Life Hacks for naturalists

It takes some practice, but pretty often while birding I’ll simply hold up my phone’s camera to my binocular lens to take photos at a distance. Works well for lizards etc. too.

They also make nice mounting devices for holding the phone camera lens to a binocular lens.

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Here’s how to thread those straps (starting at 2:30 on the video)

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We use the selfie mode on our phone’s camera to position our phone under the mushroom for this shot.

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That sounds like a great idea - the mirror way allowed for both ventral and dorsal view at the same time.

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Seems like this is an oft repeated need
See this [post(s)](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/canon-or-sony-camera/28839/410 for more information on clips and designs

I agree with you
long hours of walking with single strap gear does push pressure points and cause different types of aches including not nice headaches.

Am looking at a backpack with attachments and clip ons to ease the strain. Thought of a harness but the thought of using a harness in combination with a backpack (the latter being a must) seems a bit daunting.

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Looks like a great conversation starter also!

Tell me about it?

This one’s pretty basic, but I always wear a neon orange vest (like the kind hunters wear) so that not only will people see me if I’m walking around in the woods, as well as general safety when out in the rain / low light, it also gives me some extra pockets!

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Built this hack using a lens from a laser pointer for my smartphone to act like a dissecting scope about a year ago from instructions found here: https://www.instructables.com/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/
Finally put it to a reasonable test. The flower I was looking at, Red Dreadnettle, is about 3mm wide.





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A simple way to make a tiny tripod for macros. Is to use a glass jar / vase to rest your camera on. With the flower lying on the bottom.
For fiddly details like grass flowers.

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A very interesting hack. How tall is that jar? I’ve got ones that range between 7-8 cm tall to around 18cm tall. Do you rest the lens on the lip, or put the whole lens inside the jar?

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That one is a drinking glass, smallish about 12 cm high and with a sturdy base. Chose something where you can comfortably rest both ends of the camera body on the rim of the glass. Tall enough for the lens to be accommodated.

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Thank you!

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I wanted to find the link for you, with the instructions I followed. Macro in a Mason jar (which would accommodate a more serious camera than mine)
But. Link rot. The URLs are dead.

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I’m not sure a Mason jar could accommodate my macro lens - the opening is fairly narrow. But I will play around with jars and cameras!

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I had found a container that zip ties / cable ties / zap straps had come in and cut the bottom off. This one exactly fits over my filter on my macro lens. I had made it a few years back so that I could put a white styrofoam food tray flash diffuser hack over top - I never really used it as such. I did use the tube set up in my previous life for consistently converting certain transparent anolog images to digital. The tube is light and should not break in the field. But, I like @dianastuder 's hack because one can do staging of the observation with less likely wind blowing it away.

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fyi: only some links are dead… if you have the actual url, try plugging it into archive.org (aka Internet Archive / Wayback Machine). It takes a bit to figure out how they structure their web captures but I’ve found lots of old content at that site.

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This was from a garden photography competition at Gardening Gone Wild in 2010. Now a chain of dead links.
I use this at home for plants in my garden. Nice to get the best from my small camera without struggling. Would also work for garden insects and spiders - catch and release.

http://gardeninggonewild.com/ggw-picture-this-challenge-macro-in-a-mason-jar/
This photographer https://davidperryphoto.myportfolio.com/classes-lectures-workshops

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I see brushes and bamboo skewers in the photo of all the jars. This might be another place where chopsticks come in handy.

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