Camel Wins Free Timbuk2 Bag

So, I'm not big on "stuff", per se, but there is this company out of San Francisco that makes really tough, reliable messenger bags that are great for hauling gear around (comfy, waterproof, etc.) They're a little expensive for the student budget (probably on account of being high-quality, built in the US, and cleverly marketed). My grandma got me one for Chanukah over a year ago and it's been all over the world (once during my travels during and post-study abroad, once with Maddy when she went on Int'l Honors Program). Anyway, I digress-- this is a photo blog after all, not a gear blog. When I heard they (Timbuk2, the bag company) had a travel photo contest "tell us the best place your bag has been" to win a free bag ($200 value!) I got really psyched and looked back at photos I had of some adventures.

I took several photos and tried photoshopping my bag into it as a good creative exercise (the contest encouraged this). I'm pretty good with Photoshop when it comes to anything I'd need it for in a journalistic assignment, but when it comes to things like adding and removing objects from photos or doing other unethical or borderline-ethical alterations, I have little to no experience. Suffice it to say, none of the ones I photoshopped my bag into turned out to be anything special, but I did have a photo of my bag on a camel during a desert excursion Emily and I took in Morocco last summer which turned out to be exactly what they were looking for--



I had some better photos of the camel (I'll probably put them here later, just for fun) and of the trip, but this one showed the bag the best. Read their blog entry about my bag, it's really great. Plus I just noticed this button on their front page linking to the contest: they made a graphic of a camel in the 3 colors of my bag. Awesome. Such clever folks in the Bay Area...