Feeling generous?

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Howdy all,

I'm being a little cheeky posting this here, but thought I'd give it a try!

I run a weekly photography group for people that experience mental health challenges and we are currently running a crowdfunding drive to get the group a DSLR setup.

The group was established in the beginning of the year and meets weekly, going off to various locations about town or spending the afternoon back in the community centre with me helping the participants learn how to edit and print out their imagery. So far they have been using their mobile phones for this activity, but of late the group has hit a wall in regards to the creativity allowed, the editing limitations and the crippled printing quality that using an old mobile phone limits you with. The majority of the participants are living under the poverty line and have poor grade mobile phones to use.

We have an exhibition on at the moment, something that all the participants never believed they could actually achieve! The members have experienced a huge lift in self-belief and general mood as a result of actually producing something of an artistic manner and then putting this out on display for the public to see.

For the last few weeks, I have been taking along my backpack with my Canon 6D and a bunch of lenses and the members have been having a fantastic time simply operating it on Aperture Priority mode, allowing them control of the aperture and the ability to express themselves through playing with selective focus, from razor thin DOF to full focus in landscapes.

Problem is that we have eight participants and only my DSLR to share amongst everyone! So, on Sunday, I put out a call on an Australian photography forum that I'm a part of, asking for folks to donate any old DSLR's/Mirrorless cameras and their lenses that they aren't using. So far I've received a Canon telephoto lens, which needs a body to go with it, and a Pentax K20D with a Tamron 90mm macro lens! I have a bunch of old Pentax manual focus lenses, so we have one more working DSLR to share around the eight participants.

I, however, dream big! I'm envisioning each of the members being able to make use of a camera for all of our sessions!

If you can help with some old kit you may have laying around gathering dust, please drop me a line. It would be greatly appreciated by the group.

Or, if you'd like to make a donation to the group or share our quest via social media, we'd truly appreciate the help.
https://fundly.com/happy-snappers

Thanks in advance,
Alex

 

[oblomow]

Howdy all,

I'm being a little cheeky posting this here, but thought I'd give it a try!

Alex

Donated. Hope this plan works.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Donated. Hope this plan works.

@oblomow Thank you so much for your generosity, the group are going to be astounded that they are receiving assistance from the other side of the world! Most of these folks don't feel that they are worthy of help in any form, I know this is going to touch them all in a special way!

 

[kenoh]

@oblomow Thank you so much for your generosity, the group are going to be astounded that they are receiving assistance from the other side of the world! Most of these folks don't feel that they are worthy of help in any form, I know this is going to touch them all in a special way!

They are in luck then... their pal has friends in far away places...
[doublepost=1507707168][/doublepost]

@oblomow Thank you so much for your generosity, the group are going to be astounded that they are receiving assistance from the other side of the world! Most of these folks don't feel that they are worthy of help in any form, I know this is going to touch them all in a special way!

They absolutely are worthy... We are seeing some great names in history now turning out to have been challenged in some way. A large number of great mathematicians turns out, were symptomatic of Aspbergers.

I believe that certain careers require a degree of what we think are mental conditions. Project managers benefit from being ever so slightly OCD. Sales people are all functioning sociopaths...

No one should ever feel they are unworthy of help. We all need help from tme to time.

Good on you mate for doing this. Lets hope more people on here forego that next UV filter and pop a few quid in the pot for them.

 

[OzBok]

Im putting the word out to a few AV and photography buddies. Popping into my local store later in the week, will see what they have on their second hand window as well as deals they might be willing to offer.

As a thought, would be worth contacting the newspaper, friend of mine works for one in Queensland, and has his gear supplied, might be something lying around there at the Addy, who knows... you might even get a story out of it

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Im putting the word out to a few AV and photography buddies. Popping into my local store later in the week, will see what they have on their second hand window as well as deals they might be willing to offer.

As a thought, would be worth contacting the newspaper, friend of mine works for one in Queensland, and has his gear supplied, might be something lying around there at the Addy, who knows... you might even get a story out of it

That's a brilliant idea @OzBok ! Will drop the Addy a line today. Thanks for your assistance, it's appreciated!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Howdy all,

I'm being a little cheeky posting this here, but thought I'd give it a try!

