keithfazzani Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Believe or not these days I find getting down on my knees difficult. Well not so much the getting down but the getting back up! Does anyone know of a simple way, using a tripod or similar, to photograph headstones without getting down on one's knees? Probably not, but I thought I'd ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 A tripod and a remote shutter device thingy ( sorry, not sure what they.re called). You would only need to bend over to place the tripod then, and you can press the remote to take the photo, bend over to pick the tripod up again, job done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 I have a similar problem and find that my Nikon P510 bridge camera a good solution. I've been testing it in a local churchyard. The large 3inch LCD can be folded up so that I can use the camera a bit like one of the old twin lens reflex cameras* holding it low and looking down onto it . I have to bend forward a little some times but no kneeling and no green stains on the trouser legs either. * except that the image is the right way round Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 A tripod and a remote shutter device thingy ( sorry, not sure what they.re called). You would only need to bend over to place the tripod then, and you can press the remote to take the photo, bend over to pick the tripod up again, job done! How does he check the image in the viewfinder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Centurion is right - a camera with a fold out screen such as you find on the best compacts, and on most bridge cameras. Than you can view your subject from above. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anneca Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 What about one of those thingies - forgotten the name- looks a bit like a walking stick but opens at the top to provide a temporary seat. If there was one of these, like my husband's walking stick which is height adjustable, you would be flying........or not! Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon1357 Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 My Cannon camera has a movable view screen as mentioned above. I find it works great, no matter what angle I am working with. I stand 6'2" and when in a crowd, I raise the camera up to my arms extent, angle the view finder so I can see. I have managed some pretty interesting photos from a poor vantage point. As described above, for shooting lower subjects such as a headstone, I like to use my tripod at knee level with view finder angled upward so I can see through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Anne.....a shooting stick. I don't have the problem, Keith, for I am an Ayesha. She takes far better photographs than I ever could, and she is far more "arty-farty", having a better eye for a picture. I can well remember, some time ago, her getting down to photo an inscription at Mendingham, and kneeling on a red ant nest. I wouldn't have thought anyone could get so widely bitten so quickly. ("I remember that too.....you still owe me for that!".......Ayesha) As one matures, why does the ground get further away??? Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 But surely with the fold out viewfinders you would have to at least stoop to the level of the head stone, and hold that position, so for anyone with a bad back it wouldn't be so good. Perhaps the answer is a fold out viewfinder on a tripod with a remote shutter switch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 But surely with the fold out viewfinders you would have to at least stoop to the level of the head stone, and hold that position, so for anyone with a bad back it wouldn't be so good. Perhaps the answer is a fold out viewfinder on a tripod with a remote shutter switch not unless your arms are very short and your eyesight very poor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anneca Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Yes, you're right Bruce, a shooting stick that doesn't shoot - reckon one could come in handy on many occasions if it was kept in the car. Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxi Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Keithfazzini As mentioned above, you will find a Shooting Stick to be the best solution as I have seen these being used. Maxi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 Centurion is right - a camera with a fold out screen such as you find on the best compacts, and on most bridge cameras. Than you can view your subject from above. Keith Also available on some of the mirrorless SLRs - some of the Olympus Pens have them so you can use lots of appropriate lenses too Surely with a shooting stick you still are too high up, perhaps a small follding camp stool but these can be almost as difficult to gut up out off as from a kneeling position. Back in the days of the Raj you'd have a camera wallah so you could sit on your shooting stick (or possibly recline in your litter) and point out what you wanted photoed before being wafted back to camp where a G&T would be waiting. In these more enlightened times you have to rely on technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGM Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 I haven't been able to kneel for years and have been using a rucksack with a frame which doubles as a stool. As getting up from this stool was getting harder and harder I added a second, lower stool which I now sit on. Then I lean on the rucksack/stool to lever myself up. I will not be beaten! CGM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asanewt Posted 27 April , 2013 Share Posted 27 April , 2013 If it's really that difficult rising from the kneeling position a gardener's kneeler is brilliant with the vertical braces allowing the arms to assist the dodgy quads/knees. Light, easily transported the better ones being collapsible. A godsend, like spec's, when needed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin14 Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Moveable screen, works really well. Yes you have to scrunch down a bit, but it's better than the up and down of being on your knees, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Bennitt Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Back in the days of the Raj you'd have a camera wallah so you could sit on your shooting stick (or possibly recline in your litter) and point out what you wanted photoed before being wafted back to camp where a G&T would be waiting. In these more enlightened times you have to rely on technology. Having volunteered (never volunteer) I've been commissioned by various Pals to photograph a total of 46 headstones (so far) at Delhi war cemetery. I'm being picked up by our local office driver at the airport and taken straight there when I arrive on Thursday, but I doubt if he'll agree to act as a camera wallah. I've only got a basic camera so guess I'll be in need of more than a G&T when I've finished (the equivalent of WD-40 for the joints perhaps). cheers Martin B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Having volunteered (never volunteer) I've been commissioned by various Pals to photograph a total of 46 headstones (so far) at Delhi war cemetery. I'm being picked up by our local office driver at the airport and taken straight there when I arrive on Thursday, but I doubt if he'll agree to act as a camera wallah. I've only got a basic camera so guess I'll be in need of more than a G&T when I've finished (the equivalent of WD-40 for the joints perhaps). cheers Martin B Somewhere I've got some photos of me at the Red Fort in Delhi taken by my driver so some will do it (or certainly used to back at the end of the last century). Better than G&T the Lancers bar at the Oberoi in (then) Bombay used to serve a very smooth local dark beer confusingly called Black Diamond but I can't remember finding any in Delhi, there are some surprisingly good Indian beers that aren't exported and aren't lagers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithfazzani Posted 28 April , 2013 Author Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Thanks for all the suggestions. My camera does not have a moveable screen so I think it will be the kneeler/stool option, cheaper than a new camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIFFO Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 I myself wiv me shaky knees use a monopod better than a tripod as you can shove it in tight places,as has been suggested a flip up screen is also good when I say tight places I do not mean mr hubbards pockets Biff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 If it's really that difficult rising from the kneeling position a gardener's kneeler is brilliant with the vertical braces allowing the arms to assist the dodgy quads/knees. Light, easily transported the better ones being collapsible. A godsend, like spec's, when needed! If you go through the forum link to Amazon, and put in "kneeler", you get various light-weight gardening devices with handles to push yourself back up, some of which are a seat when used upside down. In my capacity as a professional gardener I have several clients in their 90s and can still do a spot of gardening when using these. Some would find then useful for CWGC gravestone photography I'm sure. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Having volunteered (never volunteer) I've been commissioned by various Pals to photograph a total of 46 headstones (so far) at Delhi war cemetery. I'm being picked up by our local office driver at the airport and taken straight there when I arrive on Thursday, but I doubt if he'll agree to act as a camera wallah. I've only got a basic camera so guess I'll be in need of more than a G&T when I've finished (the equivalent of WD-40 for the joints perhaps). cheers Martin B a few years back an ex-work colleague accompanied her husband to Delhi when he was sent there to try to flog planes for BAE, I asked her if she would get some pictures of the war memorial, her driver thought this was an odd request and only reluctantly agreed but being a strikingly attractive very tall European woman she attracted a large crowd and had to retreat after only 2 pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 28 April , 2013 Share Posted 28 April , 2013 Assuming a fold-out screen (as I have on my Canon bridge), then a monopod will probably be easier to handle than a tripod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anneca Posted 4 May , 2013 Share Posted 4 May , 2013 If you go through the forum link to Amazon, and put in "kneeler", you get various light-weight gardening devices with handles to push yourself back up, some of which are a seat when used upside down. In my capacity as a professional gardener I have several clients in their 90s and can still do a spot of gardening when using these. Some would find then useful for CWGC gravestone photography I'm sure. William William, when I read your post about a "kneeler" I went (through the forum of course) to Amazon and ordered one of these. It arrived yesterday and I tried it out today.........what a wonderful invention, and one which I hadn't heard of before. As Bruce has said "As one matures why does the ground get further away?" Thanks to you, the ground is much closer to me now, enabling me today to tackle the gardening jobs the old bones have had problems with in the past. Many thanks for posting. Regards, Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 4 May , 2013 Share Posted 4 May , 2013 Great! Whether it is for gardening or CWGC gravestone photography, I'm sure that everyone could find a use for one of these. Could be pressed into service as a desperate extra stool for a Christmas dinner when you've invited too many people, and find that even when you've used that dodgy old chair from the spare bedroom, and the stool from the kitchen, you still need another seat. Adds to that fabulously comic everyone-at-different-levels effect. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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