Think Tank ~
I believe I’m on the cusp of solving a big problem. I’m setting up my gear bag and the system I’ve been working towards is converging with my bag. The idea that I have to admit, I’m a bit hard headed, maybe even a little contrarian but I always seem to find my way. In this moment, I’m seeing my system solidify.
Elsewhere I’ve written that I am not a professional photographer nor do I aspire to be. Like anything I do, I do it for fun yet I aspire to do it at a professional level with a twist. In all the sports I do, I always gravitate to the best equipment. I have a history of getting into serious sports that demand attention and practice. Sometimes using the equipment that the pros use can slow advancement. Beginners need equipment that promotes skill building through use. Experience dictates that advancement comes from experience and use, the end result is that advancing towards professionalism, the equipment begins to look similar. But there are advances, advantages that come from people, companies that focus on individual performance.
What does this have to do with me and a camera bag?
Education, study, practice, reflection and experience. Everything is converging for me, it’s making sense, order and it’s comforting.
Learning photography has been messy for me. I didn’t have a mentor or a friend that used a camera on the level that I aspired to. So I just bought a film camera and lenses and loaded film and went out and took pictures. I went on trips with bags of photography equipment that was quite orderly and sometimes a mess on the floorboard of my Subaru. All of that stuff and such heavily laden. I got good images but with lots of practice and a little bit of luck.
Looking back, there were examples of where I’m at now yet I wasn't in the camp that understood that I could do more with less. I got lost in misunderstanding focal lengths. I was drowning in overlap. I appeared to be organized but it was an appearance in orderly chaos.
I don’t think I’m gifted, I’m not selfish enough for that. I am forced to earn my turns by design. I’m stubborn until I realize my inefficient means. Sometimes I have to make hard decisions against my own judgment. I don’t need several wide zooms, I just need one but how do I know which one?
Lowepro bags stood for everything I knew I wanted yet what I wanted wasn’t what I needed. I kept searching for vintage when in fact my use for the bags I was storage. The camera in my hands was all that I needed. My bag choice was perfect for the time. Heck, they have bags then that I like now but I wasn’t ready.
I made a few good decisions along the way, one of them was my camera strap. I started out using the advertising straps that came with my cameras. I have a shoebox full of them now and that’s where they live, in a shoe box. I need to move them on to someone else that has it all figured out or a collector. I use a very unassuming strap, inexpensive and designed well to do what they are supposed to do. I learned that I didn’t want an advertisement strap nor did I need a strap that wasn’t comfortable. Nikon makes excellent cameras and lenses, their straps work but not for me, whatever.
Anyway my bag now looks like my Mom’s musette bag. She was a hippy when I was a child and I remember her using one when I became an adult. I had one, they were tres cool and unassuming, inexpensive and held everything. My bag choice isn’t anything like a musette bag though. It has form, it is modern and technical but has smooth lines and looks simple. It is well designed and converges where I am at in the game and supports where I want to be, efficient, minimalistic.
Looking back, kaizen was in effect for sure but in reverse. I had a beach where as I only needed a few grains of sand to capture that beach and keep it with me. My camera bag now looks like yours. How I got here is how I arrived, trained, ready to go with just what I need and not much more.
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