In your bag 288, Chris Craddock
A monster of a camera today. Chris carries around the super beast that is the Pentax 67, so he doesn’t need anything else in his bag, probably for fear of getting a hernia. Check it out.

Hello from the midwest!

I’m an Air Force veteran and current full-time biology student. I pursue photography in my spare time, and am part of an up and coming fine art photography group based in Chicago.

My full kit consists of a three lens Pentax 67 outfit, complete with extension tubes, crammed into a Crumpler bag. I also have a three lens Canon AE-1 Program kit. Lately, however, in the interest of saving my back and knees, I’ve been carrying the pared-down bag seen here.

Bag: White Gravis Hobo Medium that I use for books during school days.

Camera 1: Pentax 67 w/ 105mm lens and retractable rubber lens hood. I bought this beast from a pro photographer who was moving to Vegas, and I fell in love with it the first time I held it. While I have two other lenses for it, 95% of what I shoot is with the 105mm. Sharp with great color and out of focus rendering. The wooden handle is a must for carting it around.

Camera 2: Olympus Stylus Epic w/ Gordy wrist strap. I bought this as a carry-everywhere camera. I found that working with medium format led to me becoming a bit too careful and selective in what I shoot, and often times I left my camera home altogether.

With 35mm, I have 36 frames to fire off as I please, and the Stylus Epic packs an impressive lens in a camera I can pull out, point, and shoot without having to fuss with focusing and metering. In a pinch, I can shove it into my pants pocket and carry it with me when carrying a bag isn’t feasible.

Did I mention it’s also weathersealed? It’s the perfect go-anywhere camera.

Lightmeter: Polaris Flashmeter. Cheap, accurate, and can be fit with an optional 10-degree spotmeter attachment.

Film: Kodak Portra 400 in both 35mm and 220. While I adore the cinematic look of Fuji Provia, negative film scans better with my scanner. Portra comes very close to Provia in my opinion, with finer grain than Fuji 400H.

That’s about it. I’m really enjoying carrying around this bag, even though my cameras aren’t protected by the padding a traditional camera bag offers.  I think it’s more important that I actually use my cameras instead of babying them, though, and having a bag that’s 10 pounds lighter makes it easier to bring them with me more often.

You can find my work at my website, http://www.christophercraddock.com, or at my Flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/craddock.

You can also check out my work, as well as work from my colleagues in the Hungry Ghost Collective, at http://www.hungryghostcollective.com

Thanks for your time,
-Chris

Thanks for sharing your bag with us today Chris. That is a massive camera, a great one too.
Check out the links and make sure you come and comment.

Keep them coming folks, we need more submissions, so get your bag on Japancamerahunter.com. Send me a hi resolution image of the bag (please make sure it is horizontal) and its contents, with some details about yourself and what you shoot. Oh and don’t forget your contact details (twitter, flickr, tumbler et al). Send the bag shots here.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter