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Still searching for that bag. Written by She Well, I *think* I know what I'm after now but will hang on for a while longer. Two of my lenses are on loan to be sold and if they sell I will not need a big bag but will go for something much smaller. A friend turned up with a Roots bag and I tried my big boy and my tokina attached to body and it fit both quite snuggly. But the old bag will fit that and video camera and cleaning gear. The Tokina is pretty much permanently attached to the camera. Although, the other day I did attach the ancient Canon 50-200 on there are at shoot in Hamilton and again I was reminded of how much I love that lens. It is at least twice the age of the Tokina but is just that tad bit sharper wide open and it's not an L lens. I'll be posting pictures from that shoot soon.

Selling a lens, traded a bag for a bag. Written by She So, I traded two bags for one. A shoulder bag and a rolling bag. The roller was a big one. Too big for my needs really so it had to go. The shoulder bag I used maybe twice. So a client has this neat little roller and we decided to swap. It fits my 15" Macbook Pro, the camera with the tokina attached. All the other lenses. documents, has a keyfob (I've attached a 1gb USB stick on it), and everything else I need. It really is perfect. It isn't strictly a camera bag so I will have to work out a system to carry it padded. I'm thinking wooly socks. Most importantly it has wheels and checking in at the airport they didn't even ask to weigh it. *phew* It would have been above regulations as it held 2 ipods (one broken, one working) 2 external HDD, camera + lenses, satnav, cables etc. I just realized that I need to work out my pack for my return tomorrow. Luckily I'm flying within the continent these days and not to/from UK so I can take two bags on board! Might just slide down to kaufhof as I saw this really cool looking bag in there the other day. Brown canvas and leather, loads of pockets and zippered details. very very cool. Anyway - better get going. My buddy is playing at the opening of a gallery right now. I should give the camera a clean and whizz down there. Monday I'll know if my Canon 28-105 3.5-4.5 is selling or not. Would be great to get rid of it.  Also seems like I'm touring in April. Hopefully I am before then as well.

Back in Germany Written by She A booking agent saw some of my pictures from one of his clients' Oslo show earlier this year. He figured I should come to Hamburg. I did. Unfortunately it was not a photographer friendly venue and completely sold out. Got a couple of shots of the keyboard player from side stage and one or two interesting ones from above the stage. At least they are interesting for me. Sadly we never got a chance to talk after the show so we decided to talk on the phone. Me with a cold and a nosebleed, him with fever so the call has been postponed until next week.   Found a PM on a photographer site asking me if I could be interested in a deal shooting at certain dates. I knew the dates so guessed the artists instantly. If I get to do the shoot I'll post about it. that's a big mother of an elephant to shoot. If not - well, can't win them all. My ipod video was thrown in to the washing machine in an experiment to see if it would sink or swim. It drowned. I'm currently keeping myself entertained with an ipod mini, one that had a quick battery change at a friends hours before my flight. An electronics wizard friend of mine in germany will see if he can fix it. If he succeeds I'll have two as I'm collecting one from ebay on my return. The laptop has received a 250GB hard drive and new operating system. It's running a bit faster than it did before.

Why is German milk so good? Written by She Am on a road trip going from UK to Sweden. The return will be in a 6 months or so. Currently parked up just south of Hannover at a friend's house. I've known this guy for almost 25 years and we're hanging out, drinking wine and talking about life in general.   This morning I reached for the tetrapak of milk, poured a glass, drank it and again I was reminded how good German milk is. I've sampled milk in just about every country in Europe, Canadian and American milk, yet the German milk is the best. I remember a time in my crewing days when me and a fellow roadie walked in to catering only to find an unopened pak of German milk in the fridge, left behind by the catering for Janet Jackson that had played the venue the night before. Both of us bolted for the fridge and then a wrestling match began. No-one else in our crew understood why we were fighting over a litre of milk. It has to be Voll-milch. Skimmed and semi skimmed is not proper milk, in my not so humble opinion, anywhere in the world. The UHT is still better than most other milk but the proper voll milch is the best. Later today we might head off to the farmer and get some freshly milked milk. WOW!Bye the way - that wrestling match, I won.

Sold the bag, bought a lens Written by She I loved that bag. I really did. There is only one problem. My gear is too heavy. The bag itself weighs next to nothing but when I stick the camera, lenses, laptop and everything else and then hang on it my shoulder it doesn't take long before I look like someone's beaten me with a baseball bat.   So... I succumbed, stuck it on ebay and sold it at a loss. Bite the bullet and have to find something with wheels.I did buy a lens though. A Tokina AT-X Pro SV 28-70 f2.8. It's on it's way to me from Dublin as we speak. It is going to be fun using a fast lens.

