Crawling through mud (1 Viewer)

Tim Taylor

work in progress

• May 23, 2009

• #1

I'm often impressed by the lengths that people go to to get nice eye level shots of their subjects. Often I don't quite get the angle I want because of a reluctance to stretch out full length on the brown stuff. I don't have any intrinsic objection to mud but I don't like the idea of having to wear it all day and to transferring it to my fairly smart car.

What do you mud loving guys and gals do clothing and car wise? :h?:

 

Overread

Hunting birds with a canon

• May 23, 2009

• #2

if your staying in one spot go down the army surplus stores and get some ground sheets - then you can put that down in the mud and lie on that - a roll of binbags in the car and you can put the sheets in one when you finish - clean them when you get home.

If your moving around in the mud I would think get an all in one waterproof suit, since that would limit the chances of mud building up in corners and such. Chances are also that if your doing this your not going to be changing lenses etc whilst moving around in the mud much/at all so you could stash your gear on the bank (sad to say some camo against oppertunistic passersby might be in order ) or in the car to come back to once your finished - a small backpack with a few essentials on your back if your going to be a while and want a sarnie whilst your waiting.

 

M

Marcus Conway - ebirder

Well-known member

• May 23, 2009

• #3

I just go and get in it. May put my wax jacket down, but generally just go in and have a spare pair of trousers and a tshirt in the car. Most of the stuff I wear is general outdoor stuff from Berghaus and North face

 

mike from ebbw

Well-known member

• May 23, 2009

• #4

Take a bin liner with you and when you get back to the car strip down to your pants/briefs/keks/grits/Y fronts/tangas/boxers/jockeys/thong (delete as required) and dump your dirty gear in the bag!

 

Jos Stratford

Eastern Exile

Staff member

• May 23, 2009

• #5

Just adopt a general scruffy outlook to life - once achieved, whether you had been swimming in the mud or not, nobody would be any the wiser

As for worrying about dirt in the car, borrow mine, dirt comes as standard.

 

Roy C

Occasional bird snapper

• May 23, 2009

• #6

I must admit Tim that getting a low POV certainly adds to a lot of images but I for one will never be crawling around in mud, at my age I doubt if I would be able to get-up again, besides I reckon if I did resort to crawling around in the mud on my local patch I would be arrested and taken away by men in white coats 8-P

On a more serious note, I do admire people who are prepared to go the extra mile for there shots, they deserve all the praise that they get for their images.

 

Tim Taylor

work in progress

• May 23, 2009

• #7

LOL, a great set of answers - thanks! 3

I think I'll borrow Jos's car and wear a thong and have a policeman on standby to arrest me...

On the other hand, I've just had a poke around at my local farm supplies shop. Lots of great stuff there - heavy duty work trousers for £10-15, wax jacket for little more, and huge rolls of bin liners.

 

C

Chris Galvin

Well-known member

• May 23, 2009

• #8

Spare jeans, shirt & shoes in the car

 

N

Neil

Well-known member

• May 24, 2009

• #9

I'm not a great fan of getting "down and dirty" in the mud either. Not only is it uncomfortable, it's bad for the back and neck and limits your range of view. Get one of the new cameras with a rotatable screen (Olympus,Panasonic G1), drop the tripod close to the ground and sit down on a square of cardboard . Much easier on the back and you can cover a much wider field of view without moving too much. If you have two pieces of cardboard you can move from one to the other without getting up if you need to inch forward. Neil.

 

postcardcv

Super Moderator

Staff member

Supporter

• May 24, 2009

• #10

I must confess that I love getting down low for shots, sure you end up muddy but it's great fun! If I know that I'm going to be spending time in the mud then I'll stick on waterproofs but it's often a spur of the moment think so whatever I'm wearing at the time gets dirty. If I'm lucky I'll have thought to bring spare cloths with me, but not always on at least one occassion I've ended up going to work covered in mud after an unplanned early morning wader photographing session.

Attached is a shot of me on a planned muddy session and three of teh resulting shots from that morning

 

Attachments

• 
  meinthemud.jpg

  95.9 KB · Views: 212
• 
  littlestinit_220907_0053.jpg

  90 KB · Views: 160
• 
  turnstone_220907_0006.jpg

  85.1 KB · Views: 135
• 
  littlestinit_220907_0110.jpg

  67.6 KB · Views: 146

C

Claymore

Well-known member

• May 24, 2009

• #11

Tim Taylor said:

I'm often impressed by the lengths that people go to to get nice eye level shots of their subjects. Often I don't quite get the angle I want because of a reluctance to stretch out full length on the brown stuff. I don't have any intrinsic objection to mud but I don't like the idea of having to wear it all day and to transferring it to my fairly smart car.

