On our recent Hummingbirds of Arizona Photo Shoot, one of our participants, Ralph Wright, showed me a great way to increase the comfort of carrying a big lens with a Wimberley Gimbal-style tripod head. Ralph cut a piece of thick foam the size of the bottom plate (the plate area below the quick-release clamp) to act as padding. He then tilts the tripod head so that the lens is basically pointed up or down at an approximate 45 degree angle, rather than the 90 degree, or perpendicular angle the lens would normally have when resting on the tripod head, and the pad now fits over his shoulder quite comfortably. Ralph reports that he can walk for miles with the lens/tripod combination with a heavy lens.
The trick here is to cut a thick enough pad to adequately do the job for providing padding for your shoulder. Next, you'll need to tape the pad on securely, although you might also wish to try a rubber cement or similar adhesive for the pad. Be careful that your padding isn't too thick -- you must provide enough space for the gimbal head to be able to swing back and forth. We're not talking much space here, but be careful you do leave some room.
I didn't take the time to photograph Ralph's padding, and I haven't made my own, yet, so I don't have a photo to illustrate. But the description and concept is pretty clear -- you should be fine on making a pad with the info I've provided.
One final thought: Mary used her very
own Wimberley tripod head on this shoot and she absolutely loved
it. As she says,"It was so nice to not have to struggle with
a ballhead when filming wildlife. I used it on prairiedogs in
Oklahoma and hummingbirds and woodpeckers in Arizona and just
loved it!" Now, both of our tripods are Wimberley mounted;
I use mine with either a 400mm f2.8 or a 600mm f4 and Mary uses
a 500mm f4 lens.
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