maandag 14 maart 2011

DIY Bean bag.

I was looking around for a beanbag for some time, but the prices put me off. So, i thought; "How hard can it be to make one myself??".

First, the needed supplies.

[x] one pair of camouflage pants.

[x] one sowing set.

[x] one big bag of polystyrene pellets.


I cut off one of the trouser legs to serve as the beanbag.



I measured it to my longest lens at the time, the 100-400L.



I then proceded to sow the bottom of the trouserleg shut with a double stitch.

No pics of that, you ask? Yes. No pics of that. Needle and thread isnt my thing, i was too busy swearing and trying not to stab myself with the needle.

When that was done i put a plastic bag inside the trouser leg. It serves as a container for the poly-pellets, and it makes swapping the content of the beanbag easier. (I now use poly-pellets, but i could switch to rice, seeds, whatever is available.)



Filling the beanbag with the pellets is what is known as "the fun part". Again, no pics, but believe me when i say that ones livingroom is easily covered in those white plastic stick to anything bastards.

After the filling, i sew the top of the bag shut, again with a double stitch.

The result of all that hard work;





Total costs;

About €5,- to 7,-

Total time spent;

1.5 hours.

Total time spent vacuuming the escaped poly-pellets;

4 hours.

vrijdag 11 maart 2011

Navigating in the field.

Not really photography related, but...

Ive purchased a SatMap Active 10 last week. Since taking wildlife photos involves being in the great outdoors, i thought it would come in handy. Also for the vacation i have planned this year it should be a very welcome companion.



I swapped the normal AA battery powerpack with a rechargeble NiHM battery, which also makes the device less bulky.



What is it? Well, in a nutshell; Its a GPS thingie where you can load different area maps into. The maps are the well known Ordnance Survey maps, or if you get the dutch maps they are from the Registrars office. Quality guarenteed.

You cant use it for embedding GPS data into a photo, as far as i can tell now.



I bought mine with a 1/50000 map of the Netherlands, and i got a 1/50000 of Wales from the manufacturer. They come on SD cards, that you can very easily swap.



It comes with a pouch that should be very easy to attach to your photobag.

I havent been able to go on a good walk with it, and supposedly i can load the route i took into google maps, but ill get to that when i find time..