Note: We back. The electronic mice have been removed from the wainscotting. The posts that vanished into the aether have returned and you'll be able to see them. Bad luck, eh? Let's face it, if the internet was a motor vehicle it would be a 1937 Chevy truck in a paddock...
My weekly wander and wonder through Stirling Street was rewarded with the Wandrd backpack. It instantly attracted me with the fact that there is a variety of colours on offer. Black, dark green, and the blue you see here. Colour is a little thing for some but it can make all the difference in the attraction that a bag or garment has. But this pack actually has more to it that you'd think: You can see the outer surface with the long laptop slot - weather sealed. The two handles on the top are magnetically closed so you can heave it about easily. Watch the big hook on the top. It slides out of a loop to let the top expand to a clothing and general packing area. The straps are big, padded, and contoured - with an adjustable breast band. It has tape loops to carry pens, Pokemon figures, and percussion grenades. Be careful which one you pull free at any particular time. Note the little personal document pouch there closest to your person for security. Inside there is a...
Finished already? That was a fast column this morning...
That's the best kind of carnival trick - selling an empty bag and then running away before you discover there's nothing in it. Except in our case we need not run - the whole idea is the emptyness. I address myself to the Camera Electronic customers who travel - who take their cameras to holiday destinations on a regular basis - who pack more than they should while vowing to pack less than they need. And who then do it again next month. The inside of a suitcase can be a chaotic thing. It may start out well-organised on your bed at home but halfway round the world and halfway through the trip it looks like a bear's nest. Short of throwing everything out of the hotel window and emptying the mini-bar into the case, travellers need a solution to too much that is too dirty. The Peak Design Packing Cube is just such a solution. It's a deliberate pouch/bag system that will carry an amazing amount of material - either out on holiday or home to be washed. It's not padded -...
I am impressed by backpackers who set out to tackle the world with only what they can carry. More impressed with the ones who head out of town trudging on the side of the road than those who get aboard a jet airliner...
This one popped up on the radar in Murray Street - and it was completely unexpected - the online catalogue for the main Barbershop site did not list it at all. It was only when I looked at the images provided by or Australian wholesaler - C.R. Kennedy - that I was able to get details for this case. Well, this is magnificent. It is known and the " Heritage " and it surpasses even the " Quiff " as a period piece. Because make no mistake about it - this has gone well past the point of being a little handbag to haul to the shops - this is full-blown period travel luggage. The only other place you see things as wonderful as this are strapped to the rear of vintage cars. The term " Carry On " on the Kennedy site suggests that it is suitable for in-cabin packing on domestic flights. These specify either 105 or 115 cm as a linear total of length, width and height. The " Heritage " comes to 106.5...
I was sorely tempted when I saw the " Quiff " in the Barbershop online catalogue to choose it instead of the " Bob Cut " for my studio bag. Now that I have seen an example of the real thing in the Murray Street shop in grained black leather I am quite jealous...
As you'll no doubt pick up before the end of the week - the Barbershop bag company like to name their products after hairstyles or things to do with facial hair. It's a harmless fantasy, and one that I find charming. I note that when you get to their camera straps they use " Sideburns ", " Moustache " and " Full Beard " as names plus a wrist strap that is called the " Razor ". At present they do not seem to offer what is rather inelegantly termed a " bum bag ", but if they ever do, I am hanging out waiting for the name. I could suggest a few, but I'll bet they would ignore me...
This week I get to show you a line of products that have captured my imagination - the Barbershop range of camera and photographic bags. There are new stocks of these in Murray Street and Stirling Street - and you'll be well advised to visit each shop as there are different models in each one. The Murray Street shop was my first stop but I wasn't able to take any of the bags for illustration - I had ridden the train into town rather than the car and couldn't carry any of them back home with me. So I posed them in the shop and hoped that the colour temperatures of the various light sources would not clash too much. I mention this because people seeing the pictures might get a false impression of the colours of the canvas and leather used in the bags. Yet another reason for coming down and actually hefting the goods in-store and seeing them in their true hues. The basic display of the smaller bags is shown in the heading image. Barbershop make models ranging from compact shoulder...
You may not own a Fujifilm camera or five, and you may not have a Fujinon lens or five and a Fujifilm flash or two, but this column still has a message for you. And if you DO own the foregoing, you need to sit up and take notice right now.Camera manufacturers sometimes engage bag making companies to make branded carry-alls, rucksacks, or promotional duffel bags. Most of them are just an excuse to get the brand name out there on show, and can be seen as a cynical exercise in geek training. The marketing department probably sit around in a karaoke bar on the Ginza at 3:00AM making bets on whether they can get their fan-boys to buy underwear with the camera name emblazoned on it...