Gravity Works...and gravity SUCKS!

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I got my first paying gig here in Nebraska.

My client wanted "lifestyle" stuff...sunset over the lake, kids playing, shoppers outside a store...

I knew from last year that there was snow coming, and I wanted to get some of these pictures before everything was frozen and white. So, I went off to shoot the neighborhoods the client suggested...in 35 or so degree weather.

On the seventh, or maybe eighth stop, I saw these two guys in a rowboat, with this brilliant red sunset behind them. Great lifestyle shot, if I could get it, so I leaped out of the car with the tripod in one hand and the camera in the other. Well, you can't adjust a tripod with a hand full of camera, so I decided to loop the strap around my neck.

I missed. The strap passed over my head, and my fingers were so cold I lost my grip on the camera.

It fell...from, oh, head height or so...landed on the (cheap kit) lens...on concrete. I found shattered pieces of plastic inside the camera body from the lens body.

It doesn't work anymore. It doesn't pop the mirror out of the way, so all I get is totally black pictures. Oh, and an "error 99" message.

I haven't shot any new pictures in...um...two months...? Talk about your withdrawal symptoms.

I can't afford to replace the camera any time soon. There's just no room in the budget for the next couple of months. And I would have to lay odds that a replacement Digital Rebel 300d is cheaper than repairing the same model, considering it's seven or eight years old.

Yes, this is all leading up to something. This is all pointing towards the new widget up top right in my blog--the one labeled "The Camera Replacement Fund." That gadget is attached to Redbubble, where you can purchase prints and posters of a variety of my best shots. And the proceeds of every purchase go right into the cute little piggy bank on my desk with the words "Al's New Camera" marked on the side in purple crayon.

Anyway...enjoy the slideshow...and if you'd like to sling a few sheckels into the Camera Replacement Fund, and help bring the withdrawal symptoms to an end, please drop by Redbubble and pick out a good one.

-=ad=-

Comments

~brb said…
So the camera that got trashed was a Canon Digital Rebel 300D, with what? The 18-55 kit lens?
12:51 PM
allandavisjr said…
Yep, that's it exactly. I was lucky...my 75-300 zoom with image stabilizer--which is worth about eighteen times as much as the kit lens--was in the car and not on the camera.

-=ad=-
5:43 PM
~brb said…
Yeah, I've got one of those 18-55 paperweights on my desk, too. They break easy.

Check out these folks.
http://www.natcam.com/usedcam/catalog/usedList.asp?link=2&USID={FFB9DC08-081B-4D76-BF1F-F072745D70ED}

If that link didn't work, it's National Camera Exchange (http://www.natcam.com). They're local to me and very honest. Hit the little "go" button on Used Equipment in the upper right corner to go browse their inventory. It looks like the Digital Rebel/300D in excellent to excellent-plus condition is going for about $250 these days. I assume that's with the kit lens as they usually indicate if it's the body only in their listings.
8:14 AM
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