But… you can’t. Too bad, because this ability would come in extra handy for photographers. Like a couple weeks ago when I was in Chicago. Walking through Millennium Park, we came through this lovely alley of trees.

Not bad. But I found myself wishing that some sunlight would come streaming through the trees. Not a lot of it, just a beam of sunlight to light up one of those trees.

No sun in sight, though. It was alternately raining and drizzling. Definitely no hope of the sun coming out any time soon.

Even though I wanted to travel light, and had brought just one camera and two lenses on my trip, I had known myself well enough to also bring a flash. I didn’t want to bother with my flash triggers – that would have taken up too much room. This was what swayed me to bring my Canon 7D instead of the 5D Mark II – because the 7D has a pop-up flash that you can use to wirelessly trigger a remote flash. It’s infrared rather than radio, but I could work with that.

Traveling with my husband, Matt, meant I’d also brought a handy VOLS (voice-operated light stand). So my next photo looked like this:

On our second day in Chicago, I woke up at the crack of dawn (really – it was 5:30am), leapt out of bed and within 10 minutes was walking through the city, looking for some pretty morning light. There wasn’t much to be found. I did eventually find some blue-ish sky over by the Navy Pier. I liked this composition of the chess table in the foreground of the beach.

Silhouettes are great, but that look wasn’t doing it for me here. I needed some light on the table. No sunlight here, so my speedlight came out again. You can be sure that at around 6:30am when this photo was taken, my VOLS was back at our hotel, sound asleep. No matter; there was a large recycling bin just behind the table, so I put my flash on there.

Lest I give the wrong idea – here’s what Chicago looked like a few hours after those first photos were taken.

It was plenty sunny. Just not when I wanted it to be. No matter.

*Disclaimer* of course speedlights can’t completely recreate the sun, and there are plenty of limitations to using them. But there are far, far more possibilities than you’d have without them.

I’m so glad to have a look that I really feel is me. Thanks so much to Ashley, Jo and the rest of the Luxecetera team for working with me to come up with this look. I think it fits!

Problems with this: wearing a camera across your body is not going to win me any “most stylish photographer” awards. Let’s be honest, it’s not going to put me in the running for “average style,” either.

My fellow photographer Mary Schwarz favors the Dual Black Rapid strap. I thought about giving that a try, as I know it works very well for Mary, but I felt that it wouldn’t solve the biggest issue I have when using two cameras. Which is,  when I have a camera on either the Black Rapid strap or the regular camera strap, my cameras bounce around when I walk. At a reception, when I’m walking through the close quarters of guests tables, I risk taking out with my 70-200mm Grandma Rose as I squeeze through.

I like shooting from a low angle, and it’s annoying to me to crouch down and worry that the camera on my shoulder is going to crash into the ground if I get too low.

So, I found a new solution to carrying two cameras: the Spider Holster.The camera you’re not shooting with rests in a holster on your belt.  Having put it through its paces at three weddings and a few portrait sessions, I can say that I LOVE IT.

How does it work? There are three pieces to the system.

1. Belt
2. Plate
3. Holster

The belt comes with the system, but I’ve elected not to use it. It’s one size fits most, but I think that there may be more room on the plus size end than the smaller end. I am most definitely not skinny, but even adjusted as tight as it can go, the belt is a little big on me. It’s also not too attractive, and since I am almost always wearing a belt anyway, I prefer to thread the holster onto my own leather belt. It also feels more secure to me to have the holster on my own belt as it threads through and I know there is no way it can come off. (Note: there is a recall on the clip portion of the belt right now – so I wouldn’t recommend using it, even if it fits.)

The plate is a sturdy piece of metal that screws on to the bottom of your camera. There is a pin on the plate, and this is what slides into the holster.  Then the camera is anchored right to the holster. It doesn’t move when you move.

(Big thanks to my good friend/second shooter Jennifer Stein, who came with me on Ashley & Jason’s engagement session and captured the Spider Holster in action.)

Sometimes I like to lie down on the job.

I was able to lie down in the photo above without taking my second camera out of the holster. I was careful, but I didn’t have to touch the second camera to be sure it didn’t crash or bang or bump the ground as I lay down.

I do still like to have straps on my cameras. If I’m up high on a balcony or looking over a wall, I want that security of knowing the camera is attached to me. So when I holster my camera, I do take the extra step of tucking my strap in between the barrel of the lens and my hip. The pressure of the camera’s position then holds the strap in place.

The holster has a locking mechanism, so when you slide the camera in, you can lock it so it doesn’t come out.

I have just one stupid complaint about this product. The name. I have some pretty serious arachnophobia. And I cringe a little bit every time I have to say or type the name. I know, silly.