In your bag No: 1335, Kollin O’Dannel
Today we have another bag that is all about overcoming adversity. This time, Kollin shares with us his special bag and his story about how he was drawn to photography. Inspiring stuff. Check it out.

My name is Kollin O’Dannel, I’ve been a reader of the in your bag section and I thought it would be fun to submit my own. Yes it’s an all digital bag, I do shoot film but I like to carry one camera for my day to day adventures and digital suits me well for that.

My backstory : I’m 24 years old a “Professional Photographer” I say that rather lightly. Currently I’m am in the process of co starting a product photography company called Tiny Zephyr, there is a link to that on my website. I also work as an independent photographer and photo assistent to pay the bills, assisting is fun and you get to see how other photographers work.

At the age of 5 I was diagnosed with Retinoschisis, it is an eye disease characterized by the abnormal splitting of the retina’s neurosensory layers. Please google it if you want to know more. This means I have very poor eyesight, certainly not legally blind but enough to keep me from driving and seeing most of the world in detail.
This is where I turned to photography, When I was 16 I bought a point and shoot camera, a Nikon coolpix S10, crappy camera by today’s standards but it sparked my interest. Photography allows me to see the world that I normally miss, freezing that moment in time to review later. Street photography was a way for me to do this on my own. Growing up landscape photography was a passion of mine but due to my inability to transport myself out into the wilderness without help it was a dream that came to an abrupt end. Street photography was a way for me to be independent and shoot on my own schedule. It was love at first sight and over the past  two years of doing it I am completely obsessed with the artform.

Now on the the good stuff.

My camera is the Fujifilm X100s; it is a fantastic little camera and the files are incredibly powerful with some proper tweaking. The autofocus is slow so I’ve been attempting to zone focus, certainly not an easy task on this camera. Besides its quarks It works very well and keeps me from lugging my heavy DSLR around.

Also I carry a notebook, small sketchbook, pencils, sharpener, phone charger, extra card and batteries.

The bag is surplus from the Korean war; given to me by a friend. Red felt has been folded inside to protect the camera. I try to stay away from camera bags because of their single use.

website : www.kollinodannel.com

You will find my work and links to Instagram and my side project Tiny Zephyr.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for sharing your bag with us, Kollin. That is a very cool story about how photography has changed your life.
Check out the links and please 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. Optimum size is 1500 across. Please ensure there is a bag in the shot, unless you don’t use one. The more you can write about yourself the better, make it appealing and tell us a story. Snapshots of your gear with a camera phone and no words will not be featured.

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