be left in place when driving with the window mostly up.\u00a0 Best of all, the action is smooth when following a bird in flight.\u00a0 They come in different diameters but I prefer 2 1\/2″.\u00a0 I’m never without my noodle!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Lens caddy mounted to my pickup console<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 One of the problems with using a big, heavy and very expensive lens when you’re driving on rough dirt roads is how to secure it safely and still have it available for instant use.\u00a0 When I first started shooting birds with a smaller lens it wasn’t at all unusual for the camera and lens to go crashing to the floor when racing around bumpy dirt roads trying to anticipate where a harrier or eagle would go next and I certainly didn’t want that to happen with the 500mm.\u00a0 So I built the “lens caddy”.\u00a0 It fits securely into the seat console when it’s down but simply lifts out when I’m not shooting.\u00a0 The camera and lens are held securely at three points – under the camera, under the midpoint (with hood) of the lens and at the lens plate.\u00a0 Camera and lens are held very securely (I’ve never had them come out even over very rough roads) but when I want to shoot they simply lift out – there’s nothing to detach.\u00a0 There’s no wear points on either camera or lens because I have felt pads at all contact points (you can see the edge of one of them where the caddy touches the lens).\u00a0 I’ve been using the caddy for three years now and couldn’t be happier with it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n