Things I love:
taking photos
my Nikon camera
bags
Things I don't love so much:
annoying horrible big ugly heavy bulky hot camera bags with space for memory cards but not, you know, a purse. Or keys. Or travel cards. Or books. Or, urm, knitting needles.
So I'm one of those photographers that other photographers hate. I just drop my D60 into whatever bag I happen to be carrying that day and off I go.
The result? I take my camera everywhere.
The problem? I scratched the hell out of my nice LCD screen.
Then I had a cycling accident with my camera in a rucksack in my bag. It actually did a lot better than I did. The main damage was that a little thread on the lens broke so my kit lens wouldn't stay on, but to make sure it was all ok I sent it to
Fixation who did a great job making it good as new, including replacing the LCD screen. After that, every time I dropped it into my bag I worried about keys. And pens. And zips. And, you know, everything.
So I spent a while looking at things I could buy online to look after it.
Padded rucksacks? Ugly, bulky, impractical. I already have one which I've never used because, well, it's ugly, bulky and impractical.
Shoulder bags? See above.
A Nikon camera case? Better, but it only fits the camera with the kit lens on it. What about if I want to take my macro? Or my zoom?
It seemed, then, that I needed something made from nice material, accomodating to lots of lenses, and not so bulky that I could continue to just drop it into my bag.
In the end, I decided I should just go ahead and make something. Much pattern hunting followed until I found this
tutorial from
Yarnmonster on making a drawstring bag. And then at the weekend, I whipped up a my own drawstring camera bag. I used some fab fabric I found in
this cute little shop in Paris in June (bonus thrift points for using something from my stash) and followed the theory behind the tutorial closely, just tweaking the sizing so it would hold my D60 wearing my biggest lens. It's the best tutorial I've ever followed, and I've followed a lot. Really. Very clear and easy to follow. I did all the cutting out on Saturday and all the sewing on Sunday. It took about 4 hours and by the end I felt like a sewing genius. The turning the bag inside out sewing thing is just marvellous. I love it and want to carry everything I own in drawstring bags forever more.
The final bag, by the way, works wonderfully. It's double thickness, so it protects the camera from keys and things. It looks pretty without being bulky. And it fits my camera in it. Tick tick tick on the brief!
But, before you ask, no, it's not waterproof. And it isn't superpadded. But I'll just be super careful. Promise.
Becks x
