You might be wondering what on earth you would want a camera beanbag for but trust me they do come in handy. If you don"t have a camera beanbag on hand though you could always just use something like a handy camera case, or maybe even use the lens cap of your camera to prop it up.
In case you haven"t already guessed, and just to put you out of your suspense, a camera beanbag is generally used to prop up your camera in those situations when a tripod is the last thing you can use. The camera beanbag doesn"t need to be unduly heavy but it should be cushiony enough that you can comfortably rest your camera on it. This comes in especially handy when you have a low-lying object you want to photograph.
In this case, all you need to do is to place the camera beanbag on the ground or other convenient place and settle your camera in comfortably to take the photograph. It also works nicely on a table top if you don"t have a tripod handy. Obviously you can"t get the same range with a camera beanbag that you can with a tripod, but there"s no denying the uses that you can get out of it.