I wanted to share what kind of camera strap I use when I shoot with two camera bodies. There are many different ways of carrying your camera but when you shoot with two bodies, it can get a little more complicated. You can have two separate camera straps but it is more convenient when you have a dual strap. For dual straps, there are several choices such as the Camera Slinger and the Black Rapid Dual Strap. However, they are both quite costly. Another good option is to do the Ed Pingol way of using eye bolts/screws on the camera and just hooking it onto your belt without any straps at all.
The option I went with was getting the Op Tech Dual Harness which was significantly cheaper than the other ones. The one thing I didnt like about it though was that it connects to your camera bodies on the two sides similar the default Canon strap that comes with the bodies which I hated. I modified it by using the same strap but wrapping it around itself to be more secure and stable, then used a 3cm locking carabiner from Sports Chalet and putting a Induro replacement screw on my camera body. I find this to work a lot better. You can also easily detach the camera and take advantage of the belt buckle of the Op Tech dual harness if you need to.
If I just shoot with one body, I use my Alex Strap that I made to resemble the Black Rapid R Strap which I wrote about here.
Tags: alexstrap, black, body, camera, dual, harness, op, optech, optech harness, photographer, rapid, rstrap, Strap, tech, two bodies
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What exactly is a green photographer and what makes him/her green?
Since the advent of digital photography, the industry has become more green in general as we do not need to process film in order to see the output and spend a lot less money and resources on producing photos. With digital cameras, you can see what you just took and if you dont like the shot, you can simply delete it right away without having to wait to see if it turned out ok after getting it developed. You can also simply save all your images on your computer/laptop and hard drives/dvd/cd instead of printing it all out. You can even display your images in a digital picture frame.
By being a green photographer, however, the photographer is someone who is socially and environmentally conscious about his/her business. There are renewable resources and local vendors that could be used for the purchases, products, and services that you provide.
There are also organizations and groups that you can join to become a certified green business. Although there are guidelines that they provide that you have to follow in order to qualify, I do not know how I feel about some of those organizations because it feels like it is just another organization that you have to pay money to join. In the bay area, we have the Bay Area Green Business Program which I would actually join but unfortunately, my studio is in South San Francisco, and they do not have the program in that city yet. There is also www.greenweddingproviders.com, but I have not decided whether or not I want to apply.
Ways that photographers can be green
- Using digital cameras instead of film
- delivering image electronically using online galleries or on a DVD/CD instead of having printed proofs
- using local printing and album services and products
- using rechargeable batteries for your equipment
- recycling material when possible in your studio
- reusing boxes and packing material
- using CFL light bulbs in your studio
- donating or recycling old equipment and electronics/e-waste
- carpooling for sessions and weddings when possible
- sharing resources and even lending your equipment to friends and family
- purchasing used products to save money and promoting reuse
You can read more extensively about Green Photography here
I personally do all of the above and can say I am a green wedding photographer even though I am not officially certified.
Tags: area, bay, business, environmental, francisco, green, green photographer, green photography, greenphotographer, greenphotography, how, howto, local, photographer, photography, program, provider, resource, responsible, san, to, vendor, wedding
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So now that I have two 5ds, I needed another strap for my second body since I cant stand using the default Canon straps. For my first body, I have the Black Rapid R Strap version RS-3. I love the Black Rapid straps but I feel that it is a little pricey for a strap especially when you can easily make it yourself for a lot less money. The version of the R-Strap that I have uses the older fastener that is not as nice as what the new ones use. So I could buy another new R-strap for about $60 or I can try making it myself for less than $20 in parts. I actually used this http://www.rphotographers.com/showthread.php?t=246 as a reference and it was very helpful. I basically used parts that I currently already had and purchased parts from http://www.strapworks.com.
This is the finished product.
I already had a shoulder strap that came with my Case Logic Lens Case but you can easily buy the 1 inch belt straps from Michael’s, JoAnn’s, online or any fabric store. For the shoulder pad, Strapworks.com only had one choice for a shoulder pad and I didn’t like it since it was just a generic pad. You can probably find nicer ones that are replacement shoulder pads. I had a free Smug Mug camera strap that had a nice shoulder pad so I cut off the ends, and cut a couple lines in the leather end so that I could run the shoulder strap through the pad. To keep the fabric strap in place on top of the Smug mug strap, I used a hot glue gun and it worked nicely. The image above was before I did the hot glue.
From Strapworks.com, I ordered the Metal one inch Beefy Snap and the Plastic one inch Acetyl Plastic Cam Buckle.
For the actual fastener that connects the camera to the hook, you can buy the Fastenr from Black Rapid or even buy a cheap Eye Ring hook from Home Depot. The fastener from Black Rapid is nice, but I did not want to pay $12 for it. I had an extra camera connector that is used to connect the camera to my Sunpak tripod. So what I did was remove the screw from the part pictured below. I took out the black plastic part, which left a hole through the top piece in the picture above. I used a D ring and crimped it into the hole. I then took a nut and washer and screwed it into the screw part so that there is no extra room after screwing it into the camera.
*Update*
I have now updated the fastener with the Induro replacement camera screw pictured below and a 3cm locking carabiner from Sports Chalet to give it more support instead of the fastener above .
Here is an updated image of my alex strap. I have the redundant carabiner because it feels more secure. The carabiner has a locking screw to avoid accidentally falling off. The buckle unfortunately does not have any locking but I like the fact that it can swivel or else I would just hook the carabiner to the strap.
This isn’t as pretty as the Black Rapid R-Strap but considering I basically replicated it for a lot less money, it was well worth the effort since it works just as good.
Tags: black, blackrapid, camera, carabiner, custom, customized, diy, diy camera strap, do-it-yourself, induro, labs, loop, luma, lumaloop, R, r-strap, rapid, replacement, rstrap, screw, shoulder, Strap, strapworks, tripod, www.strapworks.com
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