Keeping Dry On The Cheap

I'll admit it, I'm parsimonious.  Canny.  Tight-fisted.  Cheap.  So while I was helping Mrs C. pack about two hundred bags for a confernce recently, I saw an opportunity.  Each bag came individually wrapped in plastic which I was already feeling guilty about having to bin.  But inside the packaging was something I could recycle: three or four small packets of silica gel.  Not much in itself, but when you collect about 700 of the things, you've got a decent pile.

Unfortunately the sugar-sachet sized packets are just made of paper and rupture easily, so it's impractical to just dump a handful in my camera bag.  To the rescue comes Mrs C with an uwanted pair of pantyhose.  I cut them up, filled 'em with silica packets and hot glued em closed.  Now I've got a bunch of large silica gel sachets to keep my gear nice and arid.  I just have to microwave them now and then to drive the moisture out. 

Saving the planet, one exposure at a time.