Welcome to my first post of 2019.

Over the past few years, many railway photographers have taken to using a pole for their photographs, including some well known names and this year, the lesser known; James Power has followed suit. Whilst purpose built poles can run into many  £hundred's, there is a simpler, and more affordable way to achieve this ambition.

My own objects I acquired was, first and foremost, an adequate pole, I found that an L.G. Harris 5m painters pole was the pole of choice, and can fit comfortably in most cars, although you need to be more creative where smaller 3-door hatchbacks are involved, such as my Peugeot 208 :).

Next object is something suitable to screw onto the pole to use as the camera base, I found that an EVO PA-100 Tripod thread adapter was an adequate choice; the gimbal just screws onto the top of the pole in the normal fashion and then fastened into place with a small screw (allen key provided) for additional tightness.

Last, but not least, a holder of sorts to view your viewfinder through, bear in mind that your camera could be anywhere upto 5 metres in the air and as such you need to see what your shooting, currently, I use 2 different methods;

First off, the Nikon D500, has a built in app called SnapBridge, and when you download the same app to your tablet or smartphone, this acts as the view finder as well as being able to fire the camera. SnapBridge is a free app, and is widely available from the Play or IOS store depending on what device you use.

Secondly, as the D500 has a flip out screen, I tend to use this also, and remotely fire the camera from a hand held wireless shutter release whilst looking up at the viewfinder Be advised however, that a wireless remote shutter release WILL NOT work in correlation with SnapBridge, or I found that it didn't anyway unless anyone has found a way to get round it. Also available on the market is another app called DSLR Dashboard, but sadly this isn't compatible with the D500, as Nikon's latest camera's (D500, D850, D5600 etc) already have SnapBridge on them.

L.G. Harris 731 5m Premier Extension Pole.The main tool for the job, seen with my Nikon D500 DSLR adorning the top, although it is a good idea to use a clothes peg to keep the straps together in windy weather. L.G. Harris 731 5m Painters Pole.

Tencro 4-12.5 inches Smartphone/Tablet Holder.The tablet/mobile phone holder which would be used as a viewfinder and camera control point using the various apps available on the Play/IOS Store. Tencro 4-12.5 inches Smartphone/Tablet holder.

EVO PA-100 Painters Pole ¼-20 Thread Adapter.A small, handy gimbal, which screws onto the top of the pole, and is additionally secured with a small nut, using the supplied allen key. EVO PA-100 ¼-20 Tripod Adapter.

As mentioned previously, how you choose to fire the camera is entirely up to you but I use a combination of SnapBridge for stationary objects, and the flip out screen via live view for moving objects.

Cheers

James