I posted this in the “What’s in my field kit?” thread. I will post it here because it works well.
I use a neoprene lunch bag with shoulder strap as my field bag. I like the “Built” brand the best. But, there are others out there. They are waterproof and often have a small side pocket. Some even have straps for an external water bottle.
You can occasionally find them at Target stores. But, they are easily found on Amazon. If you already have one without a shoulder strap, you should be able to easily attach a couple of D-rings to allow for a shoulder strap.
You can’t beat these bags if you go out in the wintertime.
I was instructed to use mayonnaise, but I came up with a less greasy hack myself: Find a nice patch of dirt, preferably very dry, and rub your hand (or other pitchy body part) in it. Make sure to completely cover the pitch in dirt. Then brush off as much of the dirt as you can; what’s left will be completely stuck to the pitch, and the pitch cannot stick to anything else because it is covered in dirt. Then go on with whatever you were doing. Eventually the pitch/dirt will wear off and your hand will be clean again. I’ve used this many times and it works great!
This is somewhat similar to removing banana slug slime. It’s more effective to rub it off with an abrasive. Soap works very poorly on slime. Comet or Barkeepers Friend, et al., work well.
Of course, I realize it’s better not to get slimed in the first place, as that may indicate your skin is irritating the slug. E.g. if you need to pick up a banana slug to show the children, protect it’s delicate skin by using a leaf.
I do the same for pine resin if I get it on me out in the field… during the autumn (fall) you can use crushed up dry leaves too, which for me just feels more fun to do!
One of the best tools when out in the field: (drum roll please) the carabiner clip!!! Seriously though, you can use these things for so much! Great life hack for naturalists.
I set my phone to take a shot when I say “cheese”. I’m usually holding a plant with one hand and the phone with the other. Really hard to press the button with the same hand I’m using to hold the phone without accidentally moving the phone as it takes the shot. …long story short you could yell “cheese” down the tube whenever you want to take a shot instead of taking video the whole time.
When I didn’t have a tree handy I took the strap off my trailcam and used a ziptie to attach it to a metal fencing post (U-post). I ran the ziptie through where the strap normally goes on the back of the camera. Then I put the back of the camera against the flat side of the post and zipped the tie around the post. There are hooks on the post. I did the tie right above one of these then slid the camera down so the tie would catch on the hook and prevent the tie (and camera) from sliding any further.
I set my phone to take a shot when I say “cheese”. I’m usually holding a plant with one hand and the phone with the other. Really hard to press the button with the same hand I’m using to hold the phone without accidentally moving the phone as it takes the shot. …long story short you could yell “cheese” down the tube whenever you want to take a shot instead of taking video the whole time.
Is that feature with Android or IOS or both? Either way, cool feature.
In iOS 14 there is a feature called Voice Control under Accessibility in Settings. There are some pre-set voice commands and you can make custom voice commands. E.g., a librarian helped me set up a command to turn pages in my ebooks when I had a broken shoulder. That got annoying, as the phone listened all the time and tried to execute “commands” it heard during ordinary conversation or even tv. I put a shortcut on my pull down menu (Control Center) so I could turn voice control on and off easily.
I recently bought an inexpensive mirror case (marketed for “girls to check their makeup”) for my phone, and glued a small ruler to the mirror. Now when I want to take a photo of the underside of a mushroom, or whatever, I always have a mirror with me, and there is always a ruler in the photo.
I used to drive my wife nuts by stopping for long times on hike to take photos. Now, however, she has also gotten into photography and takes as long or longer than I do! Maybe get your parents cameras as well or get them interested in things to observe closely in nature.
Ha! Thank you @diegoalmendras ! I felt pretty clever when it came to me. Maybe there are other things I should have on the back of this phone, but I haven’t thought of what. A compass would I think interfere with the phone. A thermometer would just tell you the temperature in my pocket.
I would not have guessed that nickname came from an actual person’s name! Thank you Frederick William Poos, Jr. for the two tube aspirator design. When I was a kid, I made one out of a coffee can a few rubber bands and two straws (one end covered by a dryer sheet to protect the mouth) to catch ants. Only later did I find out that the ants were smaller than the air holes in my indoor ant farm. Sigh…
Get yourself a macro lens! Even if you don’t have a fancy camera there are ones you can buy that can attach to cell phones. I used mine just earlier today to get my first photos of a double-banded grass veneer! Hoping it can become research grade soon :D
I put one on my field bag years ago specifically to hold my baseball cap. It may sound like a small thing; but, it is perfect for keeping the hat in a place that’s out of the way and yet easy to reach.
