THE GARDENING WORLD. 
219 
April 3, 
1909. 
Photography for Garden Lovers. 
By the Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A., F.R.P.S. 
( Continued from page 129-) 
XII.—HOW TO MAKE A STAND FOR A VERTICAL CAMERA. 
The method of working, which I am 
in this chapter about to describe, is but 
very little known among photographers 
generally and still less so among flower 
photographers. Yet it is a method of 
quite special importance and use to the 
naturalist — both for indoor and outdoor 
work. 
Often we wish to deal with some small 
objects that we cannot put in a vase or 
pin up against a vertical board, so natur¬ 
ally we think of laying them down upon 
a horizontal background of some kind 
and pointing the camera vertically down¬ 
wards. With an ordinary tripod and top 
(or triangle) this is not practical, hence 
at once arises the need for some simple 
method of holding the camera. I have 
made numerous experiments and several 
forms of holders, all ofwvhich in turn have 
proved useful, but that shown in Fig. 1 
is, I think, the simplest to make and at 
the same time very generally useful for 
the flower photographer. In Fig. 1 we 
get a general idea of the apparatus in 
actual use. The small flowers are laid 
flat down upon a piece of grey or other 
paper which rests on a flat board which 
in turn rests on an ordinary chair. (In 
this case the camera is shown without a 
lens. This was an oversight as just at 
that moment it was in use for quite an¬ 
other purpose.) It will be seen that the 
tripod top consists of two small flat 
boards fixed at right angles to each other. 
The legs of the tripod are really two¬ 
penny broom sticks in each of which a 
saw-slit has been cut at one end. 
Now let us look at this tripod top a 
little closer. See Fig. 2. Here we see 
that the two flat boards are hinged to¬ 
gether, but held at right angles by the 
wooden strut D. Each end of this side 
strut is fixed by a screw' so that it may 
easily be removed and a shorter strut 
used and so we get the camera at any tilt 
or angle we please. But in practice it is 
the vertical position that w r e require nine 
out of ten times. Hence it is best to 
have the strut fixable by firm screws. 
In Fig. 2, we see A, B and C, the tops 
of the tripod legs, otherwise the broom 
sticks. The slit is simply a saw-cut ex¬ 
tending about 10-12 inches so that they 
have a fairly strong inward spring to 
grasp the pieces shown in Fig. 3. 
At~£ is the ordinary tripod screw which 
holds the camera pointing down in a 
vertical position. 
If now w’e tilt up the horizontal board 
of the tripod top so as to get a view of 
the underside (t ig. 3) we see that there 
are three narrow' pieces of hard wood, 
each about 3 by 1 by \ inches. They are 
firmly screwed to the board. We spring 
on the saw-cut ends of the legs and then 
insert a long slender screw' which goes 
right through the leg ends and the under 
pieces just mentioned. 
In this instance I was using only a 
small (3 plate) camera, but w'hen using 
a large camera I think it a wise pre¬ 
caution to tie a heavy' w'eight to the back 
leg of the tripod. In my case this is an 
old leaden dumb-bell which I can easily 
attach to the leg by means of a short 
length of stout string. This is, of course, 
merely a precaution to prevent any possi¬ 
bility of the weight of a large camera 
toppling over the whole . arrangement. 
Since making the photograph from 
which Fig. 1 was taken, I have fixed some 
ordinary brass pointed tripod toes to the 
Fig. ' showing how to photograph a plant looking perpendicularly 
down upon it. 
Fig. 2. Fixing uf tie car:era. 
