Alternative to tripod for travelling

[westy79]

Im heading to NY and Vegas in a few weeks, all i have is my D40 with kit lens. Im looking to take in some night shots of Brooklyn Bridge and night trails from Times Square. Although a tripod is essential for longer exposures am i right in thinking there is something on the market that wraps around lamposts, railings etc to keep the camera still. As i dont own a tripod yet i dont want the America trip to pass me by but im going to look very uncomfortable in the middle of times Square with this new bit of kit.

Is there a basic rule to night time shots, do i set the iso low and set a middle of the road f. number as i currently only use Shutter and Aperture Priority. What sort of exposure times would catch a good night trail around tmes Square.

Is there anything else required even for the daytime shots like filters etc because i do not own any.

[TheWengler]

There is a Gorillapod. It works ok. I've only used it for a P&S. Not sure how the DSLR version is. A beanbag is another option.

For night time shots use manual mode. Keep the ISO low and try to stop down as much as you would in a normal situation. Shouldn't be too tough with all the city lights. Experiment with the shutter speed. The good thing about car trails is they just keep coming.

Filters for what purpose? If you don't have a purpose, then you don't need a filter.

[RichNY]

Welcome to NY.

For your Brooklyn Bridge shots- you are probably going to want to walk over the bridge and shoot from the Brooklyn side so you have Manhattan as your background.

I used a Joby Gorillapod SLR in Italy a few years ago and it worked out ok. As for bridge shots you aren't going to necessarily find places to support your camera at the heights you want so a tripod is really the only decent solution. You are going to need it in Vegas as well if you want to take evening photos.

You can get great prices at B&H in NYC which is a tourist attraction itself but I'd be inclined to recommend purchasing one locally now so you have time to feel comfortable using is before you get to the NYC. Don't worry about looking uncomfortable- NY is a big city and Times Square has much more interesting things for people to stare at than a Brit with a tripod :)

ISO question- If you want to stop motion set your ISO high to get fast shutter speeds. If you want to get trailing lights and you are going to use a longer shutter speed then use a lower ISO to get less noise in your images.

Stop by a local book store and look at Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Shutter Speed. He shows many images of trailing lights with the shutter speed used. Nothing wrong with just using shutter and aperture priority- you'll get all the images you want with those settings. Personally that's all I use except when using flash or studio strobes and then I shoot in manual.

You don't need any filters.

If you have the budget a 70-300VR lens would be nice to use as a second lens to give you more reach. If you don't want to have a lot of money tied up in gear you might consider buying it used and then selling it used- you'll basically break even or perhaps loose $30-50 which makes it a very cheap rental.

Another alternative to a long lens for your DSLR is to also bring along a small digital camera that has a long zoom range.