Portraits of Greece in Crisis

“After years of building up more than $400 billion in debt, Greece was devastated by the recent global economic crisis. Fearing the fallout from a Greek bankruptcy, fellow Eurozone members provided aid packages — under strict conditions, including the adoption of severe austerity measures. Greece is entering a fifth straight year of recession, its economy poised to shrink another 5 percent in 2012. Average unemployment is at a record 21.8 percent — with youth unemployment (under 25) at 51 percent. Years of increasingly difficult conditions have hit the citizens of Greece hard, and the uncertainty and frustration have led some to flee, a few to take their own lives. Collected here are images from a nation in the midst of a deepening crisis.” from The Atlantic

A man walks by a wall adorned with graffiti in Athens, on march 8, 2012.(Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images)

Protesters run from police after hurling petrol bombs during violent anti-austerity demonstration in central Athens, on February 12, 2012. Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers endorsed a new EU/IMF austerity deal. (Reuters/Yannis Behrakis)

Dimitris Stamatakos, 36, sits in a field on land he is renting near his home in the village of Krokeae in the Peloponesse area of Greece, on March 18, 2012. Before the crisis Stamatakos was able to make a living by selling olives that he farmed on the land he owns, now he is forced to work for neighboring farms and do odd jobs to earn his living.(Reuters/Cathal McNaughton)

Members of the Greek Communist Party shout slogans during a rally against the austerity measures in Athens, on March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

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Camera Bags

OK we know that there are thousands of camera bags to choose from and that making that choice is difficult. Thinking about what sort of photographer you are might be a good place to start. Do you need all your kit with you all the time just in case, or do you prefer to work light, one body, one lens. I have a selection of bags, one keeps everything and the others I use by decanting the kit I need for a particular shoot or expedition. My main bag with everything is a Lowe Pro rucksack. I far prefer a rucksack for transporting my cameras, I like having the weight properly balanced and in a place where it will do least damage to my back. I chose the Lowe Pro because it conforms to airline cabin luggage size. My bags of choice have always been, well for about 10 years since I first found them, Crumpler bags from Australia, then you could only by them from a small shop in Sydney, now they are world wide with distributors everywhere. This link will take you to the UK site These are very cool bags with a very cool website for…well cool people. You can buy Crumpler bags in a variety of places but go to their site first.

Here are just a couple to whet you appetite

Wandering around I found the site written by Kimberly Gautier and something she had written about bags and being incognito, this is not such a bad thing, we don’t need to advertise we have expensive kit on board, part of the reason I like Crumplers. I followed a link on her site to a site called Kelly Moore which sells bags for women that just don’t look like camera bags, perfectly incognito, here is a link to Kelly Moore

There is a big selection of these types of bags so if you don’t like the look of these there is bound to be something  you might like, what do I know, I’m just a bloke really!

There are also Kelly Moore bags for men and although less of a choice still really nice looking bags and bags that don’t look like camera bags here is one

It is worth checking out Kelly’s photography too, some interesting images there

Links again

Crumpler

Kimberley Gautier

Kelly Moore