Creating An Inconspicuous Camera Bag

Warning:

I must say here before I start, that I shoot with an Olympus OMD EM5 camera and Olympus and Panasonic lenses. These are all much smaller and lighter than a full sized DSLR from Canon or Nikon so this idea may not work for you if that's the gear you use.

Now I've got that out of the way,

I've been looking for a non-camera looking camera bag for a while now. Something that doesn't scream "grab me I've got expensive camera gear in me!" but at the same time I want something that gives some padding and protection to my gear. I want this bag mainly for street photography and shooting at fairs etc and I've seen online that it's quite a common wish for street photographers.

Some of the bags I've looked at recently have been rather expensive though and having a family and a life outside photography means that I really want my money to work for me and I couldn't really justify the cost of a new bag when I have a couple of great ones already. 

(I have a large bag that holds everything, including my charger, for long trips and my smaller everyday bag that I use to carry only what I need for that day. After all there's no point in carrying large birding lenses and every other piece of equipment you own around if you're only shooting wide  with one lens in town)

 So that brings me to my messenger bag. I like canvas messenger bags. They're roomy enough inside to carry a jersey, or lunch and a drink, or whatever the kids don't want to carry while you're out at the park or shopping. It's a great mum's do everything type of bag. It's light and soft and hugs the shape of your body when it's emptier and yet can still be large enough to carry some library books if needed.

This is my current messenger bag. I've blacked out the name, but I bought it locally from a Chinese store for $19. I'm guessing it was made in China but it's a very sturdy bag. I've used it in the rain and it seems to repel the water okay. If it stops then I'll spray it with some of that waterproofing spray you can buy.

Now this is where I made a discovery. I have an old camera bag with a removable padded liner (see above) that I thought I'd try out in this bag and it fit very nicely with a bit of extra space to slip in a small water bottle next to the liner if I push it to one side. Perfect.

This padded insert can hold my camera and a couple of lenses if needed, while I can still carry my phone and purse in the regular pockets in the bag.

From the outside it just looks like the original messenger bag. No markings to say there's a camera in there. Just what I wanted and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg to get it.

Sometimes it pays to think outside the box and see if you can find a way to make what you really want in a bag because sometimes what you really want isn't made commercially. 

Have a great week :)

Making a watercolor travel kit

Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity - Arnold Bennett

Recently I've been pricing up watercolor travel kits and to be honest the ones I've seen here in New Zealand haven't been very cheap. The Winsor and Newton Cotman Sketchers Pocket Box is one set I've been looking at and the price is around the $56 NZ mark. Not very cheap if you are just starting out and have children that would like a set each too. This prompted me to start looking at cheaper alternatives.

I've seen a lot of different kits on the internet made from peppermint tins and using half pans mounted on small magnets to keep them from moving around inside. I priced up this option and buying half pans with paint already in them in the Cotman's range was going to be more expensive than just buying the travel kit. As I already have watercolors in tubes I thought that maybe buying empty half pan cases and filling them with my tube paint might work out cheaper. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find empty half pan cases yet so I decided I needed to put a bit more thought into it. 

What I really needed was a container with a lid and different compartments in it. I had a couple of different ideas. An ice cube tray, but I decided that it was too big, a pill type box with separate days, but I thought the plastic hinges wouldn't last, and finally an eyeshadow box, which is small and thin and has a proper hinge on it. Eureka!

So off to the $2 shop I went, looking for a cheap eyeshadow set that I could convert and they didn't disappoint me. The photo above is of one of the three sets I purchased, I spent $6 in total. The eyeshadows were in little metal containers fitted into the compartments with a tiny bit of glue on the bottom. I prised them out easily with a small screwdriver, you could also use a knife blade. The glue came out easily in a chunk just using my finger nail. Below is the case minus all the eyeshadows.

After I'd emptied the case and scraped off all the glue I gave the case a good wash out in dish washing detergent using a rough woven scouring type cloth pad, just to make sure that any remaining glue or eyeshadow was removed properly. Then I dried it all and added the paints from my tubes. See picture below.

I now need to leave the paints for a couple of days to dry out completely and I'll have a compact watercolor set I can fit in my pocket if I want to. Below is a picture of the container I keep my tubes in contrasted against the compact size of my new travel kit. I can use a much small bag now :)

The only other thing I will do to this kit when the paint is all dry is to paint the inside of the lid white to mix on.

 I'll still probably need to carry something else small to mix on and a water bottle. When I go for long walks especially in the summer time, I always carry a drink bottle with me anyway. While at the $2 shop I also picked up a small telescoping brush tube to keep my brushes in. I'd also like to try out the water brushes with the water tank built in at some stage, these could make my kit even smaller. 

I can't wait for the paint to dry so I can get out and test drive my new kit!

I hope this gives you ideas for your own travel kits. Have a great week! :)