A little help when carrying your tripod...

[Chayelle]

Our big lens (500) with tripod can get a bit heavy when I sling them over my shoulder...my 300 does get heavy too on the tripod...but maybe I'm just getting old...
anyway...
There are a lot of things out there for sale, but they seemed pretty thin to me.
I have tried football shoulder pads, pads used for shin guards, but the sticky spray only worked for one use, and it is slippery...
So I found some really soft rectangle-shaped kneeling pads at K-Mart in the garden center. (Liked K-Mart better than Walmart or Target because they were thicker and softer.)
I used two and glued them together, but I suppose some strong shoulders could probably use one.
(I even tried folding the one and that works, except when you want to get the rig further back away from your neck.)
Then took some wide velcro, stuck one side to the top of these kneeling pads by the hand grip (on both sides of the pads). Then I took a thinner "second" side velcro and threaded it thru the tripod mount and back to the other side of the kneeling pad. Very simple, inexpensive, but very helpful when I need to carry and rig on my shoulder.

Made these several months ago, and have found they really help when hiking.
Hope this can help someone else...

 

[gadgetguy11]

I am really interested in this, and i suspect others are, as well. I was considering football shoulder pads...

Could you post some photos of your suggestion when you get the time?

Thanks for the post!

 

[Chayelle]

Sorry it took so long...

I am really interested in this, and i suspect others are, as well. I was considering football shoulder pads...

Could you post some photos of your suggestion when you get the time?

Thanks for the post!

This is a first to post photos so here goes...
I don't have a page with url, just pics from my hard drive...
how do I post them?

 

[BostonRott]

You need to have space on a webpage somewhere. Not sure who is around that is free, but I'll bet there are people here who can help you with that. :smile:

 

[Clix Pix]

For free hotlinking hosting, try Photobucket or Flickr....

 

[Chayelle]

Thanks Gretchen and Connie...
I will check it out

 

[catspj]

This sounds really helpful Cheryle. Walking through the woods in search of critters for a couple of hours with any body and lens is tough on the shoulders. I have one of those pads home. Im just not sure where exactly on the tripod you are threading the velco through.

Love the ivory billed avator

 

[Chayelle]

If anyone would like to receive an email with photos, I would send them...

But I am not certain about signing up with these photo services...

 

[Chayelle]

"Im just not sure where exactly on the tripod you are threading the velco through."

Sandra...

Your ball head or wimberley will attach to a part on the tripod.
This part has a stem which protrudes down into the leg area...
The long strip of velcro threads behind the strip and then out again.
The strip starts at the pad handgrip, then re-attaches to the other side of the pad handgrip.
Hope that helps...

 

[Ghunger]

Another option. No sign up required. You can upload any size and if you select the resize image check box and 800x600 it will be sized well for the forum.

http://imageshack.us/

 

[Chayelle]

"http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/"

Gregg... thanks for this upload site.
It is fairly fast and uploads so many pics at a time.

Thanks to everyone who helped me try to download these to this forum.
Hope they help...
If anyone needs a better view just let me know.
Now that I have this upload site, it is a snap!!!!

Here is the first picture...in no particular order...

 

[Chayelle]

This shot shows the camera and tripod carried on the pads

 

[Chayelle]

These are two of the knee pads, purchased from K-Mart garden shop, which
were not glued together...

 

[Chayelle]

This pic shows the velcro attached to one side of the pad...
the other side has the same velcro attachments...

 

[Chayelle]

This shows more of how the pads are attached:

 

[Chayelle]

The bottom of the small velcro strap attaches to the back of the knee pads then wraps around:

 

[Chayelle]

Hope they help someone,

they make toting this rig around a lot easier for us...
Very inexpensive too...

If you notice something a bit strange in these pics...
I used my fisheye lens

 

[gadgetguy11]

Chayelle,

Thank you for posting these photos of the shoulder "Pain Reducer" setup! I can see what you did clearly. This is a very good idea, inexpensive, and stays with the tripod when not on your shoulder, which is great!!

Good idea, and thanks for sharing!!

 

[Chayelle]

Brian...
thanks for your help with image shack!!!
Now maybe I can upload even more to this forum!

I hope the pictures work for you...let me know if you need others for a clearer explanation...

Cheryle

Another option. No sign up required. You can upload any size and if you select the resize image check box and 800x600 it will be sized well for the forum.

http://imageshack.us/

 

[Chayelle]

Shoulder Pain Reducer setup!!

Chayelle,

Thank you for posting these photos of the shoulder "Pain Reducer" setup! I can see what you did clearly. This is a very good idea, inexpensive, and stays with the tripod when not on your shoulder, which is great!!

Good idea, and thanks for sharing!!

Shoulder Pain Reducer setup!! Yep, great name for this jimmi-rig!

BTW, when we glued these together we used contact cement...forgot to mention that. (Pete asked me if I told everyone what kind of glue we used, so yes...)
:smile: