Thanks, Jim. You make a great point about the tripod and it took forever for that little obvious trick to finally dawn on me. What makes it work is having a tripod that will allow you to fold the legs out all the way, even flat if necessary. My first tripod wouldn't do that so I had to get a new one. The other thing that's hard to see in the photo is the little sack of weights draped around the top of the pod, just under the ball head. Normally I would hang it from the hook you can see a the bottom of the extension tube but in this case it interfered with the clamp and surface just below. That sack of weights (5 lbs) helps to stabilize the pod and further prevent motion blurring. I also have a 10 lb sack for counterbalancing the arm support for the #1 softbox. Before that I used a can of paint!
