Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
A few weeks back, we asked you how many bubble gums we could fit inside one Lowepro PhotoSport bag—the 24-liter version. 1,198 of you made a guess, and I must say, you were pretty close!
Here is the idea, some of you are math wizards, some are bubble gum experts (huh?), and some work in candy stores. But, then, some of you have no clue about bubble gum, or bags, or volume calculations. But guess what? The results could not have been more surprising.
If you hadn’t guessed by the title, we’re giving away three brand new Lowepro camera bags and winning is as simple as typing in a number. We filled the new Lowepro PhotoSport BP 24L AW III bag with bubblegum and all you have to do to enter is guess how many of them we managed to fit inside it!
There’s a famous experiment where you fill a jar with bubblegum and ask a whole bunch of people how much is in there. Usually, the experiment finds that the average of everybody’s guesses usually ends up being pretty close to the actual number. So, that’s what we’re doing here. Except, with a Lowepro camera bag instead of a glass jar. Don’t worry, we didn’t throw any of the bubblegum away! It was all donated to very grateful local kids!
I can count on three fingers the most needed and purchased camera accessories for beginner photographers and filmmakers. The first one is kind of obvious: the camera itself – most likely with a kit lens. A tripod is the second. And a camera bag comes third; a backpack, or something to protect and carry your crispy, newly purchased camera. You have just spent a few hundred on a camera, so a protective case that transports your gear is not the first thing you might consider all the way through. This wisdom develops after spending a lot of time with your gear.
You might find yourself checking out bag reviews after getting that second lens, a tripod or a flash kit. Suddenly your first bag seems to be getting smaller, and you’re ready to gear up.
The tripod company 3 Legged Thing has started up a new company making bags and it’s called “Morally Toxic” – which seems a rather odd and unfortunate choice of name to me. According to company founder, Danny Lenihan, the name comes from mixing two ideas “Morally” from its apparent ethical production methods and “Toxic” because it wants to break from the “dull” and “corporate-looking” aesthetic of more traditional bags.
Personally, I’m not sure I know anybody who’d walk around proudly bearing a tag that labels them as “morally toxic” – I think I’ve blocked most of the people who would fall under that particular umbrella. But still, let’s take a look at the bags.
When I first watched this video, I thought “well, I’ve got like five of those things on his list and I find them quite useful”. And you’ll probably feel the same way. But you have to remember who this video from Raphael Ludwig is aimed towards. Mostly beginners.
Every time a new piece of gear is announced, there’s a lot of hype and people new to photography and filmmaking get sucked in by it. Every new filmmaker thinks they have to have a gimbal, a motorised slider, a drone and a bunch of other stuff simply because they don’t know any better. And, well, the video’s right. Most of the time they don’t need it.
This weekend, I took a photo walk with my cousin, who is also a professional photographer. We were joking about a bottle of nail polish in a mesh pocket of her camera bag. “Have you ever considered writing an article about the content of a girl’s camera bag?” she asked. “As a matter of fact, I have.” I’d totally forgot about it, and I’m glad that she reminded me. You know, it’s always fun for me to find out what other photographers use for the job. We took a peek inside a wedding photojournalist’s bag thanks to Ben Kelmer. Even the former White House photographer Pete Souza showed the gear he normally has in the bag. But I wanted to make this a little more personal and fun. So, I open my photography bag for you to give you an answer to the question you never asked: what’s inside a girl’s photo bag?
We first met WANDRD in PPE in New-york and they showed us the WANDRD DUO – a dual-use travel bag for photographers. The bag raked over $650,000 on Kickstater so we were curious to test it.
I was impressed with the bag build-quality and feel and fell in love with the zipper system (more on that in a bit). This bag is not big enough to hold all the gear I use for my usual shooting setup, but it’s just the right size for the casual walk with a camera, or a quick run and gun gig.
With the holidays only a few days away, I think this project is something you’re all gonna like.
Cosyspeed, the photography funny pack company just announced a new line of products – African lens pouches. Aside from being gorgeous pieces of gear, they are made in a sustainable way. The lens pouches are made in Africa by a local community. That means that when you buy one of these (insanely cheap) lens pouches, you are also providing a job to a young mother.
If you’re just starting out in photography, chances are you’ve bought a camera with a kit lens and added a memory card and a strap to it. And now you need a bag to carry your new gear around. Or do you? In this video, James Popsys discusses why you may not need a dedicated camera bag after all, and why it could be clever to skip buying it, at least in the beginning.
I’ve spoken about camera bags before. They’re one of those things that photographers just seem to collect. Each has its purpose, but ultimately, many of them fail to live up to expectations and just end up becoming gear storage to keep the dust off your kit when it’s not in use. I’ve owned far too many bags for years, so new ones rarely get me excited anymore.
Recently, though, I’ve been using the new Manfrotto Advanced2 Hybrid Backpack, and it’s very quickly become my favourite travel photography bag and one that I use all the time.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!