Day 76

76/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Since I take my camera everywhere lately, I was in desperate need of a small camera bag. Instead of paying a ridiculous amount of money that I don't have, I went DIY and made my own (with the help of my beautiful and talented girlfriend, of course).

I did a ton of research on different camera bags, and then did some more research on making camera bags. Finally, I came across this site and found it to be my best option. This person had the brilliant idea of taking a cheap army surplus bag, adding some padding, lining it with felt, and calling it a camera bag. 


So I went online and ordered an ammo bag for 10 bucks with shipping. Then I went to a fabric store and got some 1/4" foam and some felt (I went with gray). Together, it was another 10 bucks. I have seen my mom make enough Halloween costumes/slip covers/drapes to know how to make a pattern, so I measured and cut out all the felt. Then I cut the pieces of foam to size. From there it was just a matter of coercing Rita into sewing it all together (which actually proved to be the hardest part!). This is what we got:




It's sturdy and has some cushion to protect my camera, enough to where I feel comfortable skating around with it. Plus, it doesn't have a big Canon logo on the front, so I'm not as worried about people trying to snatch my gear. I might even sew a center divider into it, that way I can fit an extra lens or a flash if I want to. For $20, I'm super happy with it!


To light these pictures, I set up a flash with an umbrella overhead to rain down some soft light. Then I set up a flash into a bounce card camera right for some more soft light (this was especially important in the second picture, I had to push light deep into that pocket if we were going to see inside the bag). Camera left I set up one more flash, dialed down, to fill in the side of the bag. The background is just a black sheet draped over the side of my couch and the bag is sitting on my floor. The set-up was kind of overkill, and there is probably a much easier way I could have done this, but my brain is fried from the last few days and I had some time to spare. It was a cool little project, and if you are looking for a small bag, I would definitely give this a shot!