Matty Graham

Want some advice to make life in the field easier? Photography writer Matty Graham spills the beans and offers some gems of wisdom to make working with camera bags easier.

Use heat pads to combat the cold

A startling amount of photographers suffer from back/spinal issues as a direct result of their career choice. It’s hardly surprising – rushing around from job to job, carrying a hefty amount of equipment and resting cameras on your neck, a vulnerable part of your body. There are two solutions! Number one is visit Naneu and buy a good quality camera that benefits from ergonomic design to protect your back. Number two is my own personal tip, learnt after spending many a frozen day trackside when shooting motorsport. Visit an outdoor activity store and pick up some heat pads, which can usually be picked up for under $10. Slip the heat pads between your bag and back and they will work wonders – shielding you from the cold and keeping your muscles relaxed, which will reduce the risk of a back injury.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

As we’ve already described, photographers are hard working people, hustling from job to job with a pack full of kit. Combine this busy bee behavior with a hot working environment and a recipe for dehydration presents itself. It’s critically important to keep your fluids up when shooting so always remember to pack a water bottle in your camera bag. A photographer won’t earn much money if they have collapsed and been taken to hospital due to dehydration.

Something for the journey

This tip is not necessarily about bags, but it is worth considering if you’re a busy professional. Gas prices are going up…and up. If you’re on good terms with a handful of fellow shooters and you know your peers are going to be at the same event as you, why not car share? It can quarter your travel costs (based on four people sharing one car) and it means you won’t arrive at the job as tired and exhausted as you would normally be after a long drive. What’s more, if you want some entertainment for the pre-photoshoot drive, check out Naneu’s iSpyder – a system that will hold your iPad in place on the back of a car seat. You can watch movies, review your images or even read browse this website!

It’s okay to use wheels

As we’ve already mentioned, pro photography can be backbreaking work – especially if you are airport-hopping to travel to events around the country at break-neck speed. Luckily, camera bag design has come a long way and these days there is a highly desirable solution to help make light work of sprinting through arrival and departure lounges to make it for registration in time. Roller bags, quite literally, take a load off your mind (and your shoulders), allowing the photographer to wheel their kit around instead of lugging it on their back. Naneu offer the expertly-designed U220N, which will hold a huge amount of kit, including a pro DSLR with a 300mm lens attached, plus a laptop computer and it has a pull out carry hand. Check this bag out – it will change your life for the better.

Customization will set you free

Your camera bag will arrive with foam dividers already set-up so you can fit in kit without it touching. There’s no rules that state you have to leave these dividers in position, in fact, it’s much better for you to spend a couple of hours arranging and rearranging every element to find the perfect set-up for your personal kit. This is just one example of customizing your bag. Other ideas would be adding tape to the handles to identifying it in a crowd, or adding bungie cords so you can hang it from a tree if you are shooting on-location and want to keep your bag off the wet ground. Alternatively, you may want to mate two bags together (a large backpack like the Naneu K5 and a smaller bag like the Naneu Delta) as this would allow you to get to smaller items you need quickly (memory cards, lens caps etc) without having to access your main bag.