10 Handy Camera Bag Items by Matt

1. Grocery Bag

Your on a shoot and the clouds start to roll in, you feel the moisture, and you know its about to get wet. Don’t be stuck with no options, all you have to do is remember to jam an old, used plastic bag from the grocery into that miscellaneous corner of your camera bag. Use a rubber band and poke a hole for your viewing pleasure. You do know all your buttons by heart, right?

2. Grey Paint Sample Card

If you are moving a lot and really need some control over your white balance, our best suggestion is to make sure you are taking your photos in RAW (and hey, jpeg correcting is pretty effective too) and a cheap grey card. Post process in a program like Adobe Lightroom to fix all the issues. We use free paint cards from Home Depot, “Seal Grey”, and they are pretty darn effective.

3. Fake Credential

Ok, were not suggesting you make a fake passport or start stealing identities, but having something that looks official with your picture on it and “PRESS ACCESS” can help you at least get better parking, or a couple inches closer to your target.

4. Outlet Accessories

So you had some grand plan to use a 2 studios lights at this shoot, but guess what? There is one outlet, 30-feet away, and it doesn’t have a grounding pin. Hopefully you were wise enough to bring an extension cord, but never assume you will be presented with an ample electrical system, and prepare for the worst.

5. Dust Brush

This might be more common than others, but most of the time a lens or filter doesn’t need you to be wiping [scraping] the glass, it just needs the dust to be cleared. Dust can cause some horrible reflections (flaring) and make you pretty mad you didn’t pay attention to it when you start post processing at full resolution.

6. Level

If your trekking across some uneven terrain a level can help make sure your horizon is darn close to level. Some tripods have levels built in, but they are very small and sometimes a little less responsive than we could hope for.

7. Business Cards

You need business cards if your in it to make money, but make good use of them in your camera bag too. We put one in each of our lens cases, a couple scattered in the bag itself, and even tapped to our equipment if we are going somewhere busy. Sure, it doesn’t stop thieves, but if a Lion on your safari drags it 100 miles to another tribe, or if it gets picked up mistakenly by the other media crew next to you, they know who to return it to!

8. Food

You thought this shoot was going to be an hour, in and out, right? If your selling the photos, and need the best ones, you will stay planted until you get them. Not only does it stink to be hungry, but your vision starts to get sluggish, and your reaction time goes down, so dont risk it and bring a snack.

9. Rubber Bands

There are a ton of situations where a rubber band could come in handy, but one great example is to make a bounce card on the fly. We personally use a couple different types of bounce cards, but kicking it old-school and making one from a piece of paper and a rubber band is just as effective (plus you can throw it out after).

10. Flashlight

Whether you need a brighter focus beam for low-light photography, or you are getting your creative on and exploring some old broken-down buildings, a small flashlight comes in handy. Please don’t think this replaces your speed lite, or on the flip side, dont try to use your speed lite to explore broken buildings (flash.. walk 10 paces.. repeat).