Large format and the pontoon boat

[Ole]

Back in the really old days when film was slow and cameras heavy, they used a trick which is somewhat similar to what you see on my avatar: The heavier the camera, the less it shakes (up to a limit). There was one ship's photographer who added several pounds of lead to his camera to make it heavier for hand-held shooting...

[David A. Goldfarb]

I like the Clyde Butcher solution. I think he has a 12 foot fiberglass surveyor's tripod and a tall ladder that he can use in the swamps.

[David A. Goldfarb]

There was one ship's photographer who added several pounds of lead to his camera to make it heavier for hand-held shooting...

A good impoverished film student trick that I've seen for handheld shooting with a lightweight camera is to use a monopod (not resting on the ground) with a 5 pound barbell weight on the bottom.

[df cardwell]

I used to bolt a chunk of brass to the base of my Leica when I shot theatre. Worked as described.

Helen: I was kidding about the gyro stabilizer.
Peter: I was kidding about the gyro stablizer.

There is always a place where it pays to change film size. When the water's too deep to sink legs, then 120 gives you almost two stop of shutter speed, which gives you 1/4 the motion blur.

On the other hand, with judicious development, in particular reduced agitation, you can always push TMY 2 stops ! No real grain increase, while keeping a long straight line !

[resummerfield]

I'll second David's idea of the monopod. Just sink an appropriately long 2x4 into the water till it touches bottom, and place the camera on it handheld.

[herb]

One of my best shots of all time was taken out of a moving motor boat with a speed graphic. It is not razor sharp, but people like it better than any of my others, it sells before anything. I can't remember the film, probably super XX or Royal pan, and a pretty fast shutter speed.

And- it was hand held. I took it in the 50's

[Charles Webb]

For what it is worth, I once had to shoot interior construction damage photo's in a water filled railroad tunnel. The water was eight feet or so deep, I placed my Davis and Sanford tripod legs into 10 foot sections of electrical conduit. I Paddled a rubber one man raft to the spot, then set up my rig. The regular head worked normally but only supported a B&J 5x7 camera. The tunnel was standard guage, so the make shift tripod legs worked by standing on a nearly flat grade under the water. The conduit was about an inch and three quarters I.D. as I remember and good old 100 mph tape held the two together. I used a simular rig with a ladder at one time to do some telephoto images for the Denver Bronco's. Used 35mm for this however.

[dancqu]

Are you problems transverse or longitudinal or both? Dan

[PeterDendrinos]

Are you problems transverse or longitudinal or both? Dan

What about oblique?

I would expect movement issues to affect all plains. A couple of the above suggestions have me thinking. Ladders and or very tall tripods. Now I’m stuck with where to find such a critter and or exactly what am I looking for. I can see where a tall ladder with a mount on top could come in hand in other places as well. Might have to customize a ladder for a river bed so it does not sink however.

Pete

[glbeas]

What I read of Clyde Butcher, he would set the tripod up on the site he wanted to shoot, weighted down, and leave it for several days so it would settle to a stable point. Must have been a bear pulling it back out of the muck after shooting.