Most of the gear I carry around with me as a digital media designer is swaddled in black ballistic nylon. This material is practically de rigeur for the modern design ninja, but sometimes you want something a little more stylish and upscale. Something cute.

Accessories

• The Joby GorillaPod is like a graspy bendable claw, clutching at whatever you wrap its rubber-encased toes around! Mount it to a vertical pole! Wrap it around a convenient tree branch! I had one at one point, but gave it away. There are different sizes for different weights of camera...make sure you don't get one that's too weak to hold itself up under the weight of your DSLR, or you'll be sorry!

• The Lensbaby is an artistic lens that you can use to create neat artistic effects for less money than those expensive tilt-shift lenses. Which I still totally want, but at around $200 the Lensbaby will give you similar creative control. Plus they look cool.

• Eye-Fi is a wireless sharing SD memory card. Apparently it has a complete wireless networking interface built-into it, and this allows you to upload files to the web right from the camera. THAT IS INTRIGUING.

Camera Bags

• My sister picked up this Acme Made Bowler Camera Bag for her Canon Digital Rebel. It looks like a bowling bag. She says it's a little too small though to pack with gear, but still...swanky!