Admittedly, when I look at great work, I’m curious not just about the circumstances that led to the images, but also about the technical choices the photographer made. This data isn’t always readily available, but the folks from In My Bag, a photography magazine, have been working to make that information available with a couple of button clicks.
Dubbed Kit Wars, possibly a nod to the time-killing Kitten War, the database prompts you to choose level (Amateur, Pro, Part-time pro, Guru/Educator), Style (too many to list) and Country. Should your combination yield results, you’ll see the photographer’s gear, a sample of their work and influences. Or, you can check off photographers from a master grid and Compare them to see what’s in their respective bags. It could prove useful to folks who are trying to figure out what gear to get or who are just curious.  You can also use Gear Head to search by brand and Talents to search for photographers by genre.
In My Bag is also asking photographers to submit their kits to the database in order to build out. All submissions also count towards a competition in which you can win equipment from Elinchrom. The whole operation is in beta, and doesn’t feel all that streamlined. Photographers can also submit images of the gear, but for whatever reason, the gear images look far too low res to be intelligible.
Despite the kinks, the site looks promising. Go ahead and give it a spin.
