I’m sure I’m not alone in having a gust o fwind blow over a light stand and snap a brolly pole. No, I thought not. I think it’s a natural part of the learning process, the lesson being taught is that of adding ballast (aka camera bag) to the stand to prevent it.
But, what of the brolly? Is it now confined to the bin? Absolutely not.
When this happened to me the other day, I thought “bother, now what am I going to do?” I needed it for a model shoot the following day, and there was no time to go out and replace it.
Upon close examination of said broken brolly, I realised that the centre pole could be removed very easily. There were only a couple of pins holding it in place that were simple to remove with a pair of pliers. I was also fortunate enough to have a length of 9mm dowel lying around which when cut to length fitted easily where the pole had once been. Next I had to consider how to keep the brolly open and for this I turned to a bulldog clip that would grip the pole and keep the brolly up and the cover taught.
Works like a charm and certainly saved the day for the model shoot.
Best regards,
Gavin
DISCLAIMER
This post does not constitute any kind of recommentdation for the reader to follow.
The reader is also further warned to employ their own judgement as to whether this is a good idea for use with hot lights. Basically, if you are daft enough to use this fix with a light that is going to get hot and you subsequently burn something down, you only have yourself to blame.
