Sometimes I come across an idea so brilliant I wonder: “Why didn’t I think of that?” The idea I’m talking about here is called the Maven Adapter, which connects a camera to the end of an extension pole (like the ones used for paint rollers or window cleaners). This is incredibly useful because it allows you to get your camera into all kinds of new perspectives: way up high, out the window of a moving car, extended out over the surface of some water, etc. The coolest part is that Michael designed this in 3D himself and printed it on his own 3D printer. Awesome!
I received mine last week, and took it over to the park to do some shooting tonight. The sun was setting quickly, and I wanted to get some shots with my camera hovering just over the surface of the water in an attempt to get the reflection of the sunset in the water. The shore of this particular pond is somewhat steep, and in the past when I’ve tried for this kind of shot I’ve not only nearly fallen in, but not been thrilled with the results. I just could not get the camera down low enough to the water.
But this evening was a different story. I slapped a ball head onto my Maven Adapter, then attached that to the end of my painter’s extension pole. Being careful to wrap my camera strap around the pole multiple times (just in case) I then extended the pole out over the water and started shooting.
Here’s my favorite shot from the evening:
In order to get this shot, I had to adjust the camera on my ball head to hang down below the pole at the right angle, so that I could stand or kneel on shore and extend the pole down and out over the water and still have the camera be level.
If you are interested in picking up one of these adapters, (and I highly recommend it) they are available right now.
I also recently used my Maven Adapter to shoot the artwork for the cover of Missing Lily, a new novel by Annette K. Larsen. Check out her work if you love clean romance!
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