@fjrabon, thank you for graciously offering your camera. This is a wonderful thing you're doing. I would please like to enter. Sorry if this is a bit long, but thank you for the opportunity!
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Many people have hobbies: stamp collecting, knitting, and working on cars. One hobby/passion of mine is photography, which I tend to attribute to my grandfather. We lovingly called him Pap-Pap.
Pap-Pap loved electronics and technology. Wires were always everywhere (especially coming out from behind the TV). He would readily ‘copy’ rented videos for his grandchildren, and manually censor the violent/romantic parts of the movie. Those were the best parts. I had never known that Julia Roberts kissed Richard Gere in
Pretty Woman until much later in life, because Pap-Pap censored that out.
One could open any drawer in the house to find batteries, which were probably used. His multimeter told him they still had juice left, so he kept them. “They can be used for something”, he would say. He built his own speakers, cabinets, and tables. Heck, he built the house he lived in until he passed away. He loved fixing things himself, rather than paying someone to do it. When he fixed things, I usually wasn’t allowed near him. Not so much because of safety, but because my mom didn’t want me to hear his tirade of cursing when something wouldn’t work. There is, however, a picture of me when I was a kid holding a hammer next to his workbench. Or the time that he and I as a toddler sat on lawn chairs on the sidewalk watching construction workers replace sewer pipes in the street. I always wondered if he had an unknown influence on my life in the field of engineering.
Out of all the technology, Pap-Pap loved his camera. The only camera I really remember him having was a Minolta SLR. He had such a nifty flash for it, too. But, as kids, my sibling cohorts and I hated posing for pictures. Occasionally, the flash wouldn’t go off or the camera would refuse to take the picture for some unknown reason. We had to stand there and make the same pose for what seemed like hours until he could get the camera “working again”. We termed this the “Pap-Pap Picture”. Whenever the camera wouldn’t work, or whenever we needed to retake a photo, it was a “Pap-Pap Picture”.
Pap-Pap would have loved the technology nowadays, especially digital cameras. Having the ability to delete a picture instantly would have been his favorite feature. As well as tinkering with photos in Photoshop. That is, if he would have been able to understand how computers worked. When we got our first computer, I tried showing him that I could play solitaire without the need for playing cards. He told me that it wasn’t fair, because “the little arrow is showing you what to do”.
As he got older, however, he lost interest in photography and many other things. Aside from the fact that my mom, siblings, and I moved in with my grandparents when my parents got divorced, he was preoccupied after having three heart attacks and two bouts with cancer. In his older years, he was unfortunately diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His camera sat there, unused, for many years, until it and many of his negatives were destroyed when the house was flooded several years ago. It goes without saying that when I was finally old enough to appreciate him, he was already gone. As an adult, I fully regret not learning more from him when I was a child. While I may not have his knowledge, I at least have the memories of him and his camera.
I want to dedicate my hobby and passion for photography to Pap-Pap, so I can take “Pap-Pap Pictures”. Aside from the obligatory pictures/candids of family at events, I’ve started to take an interest in portraits. I’ve also had a long-time interest in landscape and cityscape photos. My wife has family in Ecuador and Jordan—we plan to visit each of these countries at least once in our lifetime. Maybe I could include travel photography into the mix. All in all, I want to capture the world through my eyes.
My current set-up is a Canon Rebel XSi, which I bought new with money I had saved over the years. The kit included two lenses (18-55 and 55-250), as well as a cheap tripod and a memory card. Then, life started getting in the way. Once my girlfriend (now wife) and I got engaged, all money was directed away from hobbies and towards the wedding, honeymoon, apartments, furniture, moving, moving again, moving again, and then moving again to a townhouse.
I was able to scrounge up a few bucks here and there for a 50 mm prime, a cheap Yongnuo flash and trigger set, and Lightroom. My wife and family have indulged me by purchasing a Canon 430 flash and another Yongnuo trigger set, as well as a basic umbrella/lighting kit. My in-laws also got me a 10 stop ND filter, which is just so neat. My wife also bought several books on photography, which I’ve recently started reading.
An updated camera, such as the 7D, would allow me to break into a pro-level camera and away from the XSi that I’ve had for several years. I’ve only started to utilize manual and similar modes recently, and I’ve quickly outgrown my XSi. It is a great beginner camera; however, it is not the best at autofocusing. It can take a considerable amount of time to focus, and it gets confused a lot. I’m not the best at manual focus, but sometimes I find myself focusing faster manually than it can in autofocus. It also has considerable noise in most shots above 400/800-ISO. I try not to go over 400, especially if it’s a tad dark.
I would happily offer the XSi and the kit lens/lenses for free on TPF. It has been a valuable camera to me, and whether it gets exchanged for a loved-7D or another camera down the line, I will always appreciate what this camera has done for me. It is a stepping stone for anyone looking to get into photography.
My first shot is the first shot I took using a planned lighting setup.I’ve only started playing with lighting and how that affects the end result. I have so much to learn.
My second shot is of a snowy tree from this past winter. I had my camera with me while driving down the road, and I made a quick stop for this shot. I had wanted to take a picture of this tree for a long time, but the conditions were never right. I rolled my window down, took a few snaps of it, and then we proceeded on our way.
Like the tree, I’ve long wanted to take a shot of this power plant (don’t ask me why). I first learned of this neat spot on the river nearby, where you can stand in one spot and see three different types of power being generated (coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear). This is of the coal plant. It was one of my first long-exposure shots using a ND filter. (Please ignore the watermark on this shot.. I included it because I sent it to my boss, and if it got forwarded, I wanted them to know who took it.

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The fourth shot is of my puppy (also seen in the first shot). I had just gotten a flash and was playing around with bouncing the flash. I think I nearly made my wife and dog blind with all of the shots I took. I actually didn’t pose her for this shot; she was lying there sleeping. She woke up once she saw me sit down in front of her with my camera.
The fifth shot holds more sentimental value to me than any of the others. It also was not taken with my Canon Rebel. It was taken with a Canon Powershot when we were on our honeymoon. I’m sure there are many things I would do differently now when taking the shot, but this was one shot that truly started to peak my interest in landscape photography.
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