Protect your knees in landscape photography

Getting down low can make for a better (read different) landscape photograph. Here’s a tip to inexpensively protect your knees.

Closed cell foam

I stumbled into this idea when I opened up some packaging. The product was surrounded by closed cell foam. This type of closed cell foam has a little give to make it comfortable on which to kneel but will hold up to rocks and rough terrain. I cut my main kneeling pad to a size of eight by twelve inches. That makes it possible to rest both knees on it. I added a key chain holder and a carabiner clip. The pad hangs from my back pack or waist pouch from the metal rings. It weighs very little but protect my knees from damp, cold or rough places.

Get small

If you really want to pare down your extras you can use an even smaller piece of closed cell foam. This works for kneeling with a single knee. I cut this one to a four inch by four inch size. It slips inside my bags for carrying and takes little space.

Buy some

If you haven’t got some old packing closed cell foam you can buy some inexpensive knee pads from Amazon or your local hardware store for between 10 and 20 bucks. Then, custom cut them to the size you want.

If you have some cool low cost hacks for photography share them in the comments below.

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob