Category Archives: All things Emilia Jane

Since I’ve been doing all of these posts on what goes IN the bag I thought it might be a good idea to show you how I’m toting all of these lenses and everything around! Let me lead with this though, I do not believe that I currently have the perfect camera bag solution. And frankly, I’m not 100% sure it exists. So PLEASE if you have a better solution I would love to hear it!

First up is the Kelly Moore “Libby” bag. She’s pretty, hold everything, and is basically a monster. She’s huge, really heavy, and not comfortable to carry. This picture also does not depict how deep she is. This bag sticks off your body by at least six inches. Right now I’m using her to old the gear and things that I’m not using at the moment during weddings. For example, she either stays in the trunk of my car with backup gear or under the DJ’s table with the lenses I want close by but don’t think I’ll actually need. Does that make sense? She LOOKS like really pretty leather, but that fabric is NOT bendable. I’m not sure if she just needs to be broken in or what…but for now we’re kind of fighting. Currently I use her to hold all of my gear at home. She is also AMAZING at transporting bottle of wine/booze for parties in her little “lens” compartments.
Next up is the “Union Street” ONA bag in black. I bought this for Wil as a THANK YOU for second shooting last year. I thought I might get to borrow it sometimes since he doesn’t always shoot with me….but this has become his permanent work bag. I would like to try it out for an engagement session sometime because I think it MIGHT be the right size and better distribute weight than the Kelly Moore bag we just talked about. Also, this strap looks WAY more comfortable. Anyway, Wil uses this when he shoots with me now.

For shooting weddings, I always use the Shootsac. It is neoprene bag with six lens compartments. If you’re using big lenses I would just recommend holding three with it. Please learn from my mistakes and don’t carry it around all day stuffed completely full. You will hurt your back.

So now I have to tell you how this practically plays out. Living in the city I can’t set bags down everywhere during a shoot…they would walk off. What I HONESTLY do most of the time since I don’t love love love the Libby bag (can you tell I’m still sad about this?) is I use a camera insert from this bag I ordered off Amazon last year and put it into my big purses that I prefer to carry. ONA carries a better camera insert and if I were starting over, I would buy this and use it for engagement and portrait sessions. For engagement sessions I normally carry the 35, the 85, and the 100. One of them is on my camera, and I only need a bag to hold my wallet/keys/phone and the other two lenses. And frankly, most of my purses can do this. I just throw a spare pashmina in as padding. I do this because I haven’t found a bag that I like that holds a camera body with lens on it and two-to-three extra lens spaces.

Now, for travel….I thought I would start using the Libby bag for traveling weddings…but the truth of the matter is that I probably won’t. I have this old extra large Kate Spade diaper bag that I LOVE and the shootsac fits into it fully packed. I bought the Kate Spade bag because it doesn’t look like a diaper bag, but it has the extra padding and is big enough to carry my laptop with other things…plus the bottle holders on each side are awesome for an umbrella and a water bottle Silly, I know. But it just looks like a black bag. Shootsac now has a tote that can hold your camera and the Shootsac which also seems like it might be a good option. I’ll let you know if I hear any rave reviews.

Sooooo clearly I have things to say about this! Hopefully this has been helpful. Please please please feel free to offer advice and ask questions in the comments!!