Ditty Bags! A quintessential part of every photographer’s stock, a ditty bag  holds our essential necessities for a shoot. I don’t know what you guys call it but I got used to the term years ago and always lovingly refer to mine as a ditty bag, even though I get the strange looks from my ’20 something assistants. When researching the reason for the name I found this great little article about ditty bag:  The Ditty Bag is “a small bag in which a sailor keeps small tools and equipment, also personal articles” according to John Rogers in Origins of Sea Terms: A modern Glossary of seagoing terminology. They did and still do have one main purpose: to hold a sailor’s personal possessions and some tools of the trade. They have even been referred to as a “housewife” because they held all the essentials for repairing clothing, personal belongings as well as everything that was needed on deck!

Ditty Bag-O-Rama~~

Nowadays they are used frequently in the film industry. Gaffers and grips have them around their waists.  I technically don’t own an actual  “ditty bag” but I still refer to any bag that isn’t my housing my cameras and lenses as my ditty bag.  B and H makes a really nice one here. And you’re welcome to invest in a nice one like this. I just buy cheap canvas type duffel bags. They get thrown around a lot and I’m okay with not having them on my person when I’m shooting. If you’re an assistant though, it’s a nice thing to have so you can keep all those essentials at arm’s reach! But let’s take a look at what I keep in mine because I’m sure you are all DYING to know!!

My Ditty Bag Includes:

1. A couple different types of tape (gaffer, duct, masking)

2. Dust off. Great for keeping lenses, uh, dust free! Good for when you’re shooting on the beach on a windy day and you want to do everything you can to keep the sand out of the camera.

3. My handy gloves. Let’s face it: I’m a skinny girl. I get cold very easily. These gloves are great because they keep my hands warm but leave the two most important fingers I need to shoot with exposed! YAY for Etre gloves! I can’t rave about them more!

4. A bottle of Rosco’s Fog juice. One time someone who’s opinion I didn’t really respect told me that they weren’t a “fan of fog machines”. I vowed to use them as often as I could possibly get away with! In fact, I use them so often that I just buy the juice instead of renting it along with the machine. I should just buy the damn machine!!

5. 2 25’ extension cords. SO important, I can’t even tell you!

6. About 50 AA and AAA batteries. Again. You just don’t want to be stranded without them especially when you need….just one……

7. Flash light. Yep. Good to be able to see in dark places.

8. Gels that go over lights. Imagine that! I’m so damn old school I still use color gels!!! Haha….bet you’re going to click on that link…..

9. A manila folder full of blank model releases! Learn to use them cuz I’m terrible at it!

10. A couple of A clamps. Good for holding shit together. Better than a paper clip and a piece of gum, MacGyver!

11. SP Studio Systems 5 in 1 Reflector kit. Why the hell not!

12. An 18% grey card to measure my white balance. Again, learn to use one cuz I just rely on my assistants to figure that out. ; )

13. Camera manuals, pocket wizard manuals, profoto lighting gear manuals. I keep them in a big plastic bag. Its nice to know you can trouble shoot something when you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception to call the guys at Samy’s and ask the Dumb Question of the Week!

14. Paper cups. Just good to have on hand.

15. Breakfast bars. I try not to encourage my models to eat but if they’re fainting…….( I’m Just KIDDING. Jeez, you guys are so serious!)

16. Bobby pins, hair ties, rubber bands, body stockings, nude bras, hair brush, comb, etc. Yep, the stylists should have all these things but it’s always good to have back up!

17. Latex gloves. Just good to have around.

18. Pot holders. Ditto. Hot lights, Hot heads. Just good to be able to throw one on in case of an emergency.

*FYI* We changed the dates on our April Seminar after realizing that we had previously scheduled it for Easter Weekend. The new dates are April 10th and 11th! Hope to see some of you there! Go here to the seminar page to get the full details!

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The second half of day two of my seminars addresses the business side of fashion photography. I jump in by reminding my students that one of the biggest mistakes photographers make is forgetting that fashion photography is a business, like any other business, and the purpose of being in business is to obviously make money. That’s kind of a no-brainer, right? We are all aware that we need to generate revenue in order to survive. However, after reminding my students of the importance of remembering that this is a business, I then ask them WHY they are interested in pursuing fashion photography. I mean, why aren’t they interested in say, food photography or portraiture, weddings or cars? Aside from teaching at my seminars, I also answer a huge amount of emails. And again, I ask the people emailing me with questions about how they can make it as a fashion photographer, why are they interested in fashion photography as oppose to other avenues of photography. What baffles me is not very many people can answer that question. What IS fashion photography? I mean, the answer is right there: FASHION photography is about the fashion. It’s the business of photographing the fashion for either editorial or advertising purposes. It’s about selling the clothes! The CLOTHES!!!!

Coco Chanel

I always ask some pretty easy questions, like: do they know what Chanel was famous for in establishing her brand? Not only do most not know what she was famous for, some don’t even know Chanel was a “she” and they don’t know her first name! I asked them to describe the difference between an empire waist and a drop waist. No, they can’t answer that. Next? Describe what a bolero jacket looks like. No, they don’t know that either. Okay, then, tell me the difference between viscose and rayon? Nope.

Look, here’s a fact: you must understand fashion design. You are going to have to communicate with editors, stylists, art directors and designers in this career. If a fashion editor has hired you to shoot 8 pages for their next spring issue and tells you that the mood for that particular issue is a “Paris 1920’s, heavily influenced by a “Brassai” feel,” you better know what she’s talking about! Do you know what political influences were going on during that era that revolutionized the way women approached fashion? Do you know what designer’s were coming into the forefront of that revolution? (I just named one of them so that was an easy give away…..). Which hair style was vey popular, what were the women wearing in Paris during the ‘20’s and by the way, who is BRASSAI????

Brassai

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news here, but seriously, if you think that fashion photography is all about shooting half-naked chicks with hot bodies then perhaps you need to change direction and look into glamour photography. They are two vastly different industries. Does Maxim do it for you? Or does Numero? I haven’t looked at a Maxim in God knows how long. I’m not interested in the work. I’m not saying you can’t make money shooting that style of photography but it isn’t fashion. I shoot fashion photography. My blog is about fashion photography. I teach fashion photography at my seminars. And the one thing I will constantly insist on is the importance of understanding fashion design.

Brassai

To make things a little easier for you I’ve compiled a list of some good books to get. You should read them inside out. Buy them so you can bookmark them, underline them, make notes and use these books like textbooks. You will refer back to them constantly over the course of your career. And the next time you tell me how “passionate you are about fashion photography” you better be able to tell me WHY! You know, my husband asked me this recently, “Do you really think Steven Meisel or David Sims love fashion and understand fashion design?” My answer is…yes. I really think you HAVE to love it and understand it in order to shoot it well and be successful at it. So educate thy Self and get ye to a bookstore or Amazon or I don’t care where or how but gain some strong knowledge on the subject and you’ll start to love it even more than you do now!

Fashion A to Z: An Illustrated Dictionary by Alex Newman and Zakee Shariff. - A great comprehensive guide to fashion.It’s an alphabetized guide where you can look up things like Empire Waist under E and find the definition.
100 Years of Menswear by Cally Blackman
Figure Drawing for Fashion Design (Pepin Press Design Books)
The Fashion Book by Phaidon Press
Fashion: The Twentieth Century by Francois Baudot
Icons of Fashion: The 20th Century Gerda Buxbaum (editor)
Costume and Fashion: A Concise History by Amy De La Haye
Fashion by Taschen Books
Vogue Fashion: Over 100 years of style by Decade and Designer by Linda Watson

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