How did our new camera bags come about? I’ve long thought about creating a camera bag but I didn’t want to just do something that had already been done. I’ve also wanted to do non-leather products. Something more earth friendly. This means working with fabric and sewing which I couldn’t do. But one of our strap assemblers, Kacey, sews professionally. So we got together to see what we could come up with. We decided to start with pouches and using waxed canvas. We ordered some waxed canvas, some organic cotton fleece for a liner, and zippers then got to work
This was the first pouch we came up with. There was a tab with a split ring on one end. I looked at that and realized that with a tab and split ring on the other end you could attach a neck strap and have a small, simple camera bag. It took awhile to come up with the final bags. We tried different shapes and sizes. We tried different suppliers to the the right material.
We ended up with two sizes. The larger one has a central divider so you can carry a small SLR or rangefinder plus several lenses. The second, smaller, bag could be used as a pouch or a camera bag for small point and shoot cameras.
One of my goals was to have a small bag that I could carry on my back while riding my bicycle. I wanted easy maneuverability, to be able to stop and slide the bag to my front to get at the camera and lenses and then slide the bag around to my back again to take pictures while still straddling my bike. To test the bag Zoe and I went for a ride at one of our favorite locations here on Whidbey Island. We started at the Ebey’s Landing National Reserve south of the Keystone Ferry between Crockett Lake and Admiralty Bay. We rode up to Coupeville and then over to Ebey’s Landing State Park.
The bag worked perfectly. I’ve been very happy finally having a simple bag that is easy to carry and doesn’t get in the way.
And now off for another ride…
