Originally posted by Me on Fuel My Blog’s Blog

You might be wondering why I have a tube of tennis balls in my camera bag.

Then again you might not, I’m going to tell you why anyway.

Last week I was looking for a better way to steady my macro shots. So I searched the house for a tripod. My Dad was an avid photographer, and is becoming one again, so I figured that he may have an old tripod hanging around. I found one and it was very old. But I used it for some of the photos last week and they came out much sharper an clearer than ever before. I figured I must be on to something using a tripod.

So this past weekend I was on the Cape (Cape Cod, MA) and I went to the local Ocean State Job Lot (discount store) and picked up a $24 tripod that had many more features than my Dad’s old one, which I found out was not my Dad’s but rather, my great Uncle’s. My great Uncle loved photography as I love photography. Sure I could have used that tripod but I was looking for something just a smidge more modern.

I had read a DIY about making your tripod ready for the beach. Before I had read that post I had not thought about what could happen to my tripod if I put the feet directly on the sand. I cannot find that DIY so I am going to show you what I did.

After I got the tripod I picked up a tube of Tennis balls. Three to a package, three legs of a tripod, coincidence, I think not. I took the tripod and the tennis balls back to the house and got to work. Okay first I borrowed a utility knife from my neighbor, and then I got to work.

First things first, I took out a tennis ball.

I laid that tennis ball on a flat surface and grasped it tightly. I then took the utility knife and placed the tip in the middle of the area that I was going to cut. I slowly put the blade through till there was a release of air from inside the tennis ball. Than I then cut through the ball and made a large X or + sign (depends on how you hold the ball). It wasn’t very large. Here is what the ball looks like now.

This was the vertical cut, notice that I cut on the name of the ball. I used the name and the white rubber stripe that goes around the ball as a guide. That way I didn’t make the cuts too large. they have to be small enough to grip well.

Here is the horizontal cut.

I repeated the process with the remaining tennis balls and Then attached each to the feet of my tripod.

I then attached the remaining tennis balls to the tripod feet.

And then I was finished. Time to take this out to the beach. As you know, at the beach sand gets everywhere. So I wanted to make sure that I kept the sand off my tripod feet and prevented any sand related damage that I could. Also having the tennis balls on the feet prevents the tripod from sinking to deeply into the sand and accidentally toppling over and ruining your digital camera.

So for a couple of bucks (Around $2.50) you can help to protect and stabilize your tripod.

So what did I spend my time taking photos of on the beach?

These are two photos that I am submitting to Photo Hunters (The theme is Row) this coming Saturday.

And here are a few other interesting things I took with the telephoto/macro lens.

My Photos are hosted on Flickr and Zooomr. I created a FuelMyBlog Flickr Group and if you are on FMB please leave a comment and let me know your contact info on Flickr and I’ll get you added.

this month I am running a contest on my blog. I’m supplying the prizes and they are photography related. I’m giving away either a Flickr Pro or Zooomr Pro account for free (winners choice.) Check out BenSpark’s August Add It Up Contest on my blog The BenSpark.

BenSpark Writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also takes at least one photo every single day and posts it to his BenSpark Blog. You can visit him at The BenSpark, BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo, Flatwater Tech or The Wired Kayaker.