we had to retire my trusty crumpler 6 million dollar bag of two years. crumpler makes a fine bag. but, the problem with their bags (and shoulder bags in general) is that they rub a lot against with whatever you’re wearing. we found the exterior material of the crumpler was tearing the crap out of our pants and shirts by catching the threads. one of my shirts was looking like oscar the grouch, loose threads and everything, after a wedding with all the threads hanging out. just utterly ruined. the shell on the crumpler is kinda like ballistic corduroy in that it’s fine weave tends to latch on to threads in clothing over the course of a day.

the classic analogy would be something like:
ballistic corduroy is like fire. wool pants are like wood. and anyone who grew up in the 80s knows fire beats wood, a la “battle beasts!”

so it was time for karen to go from whack to sac. shootsac that is; jessica claire’s excellent “fashion meets function” camera bag. karen was pretty stoked and got so many compliments from the bridesmaids on her awesome bag. i was quite impressed at it’s simplicity. very minimalist and serves it’s purpose quite well for the fast shooter. did i mention it’s quite sassy? anyway it solved our original problem with our clothes getting tore up as the material (neoprene) doesn’t “catch threads” like curduory.

i picked up a boda-bag because i often carry around anti-armor firepower, aka 70-200 2.8L. i usually put it away after the ceremony, but like to keep it handy for some of the alone-time-with-couple-shots. anyway that lens will leave your neck and shoulder all in knots if you lug it in a shoulder bag all day. the boda bag can be used around the waist, so that your hips and lower body bore most of the weight from your lenses. it’s a real winner. it’s got a ton of pockets and is still pretty compact. my only gripe is that the top cover is a little loose, so i’m afraid some of my gear might spill out at times. i might have to come up with a hack for this.

at any rate, we’re very happy campers!

check out these crazy cats:

i’m diggin karen’s cherry blossom cover. and yup. i look dorky with the immense boda hip pack. but hell, it beats waking up with a sore shoulder and neck. besides, striking a john-woo-esque pose makes up for it!

-ed

you can find all about shootsac here
you can find all about boda bags here

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.