does anybody out there use a tripod to take snaps of your catches when you are out alone?
or do you just lay the fish down on the mat/net?

i've always found that fish look so much nicer when they are being held up, as apposed to laying down, but seeing as i cant afford a tripod, i have no other option when out alone. plus tripods are usually large and heavy. (not good for chub stalking.)

somebody should invent something other than a large bulky tripod for taking pics of yourself.

You should be able to buy an adaptor from a tackleshop that will convert a bankstick thread to the same size as the tripod thread on the camera. I think my one cost about £3

Then as long as your camera has a self timer, or even better a remote control you can happily take trophy shots while alone!

Mat

ricey,
You can get tripods that are like , for want of a better description, an extending aeriel on a car or tranny radio.
They push down to about 6 inches, extend to about4 ft high and weigh about 6 oz. You cannot use them with a slr type camera as they are not that stable but they are good for digital compacts and smaller!
Last one I saw cost about 12 squids.
Keith

ah yeah, thats a pretty good idea
my camera does have a self timer, so thats good.

my camera is a bit of a beast.
tis a Minolta Dimage 7i digital SLR

it takes fantastic pics but it would probably need a fairly strong support under it.

plus its my baby and worth a hell of a lot of money, wouldnt want it falling off and rolling down into the merky depths of my local river lol

[ 10. November 2004, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: ricey ]

Ricey forget the self timer mate and get an air release.Not expensive but you can then have total control over when your picture is actually taken.A real bonus with lively fish!

Self photography is really easy it just means taking a bit of time setting it up.

Easiest way is to use an unhooking mat and three spare rod reste.Place the maton the ground,this will be the centre of your shot,use a bank stick to mark the extreme left and right of the shot (check these by looking through the view finder on the tripod mounted camera.)Kneel behind the unhooking mat and put an extending bank stick in to show the centre and height of the shot.Check once again through the view finder and once all set up focus on the centre bank stick.Lastly just zoom in slightly to take the left and right bank sticks out of shot.Get your fish put it on the mat remove centre stick hold fish over the remaining hole and operate the air release with your knee, easy!

Although with digital photography you really only need to concentrate on getting the picture in focus and in frame as all cropping etc can be done on the PC.

For that reason I'd always advocate tripod in preference to bank stick. It's called stability.

For the amount I catch it's pretty irrelevant, though :-)

[ 10. November 2004, 03:46 PM: Message edited by: Alan Stubbs ]

Being disabled I have tripod made up of 3 banksticks which screw into a brass head.
But what about using the third (middle) connection on a pod? Surely that's stable enough!

It gives a crap angle for a photograph - unless you want to be photographed lying down cuddling a fish - which surely gives the RSPCA grounds for a prosecution

Better than an air release, get a camera with a remote.
You don't need an SLR the quality of basic cameras has risen to meet the competition from digital.