I hadn’t ventured outside with my tripod since the first day moving back to NY eight years ago. I learned very quickly that New Yorkers are tolerant of most things, but not having their path blocked by a tripod. I had heard of people carrying bean bags to support their cameras and thought, what a great idea. So I went to B&H and bought one.

I bought the OmniPod beanbag camera support. It worked great when I was using it to take long shots of the interior if I had something solid, like a railing or counter, to balance it on. Most of the following shots were exposed for a few seconds and it seem to hold the camera steady. I did notice that sometimes the bag would creep a bit if I didn’t have it fully set.

One of the cool things is that, with a shutter release cable, I could tuck the camera in hidden away corners and other odd stashes, but because I couldn’t tell if the shot was level or not because I couldn’t fit my head in he crack to check the viewfinder. But with a little practice I was able to get semi straight shots of what I intended.

The downside is it adds a few more pounds, and another clump of mass, to my already-heavy bag. I’m sure it was the cold, but my shoulders were killing me when I got home.