Travel Series: Carrying My Camera (+ Project 365)

Woh, you guys blew up my inbox with lots and lots of questions about how I carry my camera when I travel and what lenses I take with me, so thought it would be a good idea for a post.

When I was in China and Hong Kong I carried my camera on me instead of in a bag and then carried my Marc by Marc Jacobs cross body bag as my handbag. With all the walking we did, it was just easier to me to do that than lug around a huge bag. I changed out my regular camera strap to the Black Rapid R-strap. Hubs and I got these mainly for shooting weddings as we carry two bodies and with the R-strap your two camera straps will never get tangled, but I ended up really liking the R-strap just on it's own as it takes a lot of the pressure off of your shoulder compared to just the one that comes with the camera. It's hard to explain but it just fits to your body better and you can adjust the strap so it hits you right at the hip which is where is most comfortable with me. I highly recommend this if you carry your camera for hours on end and are on your feet. It's one of the best things that we've bought for our cameras.

You can kinda see it on me in this picture.

If you are wondering about my camera and lenses, please read my FAQ for more information. I only used my Canon 5D mark II and two lenses during the trip, my 50mm 1.2L and 24mm 1.4L but most of the pictures are from the 50mm.

For the actual traveling-airplane part, my husband packs all of our cameras into this Crumpler bag. It fits most of our cameras and lenses into that one bag. But because we are doing a lot more destination weddings this year we bought this Titan luggage to carry our camera equipment in. Hubs has been wanting a hard case luggage to protect our equipment and he prefers the 4 wheels so that it's easier to deal with. We are going to get foam and build our own protection inside the luggage to make it even more secure.

I get lots of questions about "stylish" camera bags and I still haven't found any that are my style but I have found some that are more "stylish" than the traditional bags. Here are the ones that I've come across.

The Kelly Moore bag

Jo Totes


Epiphanie Bags


Emera Bags

They are cute but still nothing that I would carry. They're just not... me.

There is also the Jill-E bags but to be honest those are really not my style. Whenever I mention camera bags Jessica Claire's Shootsac always comes up but the Shootsac is something that you carry when you are shooting, not for carrying your camera.

Most of the time, when I'm just out, I just stick my camera in my purse. I only carry one lens when I'm casually shooting which is on the camera so I don't really need THAT much space. The only thing is, the camera and the lenses that I use can be quite heavy (seriously, pick up a 50mm 1.2L lens and compare how much heavier it is than the 50mm 1.4 lens, it's a big difference! Also why the 1.2 is $1,000+ more!) so that's the thing that I mind the most. I do find that cross body bags are a much better option in helping carry the weight of the camera. Otherwise, if it doesn't fit into my bag, then the R-Strap is the way to go! Hope that helps and gives you guys some other options!

Since we're talking about photography... here are some of the latest from my Project 365!

Day 70

I love makeup and it's one of my favorite parts of my morning routine

Day 73

Savvy's favorite toy are these corn on the cob chewy things! She has them all over the house.

Day 76

I've had quite a few eagle eye readers spot my Liberty of London for Target stuff and yup you were all right! I've never bought anything from a Target/Designer collaboration, can you believe it? But when I saw the Liberty of London stuff I loved all the patterns and bought a ton of stuff.

Day 77

The best kind of package to open is one that contains shoes right? :)

Day 81

I love the vibrant colors of this flower. This picture has NOT been edited/photoshopped, it really is that vibrant!

It's been pouring rain where I am, how about you? Did you see my picks for stylish rainboots? Check it out here! But if you are in the mood for some sunny picks, click on over to see what I'm buying for my next beachy vacation. (I'll have it up later today!)