When I went on my photo walk with Fred Graham a couple of weeks ago I noticed that he was using a Black Rapid camera strap and an extra battery clip. My nephew, Chip, had one of these straps, and I liked it the first time I saw it. The outing with Fred reinforced how useful this strap could be, so I decided to get one.
At Thanksgiving Chip had also added a hand strap to his DSLR. I could see the utility of that, as well. However, there were a couple of problems with these straps. First, if I used the Black Rapid strap it blocked my tripod point, and it would be a pain to putting it on and taking it off to use the tripod.
I decided to re-engineer the setup with several small swivel clips that I found online. The clips allow for rapid re-configuration of the straps and camera.
I found a plastic loop on the bottom of the hand strap. Adding one of the swivel straps here would let me use both the Black Rapid strap and a tripod quick release.
Time lapse and long exposure shots can eat up batteries, so the spare battery and case will come in handy. With the extra battery case, my larger lens, and the flash, the camera gets huge.
Fortunately, I can trim down those parts as needed. I even added swivel snaps to my OEM Nikon strap. This will allow me to use the smaller strap if I so desire.
Yeah, I know that camera companies moved away from metal clips on the straps in the 1970s because they would bang against the camera and scratch it. I remember seeing nice cameras with duct tape wrapped around the metal swivels to protect the camera. I’m not going that far, and will just see how all this works out. The beauty is that it’s all removable.
Suitable armed, I decided to head out and take some shots of the full moon. Jupiter was hanging close to the moon, and it looked like it could be a great shot. Trees were obstructing my view in my yard, so I grabbed the camera and Celestron C90 telescope and headed up to the church parking lot on the corner. There was a fair amount of light pollution, but I had a good view.
I started just with the 200mm lens. Since the D7000 has such high resolution, I figured I could crop and try to get a sharper image.
The images came out fairly well. Here are a couple, one lighter than the other. Both were processed in Lightroom.
After taking a few shots at 200mm, I changed to the Celestron C90. I used a faster shutter speed, and that seemed to minimize some of the camera blur from shaking that plagued my shots with the D50. This turned out much better.
Now I’m itching to get out and do another photo walk. Maybe this weekend that can happen.