What do you mud loving guys and gals do clothing and car wise? :h?:

Click to expand...

Full Latex rubber suit (in pink) pair of Marigolds and drive a pink Nissan Micra convertable:eek!: (oh sorry that's for indoors)
In reality its full Jack Pyke Camo gear with waterproof over trousers on muddy days which just wash off, car wise used to be a Jeep Cherokee but now v8 MG ZT (as its not a nasty un green 4x4):-O managed 21mpg recently:t:
Cheerio
Brian

 

stevo

Well-known member

• May 24, 2009

• #12

9 times out of 10 if I lie down in the mud I end up with a wet face,not from sea water but from dogs who come up & lick my face.

Steve.

 

C

Claymore

Well-known member

• May 24, 2009

• #13

stevo said:

9 times out of 10 if I lie down in the mud I end up with a wet face,not from sea water but from dogs who come up & lick my face.

Steve.

Click to expand...

Good job they only want to lick your face! LoL My dog would probably use you as a lamp post or tree LoL

 

Jos Stratford

Eastern Exile

Staff member

• May 24, 2009

• #14

stevo said:

9 times out of 10 if I lie down in the mud I end up with a wet face,not from sea water but from dogs who come up & lick my face.

Click to expand...

Maybe a change in aftershave is in order

 

Tim Taylor

work in progress

• May 24, 2009

• #15

Thanks for all the ideas. Brian, much as I love latex, I don't think the world (or my wife) is ready for the sight of me in full length pink latex. 8-P

Neil, I sometimes use a right angled viewfinder to lower my POV but it still leaves me sitting or kneeling like a great lump behind the camera.

Pete, I think yours is the model I'm most likely to follow in reality. Nice examples of wader shots there. :t::t:

 

Jaff

Registered Member

• May 26, 2009

• #16

I think the key to these low-level shots is best illustrated in Pete's pic of himself. Support of some description is far and away easier than hand-holding it with your elbows resting on the ground. I've tried this on the garden lawn (even with something as portable as my 100-400mm) and it was most awkard and didn't produce rock steady technique. I think a good stocky bean bag would be a must accessory if your tripod doesn't work as well as Pete's does or if you don't want to carry one. Also gives you somehwere to leave it (other than the mud!) while you rest and adjust various bits of your anatomy that may have become squashed.

That's all I can offer. I suppose the guru of these matters would be the originator of the now legendary 'Dancy Crawl'.

 

Tim Taylor

work in progress

• May 27, 2009

• #17

Thanks for the ideas Jaff. I think the ideal camera support for mud crawling is probably something like a tray with a camera mount on it - there are some on the market and some people like Nigel Blake have I believe improvised their own to good effect. I have a tripod very much like Pete's at present.

 

Roy C

Occasional bird snapper

• May 27, 2009

• #18

Tim Taylor said:

Thanks for the ideas Jaff. I think the ideal camera support for mud crawling is probably something like a tray with a camera mount on it - there are some on the market and some people like Nigel Blake have I believe improvised their own to good effect. I have a tripod very much like Pete's at present.

Click to expand...

Wasn't it Nigel who was using a frying pan Tim, ideal as it comes with its built in pushing handle.

 

postcardcv

Super Moderator

Staff member

Supporter

• May 27, 2009

• #19

Tim Taylor said:

Thanks for the ideas Jaff. I think the ideal camera support for mud crawling is probably something like a tray with a camera mount on it - there are some on the market and some people like Nigel Blake have I believe improvised their own to good effect. I have a tripod very much like Pete's at present.

Click to expand...

Nigel Blake's frying pan set up clearly works very well, but I'm not that good at making stuff myself so I decided to buy something for the purpose and now use one of these - http://www.tripods-heads-gimbals.com/products/?group_id=13&group_main_id=3&id=29 It works very well and saves me spending ages cleaning my tripod

 

NoSpringChicken

Well-known member

• May 27, 2009

• #20

postcardcv said:

Nigel Blake's frying pan set up clearly works very well, but I'm not that good at making stuff myself so I decided to buy something for the purpose and now use one of these - http://www.tripods-heads-gimbals.com/products/?group_id=13&group_main_id=3&id=29 It works very well and saves me spending ages cleaning my tripod

Click to expand...

Pretty nifty but you can't use it to knock up a full English breakfast in between photography sessions.

Ron