Pixiq

Heredity and those working-class Welsh genes have gifted (do I mean that?) me the kind of build that inevitably makes me a beast of burden. Occasionally, I have taken that to absurd lengths and staggered up mountains with heavy back pack, laden photographer's waistcoat and other impedimenta. In the last few years I have tried to take a more 'minimalist' (Ha!) approach: I work alone and have no teams of porters, dammit.

Sooner or later any nature photographer has to address the question: “Am I carrying too much?” The answer is always “affirmative” because even all of Sod’s Law, Murphy’s Rule or Finagle’s Corollary dictate that anything you leave behind will become essential…

Tripods are the obvious place to start. I have often (masochistically) carried an old-type Benbo tripod; then, for a time, I substituted the old-pattern Baby Benbo (much firmer than the new) when photographing alpines in situ even with medium format. 

I am now the delighted owner of a Novoflex Minipod — it is not the cheapest, but the quality of finish and precision engineering is superb, as with all Novoflex products. It is simple, astonishingly flexible and, most important, rigid when I mount a Nikon D300 with Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro lens plus x1.4 convertor and a flash set up. It can also be set much lower to carry a camera body with ultra-wides for close-up work I shall detail soon.

Each of its three legs (25cm length) is connected to a mini ball-and-socket joint: these can be independently swiveled and tilted. In addition, each joint carries three grooves of different depth which form preset stops. Each leg ends in a hard rubber ball of 3cm diameter effectively stopping it slipping on (or scratching) smooth surfaces: they also allow it to be set on a table, on stones, against a column... on a camera bag or even against one’s chest or thigh giving a height from about 30cm (depending on the head used) to a few centimetres. A suitable ball-and-socket head is extra.

Used with a ball-and-socket head, the combination is ideal for getting shots of subjects at ground level — something I often do with wide-angled plant and insect shots. You can purchase a set of 15 cm extension rods in the same anodized, black finish, creating a slightly higher support with negligible loss in rigidity.

I purchased mine at £95 from Speedgraphic (www.speedgraphic.co.uk), my main source of photo-gadgetry for many years. Their service is excellent, prompt and worldwide, and their catalogue of all those essential bits and pieces is a treasure trove.