I run a weekly photography group for people that experience mental health challenges and we are currently running a crowdfunding drive to get the group a DSLR setup.

The group was established in the beginning of the year and meets weekly, going off to various locations about town or spending the afternoon back in the community centre with me helping the participants learn how to edit and print out their imagery. So far they have been using their mobile phones for this activity, but of late the group has hit a wall in regards to the creativity allowed, the editing limitations and the crippled printing quality that using an old mobile phone limits you with. The majority of the participants are living under the poverty line and have poor grade mobile phones to use.

We have an exhibition on at the moment, something that all the participants never believed they could actually achieve! The members have experienced a huge lift in self-belief and general mood as a result of actually producing something of an artistic manner and then putting this out on display for the public to see.

For the last few weeks, I have been taking along my backpack with my Canon 6D and a bunch of lenses and the members have been having a fantastic time simply operating it on Aperture Priority mode, allowing them control of the aperture and the ability to express themselves through playing with selective focus, from razor thin DOF to full focus in landscapes.

Problem is that we have eight participants and only my DSLR to share amongst everyone! So, on Sunday, I put out a call on an Australian photography forum that I'm a part of, asking for folks to donate any old DSLR's/Mirrorless cameras and their lenses that they aren't using. So far I've received a Canon telephoto lens, which needs a body to go with it, and a Pentax K20D with a Tamron 90mm macro lens! I have a bunch of old Pentax manual focus lenses, so we have one more working DSLR to share around the eight participants.

I, however, dream big! I'm envisioning each of the members being able to make use of a camera for all of our sessions!

If you can help with some old kit you may have laying around gathering dust, please drop me a line. It would be greatly appreciated by the group.

Or, if you'd like to make a donation to the group or share our quest via social media, we'd truly appreciate the help.
https://fundly.com/happy-snappers

Thanks in advance,
Alex

Great idea Alex. My daughter has Asperges so it's an idea close to my heart. I wasn't able to buy her a camera, so I've made a donation to help you buy one for someone else. Just make sure it's a proper camera. You know branded NIKON!
Good luck.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Great idea Alex. My daughter has Asperges so it's an idea close to my heart. I wasn't able to buy her a camera, so I've made a donation to help you buy one for someone else. Just make sure it's a proper camera. You know branded NIKON!
Good luck.

Thank you so much, AFB! I'm open to all makes of cameras, I reckon it would be fantastic to have a couple of backpacks full of every brand out there for the participants to explore with!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Thank you so much, AFB! I'm open to all makes of cameras, I reckon it would be fantastic to have a couple of backpacks full of every brand out there for the participants to explore with!

I could have helped you out with a few a while back but tbh by the time I'd have shipped them it would be cheaper to buy locally!

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I could have helped you out with a few a while back but tbh by the time I'd have shipped them it would be cheaper to buy locally!

Absolutely! I'm going to hit up the local photographic shops around town and see what they can donate or assist us with.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Absolutely! I'm going to hit up the local photographic shops around town and see what they can donate or assist us with.

Good luck with it.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Received the first camera today today in the mail from a very generous donor here in Australia! A Pentax K20D with a Tamron 90mm macro lens and heaps of accessories for it. I had a couple of old manual Pentax lenses laying around that I used to use with a K1000 years ago, so I dusted them off and tried them out. The group are going to love playing with these lenses!

First couple are with the 50mm f/2, which renders beautifully in my eyes.

These next ones are with the 28mm f/2.8, which is noticeably soft around the edges, and has a bit of CA visible in the wind-chime image, but has a beautiful quality to it, I think.

Thanks again to those that have assisted us, we are over the 25% mark for this fundraising quest already!

 

[Hughmac]

Superb idea; some of us on here have benefited from other members' donations of equipment, so any help we can give...

Would be a great idea if you could share some of the photos from the exhibition

Cheers

Hugh

 

[kenoh]

Received the first camera today today in the mail from a very generous donor here in Australia! A Pentax K20D with a Tamron 90mm macro lens and heaps of accessories for it. I had a couple of old manual Pentax lenses laying around that I used to use with a K1000 years ago, so I dusted them off and tried them out. The group are going to love playing with these lenses!

First couple are with the 50mm f/2, which renders beautifully in my eyes.

