Camera Shy

Camera bags suck. No, they really do. They're big, usually black in colour and ugly. Sometimes you need more than one bag to hoist around the various bits of camera equipment you need when you go out, making you carry around extra bulk and feeling unbalanced with the weight of it all. Inconvenient. Especially if you're on holiday. Nothing screams tourist like a camera bag.

So after investing a lot of time searching online for an attractive camera bag (to be honest I would've settled for anything that didn't look like a big, black, brick of a shoulder bag), I was about to give up when I came across Ketti's website http://kettihandbags.com/ (You can find her on facebook too - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ketti-Handbags/184007412686) I genuinely could not believe what I was looking at. It was like someone had read my mind.

She produces these amazing camera bags that, quite frankly, look nothing like a camera bag. They're more akin to a designer handbag than a camera bag. They're beautifully made and new stock is available weekly. The only hitch is that, as her business hours are North American Pacific time, she releases her stock at around 11pm Greenwich Mean Time  (Irish time), on a Friday and they go FAST. I mean really fast. It's worth staying late online if you're trying to nab one of her fantastic creations. You have to be quick in ordering though. Also, she is always introducing new bags and materials, so there is bound to be something in your taste. 

I was able to purchase one last year (thank goodness she ships internationally), and I genuinely don't know where I would be without it. Mine is an Echino print titled 'Yellow Bird'. I take it everywhere and there is room enough for all the things I need when I take my camera out with me as well as having space for some personal items.  With handy dividers inside the bag making it easy to store your lenses, camera, etc. in their own section. Making this bag an all-in-one.

I take pictures purely for the sheer enjoyment of it. Who's to say that you can't be stylish and a photographer at the same time? I am so pleased with my bag and I just wanted to share the love, so to speak. It's made having a camera with me all the time, all the more accessible and so has given me the reach to take pictures more often than I would have if I had to carry around more than one bag.

'What?' I hear you say. Where's the blog about being gluten free? This is, after all, a gluten free photographer's blog. Seeing as it's the new year, it's nice to be able to offer a bit of a treat. If you're interested and able to grab one of these bags online you'll be able to get a discount of 20% off any order through to February 14th 2011, using the gift code GFP20 at:
http://kettihandbags.com/collections/all 

I promise that my next blog installment will be full of tasty gluten free goodness!