One of the best $10.00 I ever spent was getting a rolling cart for the studio.  Which now is home to all the free stickers I get.

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I’ve known Mike since middle school.  Pretty much all of my life.  Mike was the side of me that made music videos with camcorders and 4-wheeling with ATV’s and Jeeps.  It was always laughs with Mike, and I’m happy that we are still friends.  Mike and some other friends of mine have a camp up in Pittsburg NH that they’ve had for years, and during Labor Day weekend last year a bunch of us went up with our spouses and enjoyed each others laughter.  While there, I took some photos of Mike and his (then) fiance Melissa.  Mike and Melissa are married now, and I love being in their company.

More portraits of Mike & Melissa after the cut:

See more after the cut:

I’m a bag freak when it comes to camera bags.  I’m like the stereotypical female with shoes when it comes to camera bags.  Over the last few years I’ve done pretty well with switching over to nothing but Think Tank stuff and I’ve totally happy with that.

But.

I’ve been trying to shoot more film the last few years and I’ve been trying to dust off the Hasselblad and shoot more with it.  But something kept nagging at me about carrying around the Hasselblad in a contemporary camera bag.  It’s silly, I know, and totally materialistic, but it’s like the Hasselblad was trying to tell me that it wanted something else.  Something special.  And it deserves special.

At first I thought about getting a Domke bag, which all serious camera enthusiasts consider the Rolls Royce of camera bags, but I wanted something else.  I wanted something that not only could be a camera bag, but could also be a day-to-day satchel bag that I could put all my stuff in when I go back and forth to work.  The Domke’s are nice and all, but they didn’t satisfy my want for something that could double as both, but still have the charm and elegance that my Hasselblad wanted.

Then, one chilly fall day, Sara and I were at King Richard’s Faire (which you all should go to at least once to experience it’s awesomness).  While we were walking around looking at awesome leather outfits and elf costumes and jousting matches, we stumbled across a leathersmith who made leather satchel bags and leather journal covers.

I was instantly smitten with the bags and dragged out as much time as I could looking at each one and touching them.  Sara was doing the same with the leather purses they were selling.

Instantly, I knew that one of these bags was the bag that the Hasselblad wanted to be carried around in.  I could almost here it speaking to me: “Yes!  You’ve found it!  Where has this been all my life!”

So Sara bought a leather purse and I bought a leather satchel bag.  I was a little nervous at first because I didn’t know if I would be able to find a camera insert that would fit the bag.

When we got back from the faire I went to Amazon and found the Tenba Removable Photo Insert and ordered it with my fingers crossed.  When it arrived, it fit absolutely perfectly.  It was a perfect fit.  It was like it was made to compliment this bag.  It was a match made in heaven.

The bag itself is a beautiful dark leather with multiple pockets inside.  The lining is a deep green boat lining.  When I’m not using it for the Hasselblad, it fits all kinds of stuff and has a few smaller zippered compartments and an outside compartment that buckles close.  That bag itself closes with two straps that buckle down.  I’ve had it for about six months now, and with daily use the leather is starting to get nice and soft.

The only negative thing I have to say about the bag is really about the seller.  When I bought the bag the seller (Earthbound Leather Journals & Bags out of Mass) said the bags have a guarantee that if any repairs need to be done to the bag, have them done locally and then scan and send the receipt to the seller and they will reimburse what was spent.  A few weeks after owning the bag, one of the seams came undone on one of the internal pockets, and I took it to my local cobbler who repaired it for the low cost of 10 bucks.  I emailed Earthbound anyway just to see if they would reply, and they never did.  They ignored the emails I sent to them, and I recently saw that their website was no longer in existence.  I’m guessing Earthbound doesn’t really make the bags themselves, but they order them, perhaps from overseas, and simply sell them.  So while I won’t recommend Earthbound to anyone, I will say that if you can find a local bag maker that makes leather bags, to definitely treat yourself to one.

But I’m totally in love with it.  My Hasselblad is totally in love with it.  It makes the perfect rustic, vintage-style bag to carry around my Hasselblad kit (body, lens, light meter, film and a polaroid back) and It looks incredibly classy.

I feel like my Hasselblad and I have come to the same conclusion – we are both in love.

P.S. – Sara loves her leather purse as well.

More shots of the bag after the cut:

I’m still getting caught up with things I want to blog about.  Here are some sample images from the October 2012 Portable Portrait Workshop.  I held back the Portable Portrait last year until October, and I’m still figuring out dates for 2013.

The lovely Sine was once again our workshop model, joined by her fabulous mother Cicek, who, it turns out, used to be a professional model!  What are the chances!  After learning that, we had to get some shots of Cicek and Sine together.

More images from the workshop after the cut:

I’ve photographed Perry Spearman in the past and while shooting him and his lovely family for his Town Planner Community Calendar, we sneaked outside for a quick location shot.

My photographic rule for those reading:  don’t photograph a family standing in front where a bunch of power lines all meet at a power box.  You can’t see it in this picture, but it took a lot of work to make sure you couldn’t see it

He calls it “helping around the studio”.  I call it “keeping me preoccupied”.

How can you not love comedian Nick Lavallee?

I’ve known comedian Nick Lavallee for what seems like decades.  I met him in the late 90′s when I was working music retail at a local Newbury Comics and he used to come in to shop and talk with the employees.  He used to be in a great punk band called “5 Bucks” and now he’s becoming comedian with the success of some Youtube created comedy videos.  He’s been traveling around the US hitting up comedy clubs.  Famous ones.  He’s been busting his butt and traveling down his own path.  He’s a funny guy.  He’s a down to earth guy.  He’s on to something.  One of his characters is “Paul” who collects Laserdiscs and writes songs about them.  Basically, Paul is me, since I have stacks of Laserdiscs still of movies I haven’t upgraded to DVD (or Blu-ray, the cycle continues. . .)

A while back I worked with Nick on the cover for an upcoming vinyl (!!!) EP he was releasing under the disguise of one of his internet video characters.  “Paul” is a fan of the Ghostbusters and this song accompanies a video where Paul gets to be in a video with the NH Ghostbuster troupe.  Very cool.

I grabbed a box of my laserdiscs (because I’m just as much of a nerd as Paul, I’m proud to say) and we did a simple setup on white that would be used for the front and back of the vinyl jacket.

Here is Nick in full-on Paul mode.  Awesome stuff.

Here are some shots of the finished product:

Go give Nick your love.  Or whichever character he is at the moment.