Emergency Monopod

This instructable is for those of you who have heavy cameras and want to take fairly steady pictures while not carrying a tripod or monopod.

For those who are unaware, a monopod is a device designed for keeping a camera steady while still allowing for mobility as is good if you are taking long exposure pictures, or don't want the extra weight of a tripod. The question that this instructable answers is what to do if you don't want to carry a monopod either.

For this instructable you will need:
lightweight cane or walking stick (1x)
sturdy, flat topped hat (1x)
heavy camera (1x)

I was at WonderCon last weekend and had no real way to carry a tripod or monopod. Not only that, but either one of which would have conflicted with the costume I was wearing. This monopod is something that I came up with while trying to take low light photos of the masquerade on saturday night.

I'm the guy on the left. As you can see from the picture I already have all of the pieces to create this monopod.

This step is pretty self explanatory. Find yourself a nice comfy place to sit down, and stack up your materials. Cane, Hat, Camera is the best method in my experience. It also helps if you can trap the bottom of the cane between your feet when in use so that it doesn't slide around on the carpet. It also seems to be best to hold the brim of the hat rather than the cane in your non-shutter-controlling hand.

Unfortunately I don't have any shots of the rig in action (kind of a problem when your camera completes the rig), but I do have some before and after shots. The crummy picture of Link and Zelda is from last year before I came up with this method, and the Blue Spartan is what the results can look like with this rig. From memory I'd say that both pictures were taken with about a quarter second exposure and at 2.2 stop for aperture. Some of the movement in the picture of Link can be attributed to subject movement, but the majority of it was from camera movement. It's tough to hold the camera steady when the person next to you keeps elbowing you in the ribs.