DIYP’s own resident travel photographer Dave Williams has taken to the road, travelling (for now) the UK for some off-grid living in a van to explore and photograph as much of it as he can. On his entry into Scotland, Dave came to visit me so I could take him to explore the local river and woodland. While out, Dave showed me an excellent camera strap tip to help you get steadier videos and photos when shooting handheld. We’ve all seen the trick of holding the camera out right in front of us and bracing the strap against the back of our neck, but this technique is very different and still gives you a lot of freedom of movement. Naturally, I forced him to give me his phone so I could film it to show the rest of you!
Dave uses one of those fancy Black Rapid Sport Breathe straps on his camera but I use a regular neck strap on mine. It’s actually the 18-year-old strap that was shipped with the Nikon D2h. Hey, don’t judge me! I like it, it’s comfortable. Anyway, I’ve got Peak Design anchors on it so I can use it with all my cameras when I want to shoot one of them handheld. Usually, I wrap the strap around my wrist when shooting and when I pulled my camera out of the bag to do exactly that, Dave said “Hey, let me show you something!”. I hadn’t considered wrapping it around me arm this way before, but it’s certainly something I’ll be doing more in the future when shooting handheld, particularly for quick short video clips where I need to shoot a little b-roll or a pan for an establishing shot. If you want to follow Dave’s journey throughout the rest of the UK and beyond and pick up more of his little quick tips along the way, be sure to follow him on Instagram and subscribe to his new YouTube channel.