These next ones are with the 28mm f/2.8, which is noticeably soft around the edges, and has a bit of CA visible in the wind-chime image, but has a beautiful quality to it, I think.

Thanks again to those that have assisted us, we are over the 25% mark for this fundraising quest already!

Fantastic images...

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Superb idea; some of us on here have benefited from other members' donations of equipment, so any help we can give...

Would be a great idea if you could share some of the photos from the exhibition

Cheers

Hugh

Will have to export them from the community centres computer on Tuesday, and then I'll post them here.

I have this one I can share though, as I worked on it at home, removing a railing from the centre of the scene, giving one of the seagulls back its tail and wing tip and expanding the skies and water substantially all around the image. This next semester we are going to focus on editing images, so that the participants can clone out stuff, and do basic fixes like what I did to this image. We have already covered Hues, Saturation, Luminosity, sharpening and noise reduction.

For the exhibition, we got the participants to use the staff members iPhones, for better quality than their old flip phones could produce. Primarily for printing them at A3 size.

 

[kenoh]

Will have to export them from the community centres computer on Tuesday, and then I'll post them here.

I have this one I can share though, as I worked on it at home, removing a railing from the centre of the scene, giving one of the seagulls back its tail and wing tip and expanding the skies and water substantially all around the image. This next semester we are going to focus on editing images, so that the participants can clone out stuff, and do basic fixes like what I did to this image. We have already covered Hues, Saturation, Luminosity, sharpening and noise reduction.

For the exhibition, we got the participants to use the staff members iPhones, for better quality than their old flip phones could produce. Primarily for printing them at A3 size.
View attachment 725281

Any chance we can see the version with the railing? That sounds amazing, the fixing you have done... So that I can get a feel for the amount of editing some people put in?

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Any chance we can see the version with the railing? That sounds amazing, the fixing you have done... So that I can get a feel for the amount of editing some people put in?

Absolutely! My editing wasn't the best job though, to be honest. I can see repetition to the extended areas and a hard line on the top section of the left hand side where Photoshops content aware fill had a moment with the clouds!

[doublepost=1507970125][/doublepost]Oh, I should have mentioned that we are now over the 50% mark of this fundraising quest!

 

[kenoh]

That is slick editing right there...

Fantastic news about fund raising...

 

[kenoh]

Incredible editing. You have essentially rebuilt the horizon line behind the rail!

Cracking work

 

[bunnspecial]

PM me the info-if it's of any use I can send a D70 and a mid-range-ish zoom.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

PM me the info-if it's of any use I can send a D70 and a mid-range-ish zoom.

Will send a PM in a second. Thanks for the generous offer. I’ll definitely take you up on it.

 

[Hughmac]

In that case, I have a Panasonic DMC-G1 body with charger and 2 spare batteries. A lot of my recent photos shared on here from Flickr were taken with this camera until I recently graduated to G5 / G6.
It's old and still has great IQ, but I'm afraid you will need a Micro 4/3 lens for it as I have already sold some off, or I can include a M42 / m4/3 adapter if you can use manual lenses such as a Takumar. I believe it has focus magnification when using manual lenses.
I also have a Fujian 35mm f/1.7 lens (70mm equivalent) complete with adapter; it's OK but more of a fun lens with it's swirly bokeh.

If this is acceptable let me know.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Apple fanboy]

In that case, I have a Panasonic DMC-G1 body with charger and 2 spare batteries. A lot of my recent photos shared on here from Flickr were taken with this camera until I recently graduated to G5 / G6.
It's old and still has great IQ, but I'm afraid you will need a Micro 4/3 lens for it as I have already sold some off, or I can include a M42 / m4/3 adapter if you can use manual lenses such as a Takumar. I believe it has focus magnification when using manual lenses.
I also have a Fujian 35mm f/1.7 lens (70mm equivalent) complete with adapter; it's OK but more of a fun lens with it's swirly bokeh.

If this is acceptable let me know.

Cheers

Hugh

How much to ship to Australia though?

 

[Hughmac]

How much to ship to Australia though?

£17.70 for 1.4kg package standard airmail, or just under £11 economy.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Apple fanboy]

£17.70 for 1.4kg package standard airmail, or just under £11 economy.

Cheers

Hugh

Thats reasonable! I was expecting a lot more.