Oh, yes I did. February 3, 2011 By The Blue Brick By

Meet the new baby.

This is the Canon 7D. Swaddled in TFA Grape. Yes, I said swaddled. Because nothing says love like TFA yarn. No Patons cop-out for my camera!

I crocheted a camera cosy. I’m not sure if this qualifies me as uber geek… or just incredibly lame. Maybe they’re the same thing. Nonetheless, I’m pretty proud of my new camera and it’s protective Canon-mitten =oD

There is a reason, besides just reaching for hitherto unheard of levels of crafting madness; it protects her from the elements, and allows me to tuck in a few hand-warmers around the battery casing which extends the life of lithium batteries in the cold. Really – it works. I’m taking her snow shoeing in Tobermory in a few weeks, so I’ll need it.

While I’m at it I’ll give you another little nugget of wisdom – if you’re taking your camera out in elements of dubious merit (rain, rainforest, fog etc.) then do this first: Go to a shoe store, ask them for a bag of the silica gel packs (most stores throw away a ton of these things every day) and pack a bunch of them into your camera case. Even if you’re just moving in from the cold and to a warm room, and you’re worried about condensation inside of the camera body – try this trick.

I can’t take credit for this nugget of wisdom – when I told the people at Henrys that I would be taking the camera canoeing up the Amazon river and did they have any suggestions, they could only (with sad faces), wish me good luck. When I mentioned it casually to someone at Mountain Equipment Co-Op they said ‘Hmmm… I wonder if this would work?’ and took me to the shoe department. Well, that person was a genius and I have them to thank for successfully taking a V.1. Rebel, plastic casing and all, from the Andes to the Amazon with absolutely no problem.

I left openings in the cosy for all important things, like the tripod foot and the dial for changing shooting modes, settings and of course, the shutter button.

The grody little boogly face on the right was given to me (and my 50D) in Madrid by a very nice girl who came up to me at random and gave it to me for good luck. I took some very fine shots in Spain, so I suppose it worked out for me =o) I’ve kept it on the camera ever since.

Many of the cameras other settings are accessed through the back LCD – so I didn’t need to leave anything else free.

It’s quite the engineering feat if you think about it. And yes, I’m talking about the cosy and not the camera, which we can assume is an amazing piece of equipment and which I love dearly. I’ve been a Canon shooter for over 12 years, and this, my latest appropriation, is a pretty damn amazing camera!

My 50D is being gifted to my beautiful friend Yvette, who I’ve known nearly all of my life and who is moving on to new adventures in New Brunswick next month. I can’t wait to see what beautiful work she does with it!