In your bag No: 1580 – Max Landi

Max has big love for compacts and shares some cool tricks he’s learned with his workhorses.

Hi Hunter’s friends! This is Max Landi from Italy, a street photography passionate, member and co-founder of the international collective Superluna (https://superluna.org/)

First of all, I trust in Matt Stuart’s quote: “Buy a good pair of comfortable shoe…”

Then, I know, it isn’t really a typical photographic bag that in the picture, rather a simple backpack (but with soft internal compartments) that I find, however, less tiring to carry around than a shoulder bag. As you can see I only have small equipment, I love the discretion and the manageability, in fact I always go around with only one of these cameras in my pocket. I put everything in the backpack only for small trips or on great occasions (and the big Yongnuo flash only on the very great occasions!). 

My main camera is the Contax T2 (the golden one for the sixtieth anniversary) with its custom-made leather case to be worn around the neck. For night, parties and digital shots I love my Ricoh GR II, a machine that does not need descriptions. The Oly Mju II instead is a beautiful toy that weighs nothing to always carry around, you know. The small flash is a Fuji EF-X20 that I use mainly with the Ricoh (with or without trigger), but sometimes even with the T2. How can I do? I underexpose the shot and use it as a flash slave in sync with the flash in the camera, or I fire it manually when I put the Contax in B pose.

Now you could argue: “but the Contax T2 doesn’t have the B pose!” Here the camera’s manual help us discover that there is an easy way to make it work even in B pose! Yes, I also often even use the flash in daylight. There is a whole genre of photos like this now. It works so well because the flash creates more vibrant and contrasting colors. On sunny days, when subjects are in shade, the flash will illuminate the main part of the frame. A frontal flash also flattens the scene and creates a certain drama in the picture.

My favorite film rolls are the Fuji Superia 200; I love the colors, and above all its colors. Never shoot in black and white.

Why a 120mm film roll? I don’t have a medium format camera, but I live in the hope of meeting someone so kind as to lend it to me!

Least but last, in my bag you can find my paper agenda with a Confucius’ quote. (It is not true that I bring it with me in my backpack, but I think the picture is better with that touch of yellow J ) 

If you want, you can follow my works here: https://massimilianolandi.tumblr.com

or here: https://www.instagram.com/max__landi

or here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/massimilianolandi

or even here: https://superluna.org/photographers/#/max-landi

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Cheers,

Max

Thanks for sending us your bag shot and sharing some nice tips Max. Just to add, yeah on the T2 you can manually set the aperture high/low enough to prevent the camera from making a correct exposure which will put the camera into bulb mode. The blinking green light is the indication it’s in “B” mode.

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Japancamerahunter