when you want to take a steady picture you normally use a tripod but there are times when a tripod isn't very convenient to use one alternative is to use an articulated camera stand it still holds your camera steady and it's able to get angles that would be impossible for a tripod the easiest way to make an articulated camera stand is to modify an articulated desk lamp the first thing you need to do is remove the head of the lamp in most cases the lamp assembly is held in place with a single thumb screw if your lamp has the power cord routed through the arms of the stand then you'll also want to remove that the easiest way to do this is to just cut the cord you should then be able to pull it out one section at a time if there are any electrical components in the base of the stand you can either remove those or just cut the cord again in order to attach your camera you'll need to make a mounting bracket for it you can make a really simple one from a small piece of 1x2 lumber start by measuring the spacing between the plates on the stand on mine it was about 3 8 of an inch you need to cut your mounting bracket so that part of it can fit between the plates so i marked off a section on one end that was 3 8 of an inch wide and about an inch long then i cut it out with a scroll saw then you need to drill some mounting holes insert the cut end between the plates on the stand and mark the location of the hole drill a hole on the front side that's just big enough for the thumb screw now position the camera on top of the stand and mark the location of the camera's mounting hole at this point drill a quarter inch hole through the board insert the bracket between the plates so that the holes line up and tighten it in place with a thumb screw then insert a quarter inch bolt through the bottom of the bracket and screw on the camera the result is a fairly functional articulated camera stand but you can give your camera more degrees of freedom by adding additional brackets to do this start by cutting off another one and a half inch by one and a half inch section of wood then on the right side drill a quarter inch hole that's about a half inch from the front side on the top i drilled a quarter inch hole that was about a half inch from the right side and about a half inch from the back these dimensions may need to change depending on the geometry of your camera then take the first bracket and drill a 3 16 hole in the middle of the right side to attach the two brackets together insert a two inch long quarter inch bolt through the right side of the second bracket and slowly screw it into the hole that you just drilled in the side of the first bracket then screw on the camera as before now it's time to try it out the base of the stand can be placed off to the side where it's out of the way you can then swing the camera around to get pictures of your subject from just about any angle you can take pictures straight down you can get the camera really close to the surface of the table you can do a lot of things that would be impossible for a standard tripod well that's how to make a simple articulated camera stand thanks for watching and check back next week for more diy hacks and how to's