We are sinking! We are sinking! Written by She Sung to Rod Stewart's We Are Sailing. UK is under water. Big time. No running water in my house. I'm planning to head over to Germany for a couple of weeks. Might be able to squeze in a couple of shoots out there as I'd be staying with musician friends. Hanover is the rock capitol of Europe - in my opinion. Maybe I should just move there. But it's raining in Hannover as well at the moment. Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.  That's Styx. The band, not the river. I'll list other good water themed songs in another post.

The dividers arrived today. Written by She The dividers for the bag arrived today. Nice, now my bag is complete. Not that I needed all of them but still. Didn't take at all as long as predicted. 6-8 weeks was said. I guess they pulled that number out of the air just to be on the safe side.

The bag story continues Written by She So the bag arrived. It is very nice. It's the Tamrac Turbo Cyberpro 5618. I did know when I bought it that there was a divider or two missing, so I contacted the Tamrac dealer in UK and they got on to Tamrac US. The reusult of all that is that Tamrac US is shipping new dividers. I had to buy them but even so, in the end this was a good deal. I am well happy with this bag. Now all I need to do is use it.

I might have found the bag now. Written by She After a lot of searching around, checking bag reviews, asking other photographers what they use, I eventually narrowed my wish list down to two bags. The Lowepro Stealth Reporter D550 and the Tamrac Turbo Cyber Pro 5618. Nowh, there is one problem with the Lowepro bag. It is 1.5 icnhes too deep for carry on regulations on planes. Great bag. Would love one. Looks great. I nearly bought one on ebay. Alas, I lost the auction. That might have been a good thing, considering the size. About the same time the Tamrac bag appeared on ebay. This one is within the size regulations. I put it on my watchlist and waited until the last minute to put my bid in. I won the bag. I was also the only bidder. Now I'm waiting for it's arrival. Once it has arrived and I've had a chanceof using it for a while (inlcuding travelling with it) I'll post a review of the bag, possibly some pictures as well.

Gear! Written by She Can we have enough gear? I don't think so.  I get a feeling that whatever we get for the camera we always want better and more. Personally I am happy with my glass (lenses) at the same time I'm trawling the net for deals on glass. I'm currently hunting for a bag. I really need a bag that can hold the laptop and the camera with a lens attached, the extra lenses and whatnot.  Well, I've been searching for the perfect laptop bag since I first got one and failed so I guess my search for the perfect combination bag will be endless. /She

3 songs your out! Written by She I just thought of something.   It is quite strange how the number 3 keeps following me. As a little girl at the amusement park I put my coin down on the number 3 on the big doll wheel and I won the grand prize! (Somewhere I still have that doll.) The plastic artifact resembling a human was almost taller than myself but I insisted on carrying home. Later in life I found out that according to numerology my life-number is 3. It is also my personality card in the Great Archane of Tarots which is The Empress. Mother and carer to all living creatures. Hmmmm..... The number 13 is luck to me as it has a 3 in it. Anything that can be divided by 3 is good. A hotelroom with lots of 3s in the roomnumber - brilliant. My favorite aeroplane at the moment is the trippel 7. 3x7=21 wich gives 2+1=3. See? It all comes back to 3. Isn't it ironic how I should end up having a hobby photographing bands where 3 is what your life depends on. You have 3 songs to get the money shot and then you're out of the security pit.  (I'll get to that some other time. Maybe in an FAQ). Something else that is ironic is that my latest car's registration plate has a plane model as number and PA company as lettering. It's also ironic that the artist Alannis Morisette wrote a song called Ironic and she is from my favorite country in the world - Canada. I'm rambling. Time to go do soemthing else. Like finish off my 3rd cup of latte for the day. I told you it all comes back to 3.  /She - rhymes with three

What's so cool about blogging? Written by She I guess everybody wants to be a writer. Strange to have a blog on a site for a photographer then, isn't it?   Some swear by blogs and say they are the best things since swiss cheese. (I'm bored with sliced bread.) Other's swear in their blogs. Some do both. I'll try to mind my language in this one as much as I can. I can't promise that I won't have any outbursts of foul language but I will do my best to keep myself under control. One thing I won't do is dish out any secrets about the music industry and it's participants. There are other photography bloggers outthere who do that so I'll leave that sleezy part to them. Time to go clean my gear. /She

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