What's in my Camera Bag?

So today I bought myself a new lens!!!! (in photographer speak this is an UBER exciting moment!)

It's a Canon EF 85mm f1.8 USM. (A really nice portrait lens)

This new lens will be predominantly for shooting portraiture, it'll let me get a bit further away from my subjects & has the most amazing bokeh (beautiful creamy, blurry background). 

I think I am going to be a prime lens girl! 

This 85mm lens now compliments my Canon EF 50mm f1.8 which I have had on my camera pretty much 100% of the time up until now. Prime lens don't have any zoom, so it makes you think about composition a bit more and you have to use your feet and walk around to get the shot you want, rather than just zooming in or out. Prime lens offer better image quality and larger aperture (faster lens therefore short DOF & also better in low light) than most zoom lens unless you can afford to fork out the big dollars on the awesome zoom lens (getting towards $3k or more) that make me drool (but unfortunately out of my price range for now). 

I was lucky enough to be allowed the use of this new 85mm for the weekend and I was on cloud nine (have you seen the image on my Facebook page from Sunday?)!
I couldn't bear to return it to the store so ended up buying it today - hehe.

Tonight after adding it to my camera bag I got to thinking - let's have a look at the other things I've got in my camera bag!

Here's what else I've got in my camera bag:

Here's my two other lens: the famous Canon EF 50mm f1.8 and a kit zoom lens Canon EF 55-250mm.
Up until now the 50mm has lived on my Canon EOS 550D camera body, however it might be getting a bit more bag time now I've got it's big sister the 85mm. The 55-250mm is simply for my personal use, more capturing some fun images where I need a bit of zoom (like sports events).

Among other things I carry in my camera bag: cables, pens, spare filters, lens hoods, my camera manual, SD cards and batteries.
Some things I definitely couldn't do without are my remote so I can trigger the shutter without holding onto the camera (this is such a timesaver when taking self portraits), a circular polarizing filter (so good for landscape photography, removes glare & makes colours more true) and my iPad mini & iPhone for keeping in touch with clients & researching everything and anything about photography! I also carry bobby pins and hair ties for my portrait shoots just in case!

I use a backpack style camera bag with moveable compartments that cushion & mould around my camera and lens. It's got a heap of pockets too which are super handy, plus a hard exterior base so I can put it down on wet grass without a worry! It's not the most fashionable camera bag out but it's so handy and is  sturdy to keep all my gear safe.

So that's an insight into what I've got in my camera bag at the moment - I'm always wanting to add to my collection as my experience increases (and my bank account diminishes)! xx