Inside My Bag | Mitchell Kanashkevich

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Throughout virtually all of my adult life I’ve been traveling, seeking adventure and ways to learn and interact with cultures that are very different from my own. Photography became a great excuse to look deeper and to make my experiences more intense.

My main interest is people. I’m especially fascinated by surviving, evolving ancient traditions. People working in unique, challenging conditions and those who live in a close bond with nature.

The stories I’m drawn to are generally those that I come across on the road, by chance. They’re outside of what the mass media generally shows us about our planet. I want my images to provide just a tiny bit of a window into those worlds, those lives which don’t get much, if any coverage.

My photographic projects are self-funded. Photography and travel is more of a lifestyle for me than a career. I make images about things that matter to me and then I find ways to make enough income with those images to continue this lifestyle for as long as possible.

The Kit

I’m one of those people who has completely stopped using DSLRs and made the switch to mirrorless. Over the past year-and-a-half I’ve been shooting only with Panasonic Micro 4/3 cameras. I have a Panasonic GH4. It’s predominantly my video camera and gets occasional use. My current main camera that I use virtually everywhere is Panasonic GX8.

To me the main benefit of the mirrorless systems is that they are so small and so light in comparison to the DSLRs. Since I’m on the road most of the time and virtually anything can be a photographic subject, size matters a lot. I need something that I can have with me all the time. With this new technology it just no longer makes sense to carry around the heavy, chunky DSLR bodies.

The lenses are much lighter too. I mostly use the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 (a great all around lens) and the Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 for the more close up people photos.

I’ve recently experimented with a $20 security-camera lens that I got on eBay. You can easily adapt these to the Micro 4/3 system. The lens is not an optical marvel by any means, but it creates some interesting effects, as well as a pretty weird bokeh that looks the part in some images.

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Other Stuff

I like to carry a sound recorder with me. I’ve been recording sound for my drone videos and ambient sound from the places I go to in general. The Zoom H2n is small enough and does a great job for my purposes.

For video I have a few variable ND filters. I need these to be able to shoot with the lenses wide open and on lower shutter speeds.

I have a 2TB Seagate Hard drive which I always make sure to backup, usually with the same model.

I have a few high-speed SD memory cards from Sandisk and another small case where I keep mobile phone Sim cards from the countries I regularly travel to. These are mostly to keep me online. It’s great when you don’t have to lose connection once you cross the border into another country.

Something that’s not pictured in the image is my 13in Macbook Pro. Besides the cameras, this is my most important piece of equipment. I do everything on the Macbook, from image post-processing, writing blog posts or ebooks to editing videos.

www.mitchellkphotos.com

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