Have you ever wondered why the humble camera strap is the way it is?

Black Rapid RS-5 camera strap

Landscape photography was not so bad. I’d put my kit in a photographer’s rucksack, the weight was evenly distributed, and those hills stayed still long enough for me to get my gear out and set up without missing the shot.

But photography while sightseeing, or walking about an urban environment didn’t work so well. My manufacturer-supplied camera strap would pull on my neck and back if used in the traditional position (which also left the view screen banging onto coat fasteners – and led to a scratched screen), or if I slung it ‘bandolier-style’ across my body, that left the lens sticking out from my hip for passers-by to jostle.

Presumably Ron Henry, the founder of Black Rapid and an experienced music and wedding photographer had the same problems, because he invented a range of camera straps to make carrying cameras more comfortable and easier and quicker to handle.

Pay money for a camera strap? My camera came with one included!

Black Rapid FastenR connected

The Black Rapid RS-5 is well made, with strong stitching, a padded area and a breathable mesh underside where the weight rests on your shoulder. It attaches to your camera using the tripod mount, using Rapid’s FastenR (a connector made from solid stainless steel, with a D-ring and a high-grade rubber compression washer that ensures a good, tight fit). One advantage of this is that if you have a large lens with a tripod mount, you can attach the strap to that, helping the balance when you carry it. The length of the strap is adjustable, so you can get your camera hanging in a convenient position so that your hand falls on the camera grip. When you grip your camera and move it up to eye level, the connector slides up the strap, ensuring it doesn’t ride up. The strap also has useful pockets big enough for a battery, memory card and mobile ‘phone.

I’ve taken my Black Rapid RS-5 strap on a few trips, where I knew that I didn’t want to carry a hefty camera bag around, and wanted quick access to my camera for street photography. Five days in Paris was great, and I got plenty of shots that I’d have missed if my camera was in a bag, and had no difficulties with the weight of the camera. I also felt more comfortable with the way the camera rests by your side, with the lens perpendicular to your body – no more jostling against passers-by or worries about banging the lens.

Conclusion

It seems ridiculous that I spent a small fortune on camera bodies and lenses, yet all this time a $65 camera strap could have made using them much more comfortable and convenient. My Canon strap is now at the back of a drawer, never to see the light of day again. Highly recommended.

Here’s a video that shows the ergonomics of the strap.

1. They want to see some of my photos
2. They want the address of my web site
3. I don’t have any photos to show them, nor a pen and paper to scrawl down my web site details on

I thought I should finally remedy these things, so the question was, How?

Business cards are, well, let’s face it, for squares like accountants and solicitors, and being a photographer, I needed something cool and creative. So I ordered some Moo MiniCards.

What are Moo MiniCards?

Moo MiniCards are like business cards, but far, far funkier. They have less height, and Moo will print your photos on one side, and your details on the other.

How many photos can you use? Try a different photo on every card (of course, you don’t have to have a different photo on every card, but it wouldn’t feel right to have them all the same).

The clever thing with the photos is that you don’t have to prepare and upload every one. Moo can talk to your Flickr, Bebo, Etsy or Facebook account, and grab the images from there. You then get to position the card template over the area of your image you want printed. It’s easy and simple.

What are they like?

I ordered some cards to promote my personal website, and a holder. They came well packaged, and greeted me with a cheery message. The Moo guys obviously have an eye for detail and a sense of humour.

The holder is designed to open with one hand, and swivel to reveal your cards. It comes with a welcome card and some discount cards to give your friends.

The cards themselves are really nice – they are made from a thick card, and are laminated, giving them a satin finish. The colours are true to the original photos, and the black and white ones show no colour cast and smooth tones.

The cards sit perfectly in the holder, and are easily slid out with your thumb.

I’ve been very impressed with the Moo MiniCards. They are of a higher quality than I had expected, and at the time I ordered, cost £11.99 (UK) or $19.99 (US) for 100. I’ve already given away all my discount cards to friends who want to order some for themselves, so I can’t be alone in admiring them!

Moo MiniCards have developed a bit of a cult following – they even have a flickr group with over 10,000 members, dedicated to people showing off their designs.

Moo MiniCards are available from Moo.com, and ship worldwide.

Shell-shocked US soldier awaiting transportation away from the frontline. Têt Offensive, Hué, South Vietnam, 1968.

Don McCullin’s professional life has several ironies in it.

Recognised as one of the UK’s leading photojournalists, he failed his photographic theory test while serving in the RAF, and was unable to become an RAF photographer. This led to him spending his national service in the darkroom.

Although he won many prestigious international awards for his work, and was honoured with a CBE in 1993, he was refused permission to cover the Falklands war by the British Government, and entry to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war.

It is his ability to capture the human-scale experience of world events that has made his work so potent, and revealed the tragedies behind the headlines.

Making his own destiny

The Guv'nors

McCullin’s first-ever published photograph, The Guv’nors, captured a gang from Finsbury Park, London, outside a dilapidated house. It was first published in the Observer in 1958 after a policeman was murdered by one of the gang members. McCullin later flew to Berlin in 1961 on his own initiative to photograph the building of the Berlin wall, which resulted in him winning the “British Press Award” and getting a year’s contract with The Observer. After covering the civil war in Cyprus in 1964, and winning the 1965 “World Press Photo Premier Award”, he covered the civil war in the Congo, which after being liberated from Belgian rule, was torn apart by ethnic conflict.

In 1966, McCullin joined The London Sunday Times Magazine, a relationship which lasted two decades and saw his photos covering famine in Africa, the Vietnam war and conflicts in the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Uganda (where he was banned for life by Idi Amin) and El Salvador published amongst the glossy weekend ads, waking British people on a Sunday morning to the plight of the rest of the world.

McCullin's reputation had spread beyond his peers by 1968 - The Beatles even requested a photo-shoot with him, where he captured some great moments between the band members.

This is England

Early Shift.

Despite being best known for his photography covering conflict and crisis abroad, Don McCullin returned to England between these world events to document the lives of the poor and socially disadvantaged in his home country. He spent a lot of time in the North East of England, amongst the poverty of working families in the mining and steel industries. I can relate to a lot of these photographs, as I spent 17 years living in the area, and despite four decades having passed, much of the social disadvantagement he shows is still present today.

Sentenced to peace

I have been manipulated, and I have in turn manipulated others, by recording their response to suffering and misery. So there is guilt in every direction: guilt because I don’t practice religion, guilt because I was able to walk away, while this man was dying of starvation or being murdered by another man with a gun. And I am tired of guilt, tired of saying to myself: “I didn’t kill that man on that photograph, I didn’t starve that child.” That’s why I want to photograph landscapes and flowers. I am sentencing myself to peace.
– Don McCullin

Towards an Iron Age hill fort, Somerset, 1991

100 Photos de Don McCullin covers his career, with some of the best examples of his work across all subjects. Many of the images are sad, some express hope, all are moving. The lustre finish to the pages suits the, at times gritty and distressing, documentary style in many of the photographs. But his work isn’t without moments of joy. The young Teddy boy at a dance, the Beatles larking about and a young couple dressed up to go out all feature in this book, and show another side to the world McCullin has witnessed. Highly reccommended.

All photographs in this article are copyright Don McCullin.

Don McCullin Interviews

There is a great BBC interview with Don McCullin on the BBC website.
The National Media Museum has an interview with Don McCullin.
Don McCullin talks about poverty in this video interview.

Don McCullin books

100 Photos de Don McCullin pour la liberté de la presse is available from Amazon UK, but alas, does not seem to be on the US Amazon site at this time.

There are, however, many other fine books by Dan McCullin available.