In your bag 441, Steven Ichikawa
Today we have a bag that comes from the USA. Steven’s friends have been on the site too, so it is great to see another one from the group. Check it out.

Hi Bellamy and readers of JCH! My name is Steven Ichikawa and I’m a 20 year old student from San Francisco, CA. My friends Sean and Joe (#349 and #270 respectively) have posted their bags already so I decided to follow suit.

I first started photography about 3 years ago while I was in high school. I bought a Canon Rebel XT and some crappy lens and ever since then I’ve been hooked. I started shooting film about a year ago and haven’t stopped ever since. This will probably sound stupid, but I love that “film look”. Also, the whole process of developing your own film just feels so much more organic to me.

When I first started shooting, I was into the typical “pretty pictures” like landscapes, flower shots, etc etc but one day I happened upon a street photography thread online and saw some of Daido Moriyama’s work. That was the first time I had really looked at an established street photographer’s work and ever since, I’ve been on the streets. My favorite photographers now are probably Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, William Klein, Jun Abe, etc etc (it’s a long list :D).

I guess you can call this my Olympus Bag since all that I use right now are Olympus cameras for the most part (only their film cameras though). I do have a 5D and a Fuji X10 and a whole bunch of other SLR/RF/P&S cameras that I’ve accumulated , but here is what’s in my bag most often I guess haha. Starting with the bag itself:

Domke F-833 (I think): i recently just bought this bag to use. Before this, I was using my Chrome messenger for carrying all my stuff, but that wasn’t working out. Like I mentioned before, I am a student and need to have adequate space for both cameras and books. This bag is extremely spacious and fits everything I need for my day.

Olympus Trip 35: I inherited this from my Grandfather after he passed away and it’s actually the first film camera I’ve used. As you can see, it’s in pretty bad shape so I don’t take it out often, but it’s something very important to me. I actually bought another one for like $20 but haven’t gotten around to using it yet.

Olympus Stylus (UnEpic): This was the first film p&s I bought. I wanted a Ricoh GR1s but the budget of a college student is pretty sucky and this is best I could come up with :D. I love the 35 3.5 lens on this thing. Sharp as hell.. In my opinion just as good as the Yashica T4. I own both and can honestly say the T4 isnt worth $180 more than what I payed for the Stylus. I normally have some b&w film in here. I’ve put more rolls through this than any other camera I own.

Olympus XA2: I got this a couple months back for like $30 on eBay. It’s one of my favorite cameras to use due to the simplicity. I normally have some kind of cheap color film loaded. Right now it has Fuji Superia 800 in it. I put the Hello Kitty and BAPE stickers on because I was bored one night haha :)

Olympus OM-1n: I bought this awhile back and have put tons of rolls through it since. It actually has a couple cosmetic flaws hence the use of tape but otherwise it functions perfectly. I have a 28 3.5 pretty much glued on it. If this ever gives out on me I definitely want an OM4Ti. The OM series is pretty underrated nowadays in my opinion. I rarely ever see people using anything except Canikon SLRs.

Film: I currently have a bunch of T-MAX 3200 that I got for cheap locally ($2 a roll). Otherwise I normally shoot with HP5+. I also have a couple rolls of Superia 800, too for the XA2. Basically whatever I can snag for the lowest price!

Kindle Fire HD: Perfect for goofing around in class or reading a book on the bus. Murakami and Fitzgerald novels pretty much dominate my book list.

Misc Books: I am a Japanese major and usually have some kind of short novel in my bag that I have to read for class. This one happens to be 大人のための残酷童話 (Cruel Fairy Tails for Adults).

If you’re interested in following my blog (mostly snapshots and me talking about my life: www.steveniphoto.wordpress.com
If you’re interested in seeing what I normally take photos of: www.stevenichikawa.tumblr.com/
If you’re interested in being Flickr buddies: www.flickr.com/photos/stevenpi/

Thanks for looking guys! And thanks Bellamy for running such a cool site. Keep it up man!

Thanks for sharing your bag with us Steven. The Kitty sticker is awesome.
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