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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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How and where to take great bird pictures.
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Photographing from car 6 years 11 months ago #1019

  • Doug Castle
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After being frustrated balancing a bean bag on the car side window I discovered this tip on the internet. Purchase pipe insulation material from hardware store (about $5 a metre) and slit it along one side. Cut to length of your car window in its partially wound down position and slot the insulation on. It gives a nice soft cushion for steadying your lens.Buy insulation with smallest inside bore and thickest walls. 1 metre will be enough for two windows.
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Photographing from car 6 years 11 months ago #1020

  • Bruce Terrill
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Hi Doug,
I had been thinking about this for quite a while and when I found one local store wanted 5cents shy of 100bucks for a bean bag used for benchrest shooting that had rabbit ears on it that would sit over the car door, I thought that I better do some more thinking I actually found those cheap foam sticks that they use at swimming pools for flotation devices work well in the same manner but have no internal bore and cling to the window glass really well, AND, you can usually find them in the same, or close, color of your car and they're cheap as chips. . .
Hope I didn't steal your thunder mate, but they are a great idea. . .
Bruce
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Photographing from car 6 years 11 months ago #1021

  • Rob Parker
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Several years ago, there were a couple of articles in our newsletter about beanbag camera supports. The first was an article "Working with Beanbags" from one of our regular contributors back in those days, David Jenkins; this is available in the December 2012 Newsletter (sorry, we don't have the articles from that edition available as separate downloads). The second was a short follow-up article by Jill Wilson in the February 2013 edition with a quick/cheap suggestion.
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Photographing from car 6 years 11 months ago #1022

  • Tony Ashton
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Cheap option I use are secondhand orthopaedic/travellers' horseshoe collars. Not a snug fit over window glass, but cheap and also handy to keep things tidy and safe(r) on car seats.
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Photographing from car 6 years 11 months ago #1023

  • Bruce Terrill
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Great idea Tony, that's really thinking outside the box. . .
I like that idea immensely. Well done
Bruce

Hahahaha, I just saw Jill's idea and I had to run outside and save an exact same bag of rice that was heading for the rubbish collection tomorrow morning.
Lucky that I read this article when I did otherwise I woulda been kickin the cat tomorrow arvo if the rice had've been collected!
Thanks Jill. . .
Bruce

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Last edit: by Bruce Terrill. Reason: additional info. . .
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