Obsession: Shoes or Bags?

Life has a way of turning things upside down when you least expect it.

As a child, I remember the two shelves above my mother’s closet heaved with bags. Bags of all colors, descriptions, shapes, sizes, and styles. She had a bag for every occasion: whether it was going to the grocery store, to work, down the street to see family, to a picnic, or to the local bar.  I would sit in awe as she carefully chose the bag to wear before she chose her outfit. She was obsessed with bags and her clothes were the accessories.  Did you know that there’s a real difference between a purse, a handbag, and a clutch?  My young mind fertile boggled as she explained these old wisdoms from yesteryear.  However, the seed had been planted and this little mother-daughter lesson is one that I would store away and somehow later repurpose for my own obsession.

Every woman…

As I grew up and started earning my own money, I naturally gravitated towards bags as thee “absolutely necessary” accessory to distinguish myself from amongst my peers.  However, after driving 50 miles to a party in a gated community and realizing that I left my drivers license in my other purse made me recognize one thing: that the kind of day-to-day maneuvers required to transfer my life from one bag to another just wasn’t my thing.  But what was my thing?  “Every Woman must have an absolute. Absolutely.”  That maxim is written down somewhere…  Anyway, without truly comprehending my mental state after the collapse of what I was raised to appreciate, I woke up years later and found myself with a closet full of shoes.  Shoes!  Classic pumps, stilettos, sandals, boots; adorned with bows, bells, bangles and/or bling.  Honestly, I don’t know how it happened but I do remember walking into a store, or maybe two, and leaving with several boxes.  So now, I have a walk-in closet that has more pairs of shoes than individual items of clothing.  My obsession was complete.  I was an “Every Woman” and I was satisfied.  Sort of… To ease my guilt, I donate at least six pairs of like-new shoes to my local charities each year.

My Red Shoe Collection

Image above made with a Nikon D300 camera, a Tamron 17-50 lens, and Nikon SB-900 and SB-600 flashes

A new twist

Nonetheless, since taking photography seriously, I no longer buy shoes without thought of the consequences.  Okay, Clarks of England walking shoes are a minor indulgence but Manolo Blahnik‘s and Christian Louboutin‘s are expensive!  Indeed, so are cameras and lenses and unlike those fashionable shoes – that are only out of the box on special occasions and hurt my feet within 60-minutes – a camera can go anywhere.

And all of this pouting about high heels leads to my new obsession: camera bags!

My Crumpler Bags

Image above made with a Nikon D300 camera, a Tamron 17-50 lens, and Nikon SB-900 and SB-600 flashes

What’s a girl to do?

After living my entire adult life with only three Coach bags – black, brown and wine - I can proudly proclaim that I have purchased 10 camera bags within the last 3 years. Unable to settle on just one, I must now have the right bag to be sophisticated enough for the occasion, support certain camera/lens/flash combinations and not detract from my shoes and outfit.  Will it be the Kata, Tenba or Crumpler for the photo shoot or the business trip; the Lowepro or Think Tank for the street or a walk in the woods; or the Tamrac or Crumpler for the party or on vacation? Who knows?

Still, like every other photographer, I am on a quest to find that perfect bag for any occasion so I will need to kiss a few more frogs before I find it.  Of course, they will all, eventually, need their own closet… unless there is some organization to help less fortunate photographers.  More importantly, I will be able to dazzle untutored minds as I explain the differences between a holster, a sling, a messenger, and a shoulder bag.

This is a completely unexpected turn of events but isn’t that how life is supposed to be?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 11:21 am. It is filed under acessories, photography, ramblings and tagged with 5 million dollar home, 6 million dollar home, bags, camera bags, Crumpler, danilew-flickr photos, flash, Nikon D300, obsession, product photography, red, red shoes, SB-600, SB-900, shoes, speedlight, Tamron 17-50. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.