I’m a big bag guy. Patagonia, Manfrotto, Fjallraven — you name it, I’ve tried it. Much like with cameras, I believe you need the right bag for the right job. Somedays it’ll be a rucksack full of all the odds and ends you can think of, others it’ll be a tote for some shopping. For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying out the Moment Everything bags and quickly found that with the collection I can do, well, pretty much everything. I’m often all over the place (location-wise, I obviously have everything else fully together…), whether I’m shooting on location, in and out of meetings, or just out socializing — so keeping the right stuff on me is important. I thought I’d share a week in my life using this stellar collection of bags.
The 17 and 21L Everything Backpack is your new go-to daily backpack. Born from the desire for a bag that does it all, the Everything Backpack is the versatile companion that carries everything, goes a...
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Today was a fairly laid-back start to the week. I’m staying in the countryside close to where my business partners from Firewood Pictures are based while prepping for a commercial. Today is mostly a series of meetings on Zoom for two shoots later in the week and then a stroll into town to see my business partners for a coffee to chat about the commercial we’re doing on Wednesday. I walked in with the Everything Tote (in the workwear colorway because I LOVE a splash of yellow!). I didn’t need loads for the meetings, just my laptop and a notebook. My laptop was in a dedicated pouch, and my water bottle was in its slot, and I went! It’s super comfy to sling the tote over my shoulder for the walk into town, and it’s a nice-looking accessory, too.
I had the Everything Tech Pouch in the bag alongside an SSD I gave my editor. It’s a rugged drive, but giving it some proper protection while carrying it about is nice.
Post-meeting, I returned to my desk in deep pre-pro for the week ahead.
This morning, I spent another day largely at my desk. I’ve got a commercial shoot tomorrow, so I'm dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on the prep. I’ll be directing and DPing the shoot, so I have to double-check my lighting plan, chat with my gaffer, and do some quick camera prep in the afternoon.
I went to the unit where the kit’s stored and checked everything with my producer, who’ll also be focus-pulling for me tomorrow (oh, the joys of a micro-budget spot!). I didn’t need to bring much with me because pretty much everything was together with the kit, so I just threw my laptop into the Everything Tote and headed over. Good job! I did when we spotted something a bit odd in the footage when doing some quick tests, and it was easily fixed by loading up the files into the computer.
In the evening, I partook in an all-important British tradition — The Pub Quiz. Now, I appreciate that this will partly be going to a largely American audience, and a quick Google suggests that this is best known as a trivia night in some bars, but in case that doesn’t clarify, I’ll explain. You go to the pub. You do several rounds of obscure questions. Everyone gets INCREDIBLY competitive. The winner gets some cash. Simple stuff. But boy, does it get heated (today’s quiz included a near riot when the quizmaster said that H on the periodic table stood for Helium!)
It’s a short walk into town from where I’m staying, so I brought the Fanny Sling (another key difference between the US and the UK, but I’ll let you look that one up for yourself - it’s not PG-13 enough for here!) I popped my Ricoh GR3x in here (which I wrote about here). I like that the bag is padded, so I feel comfortable sticking a camera in there, knowing it’s safer than in my pocket. Of course, I also had some cash for my critical buy-in for a quiz I was confident about winning. Dear reader, we did not win. We didn’t even come in the top half of the teams. Crushing.
Shoot day today! Since the whole kit was prepped and our editor was on set, I didn’t need to bring a lot, but I grabbed my fanny sling with my Ricoh again. Seeing as we’d be shooting a hospital, now feels a good time to note that I’m asthmatic, so I’ve always got an inhaler on me, so that’ll pretty much always be in whatever bag I’m carrying. One thing that I really like about the Everything range is the outside pockets, which means I can always keep my medication on hand in case of emergencies. It’s thankfully not something I’ve ever needed yet, but if it does, it’s reassuring to have such easy access to it!
The shoot went off seamlessly—the prep time always makes a difference. It’s a PSA spot about the importance of moving while in the hospital and receiving treatment. You can check it out here!
Back to London today! When I’m in the city, I work in a great co-working space, so I’m up early to head onto the tube and into the office. I poured everything I needed into the Everyday Tote — packed lunch, work gear, and a book for the journey (I’m reading God Emperor of Dune at the moment… people were not joking when they said the series gets weird!). I often feel like this is a bit like Mary Poppins’ bag — I can SO MUCH into it. One thing I love about the bag is how many extra pouches and slots are inside to keep things organized. I’m a bit of a messy person, and with a bag this big, it would be easy to have everything rolling around and for it to take forever to pull anything out, but the internal design of the bag is really well thought out, so everything is nicely split up.
It’s probably a good time to mention the tech pouch along with the organization theme. I’ve pretty much got this on me anytime I go out with my laptop. It’s a great way of organizing chargers, hard drives, and everything. Inside are lots of segments to pop cables or chargers into. Today, I’m bringing my laptop charger — Apple’s big 96w brick — a charging cable for my phone and a hard drive. It all fits in with no problem.
I’m not working today, so I'm just pottering around my local area and not getting up too much. Again, the tote comes in clutch to do a grocery shop. There’s plenty of space to get everything I need here for the next few days.
In the evening, I packed a bag for tomorrow's photoshoot. Now, a new bag is entering the fray — the Everything Backpack. But more on that for tomorrow's venture.
The 21L Everything Backpack has quickly become my go-to bag for many photo shoots. It’s nice and roomy; I can get my 16” laptop in it (which isn’t true of every bag, even this size!) I tend to stick my A7RV in the Everything Camera Insert 8L, a couple of prime lenses (in this case, a Batis 85mm and a Sigma 35mm), a flash, and a little 35mm point-and-shoot. I love that the camera insert has moveable padding to shift around depending on my shoot. The camera insert fits PERFECTLY in the bag, with a 70-200mm lens covering the rest of the main compartment. All my kit is snug and safe. Batteries and cards are in the pouches in the main compartment, a water bottle goes in the side pouch, and my medication, a couple of rolls of film, and my Instax printer go in the front pouch, and I’m good to go.
It’s a couple’s photoshoot today for some of my best friends, and we’re up and out early to get some good morning light. They’re a very outdoorsy couple, so we’re headed to a forest a couple of hours' drive away to do the shoot. The Everything Backpack opens fully, so it’s easy to pull the kit out once we get to the location. It was a bit of a trek through the woods throughout the day, so it was really important to have a comfortable bag so I’m glad this fit the bill!
Back at the car, I sat with the couple, and we flicked through some of the photos on my laptop. They were super happy with them! Something I love to do on shoots like this is give a couple an Instax photo of one of the shots to take away with them — you can read more about that here.
Another chill day to end the week. I took advantage of being out of London to visit my mum and stay with her Saturday night. We walked, and I took the fanny sling with my Leica M6. It’s big enough to safely keep the camera, a spare roll of film, and a portable charger. We stopped for breakfast and then walked down an old tramway. There was a bit of light drizzle while we were out, and while the bag wasn’t waterproof, my camera was safer there than it was out!
After that, I was back in London and packing up my Tote, ready to head to the office to do it all again next week!
Everything Fanny Sling
You need the right tool for the right job, and one thing I like about the Everything Bag range is how well they complement each other. Whether I need to go out with loads of things or with very little, there’s a bag I can reach for. They’re all super well thought out and comfortable to wear (not to mention good-looking!) I can’t recommend the Everything bags enough as a set of bags that can do pretty much anything!
