In your bag No: 1340, Patrick Kuhl
Patrick shares his very well organised bag for us today. And my word does he carry a lot of stuff… Well, I guess he doesn’t carry all of this, but even so, that is a lot of gear to lug about. Come and check it out.

Hello! My name is Patrick Kuhl and I’m a computer Systems Administrator in Madison,WI. My passion is photography though. I’m mostly self-taught (I basically live on the Internet, and it’s been an immensely great “teacher”). I really enjoy street and general urban photography in my free time. I also enjoy shooting landscapes and nature, especially when I’m backpacking with my wife. She’s been a great source of inspiration for my creative side, having bought me my first DSLR a few years ago, kicking off a serious case of Gear Acquisition Syndrome for a while. Being an IT guy, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I have a severe love of gadgets. So, I kind of went a little crazy with trying everything. In the past year or so though, I’ve significantly slowed my digital photography gear purchases and focused on film gear, especially smaller cameras. 

I still love gadgets, but lately I’ve channeled that into taking apart and learning how to fix film cameras (when I’m not out taking photos). My latest project (which I’m quite proud of, however simple it is in the grand scheme of things) was fixing my Leica M4-P’s vertical alignment. I had to take the top plate off because the glue inside was preventing me from manipulating it with the special tool via the screw hole above the lens mount. So, that was a little intimidating, but I learned quite a lot. 

Further in line with my love of gadgets, after an addictive read through the entirety of tokyocamerastyle.com (and Japan Camera Hunter!), I decided to start a similar blog here in Madison, Wisconsin. So, I launched madisoncamerastyle.com and it has been up and running since April of last year, with a slightly different approach. It’s a bit difficult to find film photography enthusiasts here, and when I do, it’s been difficult asking them to be photographed for the site. So, I tend to post photos of film, film cameras, and memorabilia I find at antique and thrift stores in Wisconsin, as well as the repairs I started doing.

Anyway, on to the bag! I don’t always carry all three of the flim cameras on the left (A, B, and C), but they are on sort of a rotation. The most recent addition is the F3, so that will probably be swapped in once I finish the latest roll in the M4-P. I keep the rest in the bag almost always though. I had to take this shot with my Nexus 5, as it was the only digital camera I had left to shoot with, heheh!

– The bag is a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home, red and black model. Love this bag.

A – Leica M4-P with matching MR meter and non-matching (heh!) Summicron-C 40mm from my first Leica, a CL. Bought it at a discount on eBay because of the slightly-off vertical alignment of the rangefinder. Attached is a leather Gordy strap.

B – Contax G1 and 45mm Planar lens. I also have the 28mm and 90mm lenses at home. Attached is a leather Gordy strap. My Contax G to Fuji adapter is attached to the 90mm lens, which I sometimes toss in the bag as well.

C – Nikon F3HP and 50mm f/1.8 Series E lens. Attached is a nice vintage Nikon strap I got with a near-mint condition Nikon EM. 

Next, the items that are almost always in the bag:

– Fuji X-E2 and 35mm f/1.4 lens. I switched from Canon DSLRs to Fuji and haven’t regretted it. I really love this setup. Again, a leather Gordy strap is attached.

– Olympus XA and A11 flash. I love the XA series! I have the XA2 and XA4 at home as well. Probably the best cheap pocketable film camera ever.

– Ricoh GR and attached leather Gordy strap. One of my favorites for street photography. So ergonomic and customizable. I love how it handles details and natural lighting. It’s also the only digital camera I’ve been able to fix myself. I had to clean the sensor because the camera isn’t sealed as well as it should be.

– Also, as you can tell, I love these Gordy straps. They’re cheap, fairly high quality, and very customizable when ordering them.

– Nintendo DS. I got this as a white elephant gift at my christmas party recently. So, I figured it should go in one of the two Nintendo pouches you see here as well (the other contains the Ricoh GR).

– Film! Some in vintage canisters too! I shoot lots of types of film. For color:  Kodak Gold and Ektar, Cinestill, Agfa Vista, and Fuji Superia. For black and white:  bulk loaded Kentmere 400 and individual rolls of Ilford Delta 100, and an amazing find of a bulk loader full of several decades expired Kodak TMAX 400 that still works really well. I’ve also got various expired rolls of film that were featured in the Show Us Your Film section recently. I got some nice shots from a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X for example.

– Leica M to Fuji adapter and some Fuji caps

– Microfiber cloths

– Leatherman pocket knife

– USB cable, USB flash drives, SD card, Square phone payment adapter

– Sennheiser earbuds that I’ve had for about 10 years now. Some of the best $40 I’ve spent.

– Photographers Pouch. I have two of these in the bag, but didn’t want to take them out. This is an extra one. They’re great for storing extra batteries, which are not shown here.

Finally, here are some links if you’re interested:

– Flickr – https://www.flickr.com/photos/patkuhl/

– Tumblr – http://patkuhl.tumblr.com/

– Film Blog – http://madisoncamerastyle.com

– Website – http://pdkphoto.com

Thanks for sharing your bag with us, Patrick. A very nice layout indeed.

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