In your bag 838, Alessandro Melillo
Today we have a really cool bag from an urban artist based in Italy. This is probably the first bag we have had with a pipe inside too. Come and check it out.

I’m Alessandro, from Italy, I’m 39 and I’m an architect, urban sketcher and photographer. I was born in Piombino, on Tuscany’s beautiful coast and I’m based in Forte dei Marmi, just 150 km north of there.

I like film photography though I used to carry with me a Canon G11 as well. When it broke I suddenly discovered that I actually didn’t need a digital camera, so I just didn’t buy another and I’m happy with hybrid approach (i.e. shooting film and scanning it). The picture of my bag has been shot with my wife’s micro 4/3 ;-)

I love rangefinders but I also couldn’t separate from my Pentax MX, that’s why I use rangefinders for quick shots and my MX when I have time to plan a shot.

That’s not all my gear, as I own many other film cameras, first among all my YashicaMat first model which I find perfect for shooting street.

Actually, street photography is my main interest in the photography field though I also like reportage and travel photography.

But let’s go to the index. Apart from my Kalahari bag, which I use both for photography and everyday tasks, you can see, left to right and top-down:

– a fudepen, japanese water brush pen I bought in Takayama

– a Lamy Safari fountain pen filled with bulletproof Noodler’s Lexington Grey ink

– some small origami paper squares (I’m fond of it)

– a small sponge

– film. this time you see Rollei Digibase 200 (slides) and Tri-X

– my aluminium case for Micron pens and a Platinum brush pen with black waterproof ink

– cotton rope for anything that needs to be fixed, blocked or hung

– inversion ring for macros and lens cap

– earphones for use with any device

– Pentax MX with its SMC 50 mm f/1.7 and a nylon strap which belonged to my father.

– bunch of A6 sized 300 g/m^2 cards, for sketching. On them, a legal excerpt explaining that I can shoot in railway areas, as in Italy shooting main strategic targets is forbidden by a law of the 40’s. Anyone knows that the railways actually allow photography in public access areas, though, and as I’m fond of shooting people in stations and trains I constantly find myself discussing with railway staff which would like to stop me shooting or force me to delete my shots (!)

– small Indian rosewood box filled with liquorice

– matches

– flake tobacco and pipe

– portable watercolor set and a piece of blotting paper to clean the brush

– one of my rangefinders. This time it’s the Ricoh 500 RF

– my Leatherman Charge multitool. Way sturdier and practical than lame swiss army knives

I post my photographs in parallel on my blog and my flickr account.
http://lightwasenough.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexmelillo
I’m @alex_melillo on Twitter
And my main website is http://alexmelillo.altervista.org

From there one can reach also my urban sketching blog.
Keep up the good work, I love your blog.
And have fun, that’s what matters most ^_^

Ale-

Thanks for sharing your gear and your artistic bag with us Alessandro. I would love to spend my days drawing and shooting the Tuscany coast.
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. Please understand that there is a long wait now as there is a backlog of submissions. Not all make the cut, so make sure yours is funny/interesting/quirky. And please make sure the shot is of good quality, as the ones that are not do not go up.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter