But Wait, there's more...

The technique demonstrated in Fig. 2 is the defacto most common method for reducing camera shake. Lots of workshop instructors teach this. For most purposes I think it's great. By tackling movement due to the camera and your body, you've eliminated most camera shake. What more can you ask for? Here's the rub. To me, I hate using this technique to because I can't hold it very long before I get tired. I'm not talking very exhaustion here. I'm talking muscle tired to create more shake from straining. This probably creates more problems than it solves.

There's two problems with the overhanded technique in Fig. 2. First, your shoulder and arm has to be elevated to keep your hand resting on the lens. That obviously causes strain. Second, with your left hand resting comfortably on top of the lens, you have to actively move it up and down to counter the weight of your right hand, complicating matters and causing more strain. Overall, this isn't so much of a problem except there's a better way--the underhand holding technique.

By placing your hand under the lens and resting it on the gimbal head and pushing up with your fingers as you see in Fig. 3 you achieve the same results as laying your hand on top while actually resting your hand on something stable--the gimbal head. What's this buy you? Your shoulder is lower thus causing less strain. By having your hand resting on the gimbal head, you're actually resting on something relatively steady which naturally minimizes unwanted shakes--your left hand in the overhanded technique doesn't have anything to push against.

You can reliably make tack sharp images--applying this technique perfectly, of course--with shutter speeds as low as 1/25sec when shooting with a 700mm lens--500mm f/4 with TC-14e. I have a couple of 1/6sec images that are incredibly sharp using the same lens combo.

Why does this technique look familiar? It looks like someone holding a gun. When was the last time you saw someone aim a gun with his hand on top of the barrel? Even if it was configured with a gimbal mount, no shooter would ever shoot with the hand on top of the barrel. They'd shoot just like I show in Fig. 3. If it works for marksmen, it must work for photographers.

One last subject - which side of the lens do you put the gimbal heads friction knob. As you can see in Fig. 3, I have the knob on the right side. It's my experience most people like having the friction knob on the left. Here's why I don't do that. I like have unrestricted access to the lens' controls on its left side. It's just plain difficult messing round the friction knob in the heat of the action. The right side of the lens has no controls at all so why not put it there? Folks don't like doing this because they like the immediate assessibility of the knob when they want to fine tune the friction. I personally only set the friction knob on two setting--full lock down or free floating. I rarely if ever need to fine tune the gimbal heads friction.

Oh, there's one other reason why I like having the gimbal heads friction knob on the lens' right side--unrestricted view. This knob is bit big and is a pain to look around when trying to find some fleet moving critter while simultaneously pointing the long lens in the right direction. As is my practice, 95% of the time I bring my head up to the left of the lens to see what's going on verses trying to look to the right. The friction knob would just get into the way on the left side which is why it's on the right.

Here are the secrets to long lens shooting. Have a platform/tripod that supports the weight of the rig you're shooting with. Next, set the height of the tripod so when you put your eye up to the eye-piece you aren't stooped over and straining. Stand up to your lens/tripod with a firm foundation--straight legs, feet shoulder width apart, and feet flat on the ground. Hold the lens as comfortably as possible with right hand firmly grasping the lens and the left hand, supported by the tripod gimbal mount, countering the weight of right hand. Rest your left hand on the gimbal mount to further minimize unwanted shakes. Place your eye-brow right up the camera to use your body as a way to keep the lens steady. Finally, don't shoot between 1/10sec to 1/25sec to avoid camera induced shakes.

None of these procedures are difficult to understand or do. They just require a little practice so it becomes second nature every time you bring your eye-piece up to your eye. Once you get the technique down, you can easily shoot with the longest lens at incredibly slow shutter speeds.