HOLDFAST

Shooting weddings is incredible fun. It's high intensity, full pressure, go, go, go action and I love it. Coming from a hospitality background, I know that feeling at the end of the night when you've smashed out a full service and everything went smoothly, there's a sense of accomplishment in making customers happy and orchestrating a fluid, enjoyable evening. Weddings can be a lot like that. In terms of the reward at the end of it all anyway. The one incy wincy little downside is... your shoulders. At the end of the day after carrying two cameras, two lenses, and two flashes in total weighing 6 kilos, your shoulders can be pret-ty cooked after a 9-10 hour day.

Enter: Holdfast. Holdfast is an American small business situated in Oklahoma. They hand make leather harnesses to hold cameras. And they are in demand. I've been trying to purchase one of their setups for quite some time now. As they are hand made the production time is slow, and the demand, high. Apparently these things are gold for photographers. Just the other week I finally managed to order one. The Money Maker in chestnut bridle leather. And it arrived 2 days ago. Being leather it's pretty stiff. But that's where the power in these things lie. The leather over time will mould to your shoulders and back giving full support. Apparently. Previously I'd been using two Black Rapid camera straps criss-crossed over my chest so I can reach them like guns hanging at my hips. But they pinch and have plastic bits diggin and are a Macguyver'ed fix. The Holdfast system is designed for this job. I will be testing it out this weekend so we'll see how it goes!

ps anyone remember Mathnet? Kids tv show back in the 80's. Totally feel like I'm on that show wearing this thing...