Tony,

I only use a thin leather welding glove to handle my camera. You should try to find one with smooth leather. These are thick enough for berus, aspis and not to large ammodytes. In a few cases I felt the tooth tip on my skin, but never was bleeding in such circumstances. So I think you may use those without any problems.
By the way: Your construction looks very well too!

Mario 

Hi Mario,
There were some other things that led to my thinking up the herp monopod.
It should help avoid camera shake and I don’t like carrying the camera around my neck or in my hands when pursuing snakes or lizards,
With the monopod I can place the camera safely on the ground at the ready, then go off in pursuit.
It should work well for habitat shots too.
I’m going to take it to Lesvos so I can get close up pictures of an ottoman but I will try it on berus first.
At the end of the day it’s all about improving pictures for me! So if it does I’ll let you know ;-)


Thanks,
Tony
 

When you lay on a distance from your camera, how do you get a good focus, do you use the monopod to create distance between you and the camera? 

Hi Gertjan,
Yes the monopod helps to create distance from the camera of about 2ft-60cm. Just far enough to enable my self to take a pic from a safe distance, when I press the remote button half way the camera will automatically focus, press it all the way and it takes the picture. You can also view the picture your going to take in live view on the small screen on the camera.
The monopod also has a quick release head so you can detach the camera from the monopod in seconds.


Thanks,
Tony
 

I found that a good old fashioned rock worked well to stabalise the camera 

OK thanks, Im not a reall fan of that live view, I always need to have my eye behind the camera otherwise it will not work.
The home made bracket looks good, goodluck with it!