Eli’s New Camera Kit

Hi there! Thank you for taking the time to read about my campaign. Before I get into what I'm asking for from you and why you should donate in the first place, I'd like to tell you a little bit about me if you don't already know me personally. My name is Eli and I'm a student currently studying Drama and Creative Writing at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Along with my academic studies and pursuits, I have developed an intense interest in photography and have quickly become the official photographer for the Undergraduate Theatre Society at my college. For the past year and a half, I have learned everything I can about the art of photography and have stretched myself and my current camera to our limitations, and now I'm looking for a new camera to continue to grow and develop with.

This is where you come in. I'm the classic poor college student and can't afford a new camera kit on my own, hence why I've launched this campaign. In order to get a clearer idea of what my new kit will look like, contain, and, more importantly, cost, I have created a breakdown below.

I have decided that my next camera will be a Fujifilm XT-1, a lightweight, mirrorless camera which far surpasses my current camera in build quality, sensor capacity, and functionality. It looks like this:

This camera body will cost $650 from B&H Photo and Video, a trustworthy online retailer that I've only had good experiences with. The next piece of equipment is one of two lenses, the Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 lens. It is a beautiful, sharp, and fast lens which is the perfect focal length for portraits and headshots, both of which I have begun to specialize in, and it is capable of producing pictures like this:

Pardon me while I go drool for minute. This little wonder of technology costs a staggering $1,125 and comprises the bulk of the cost for this kit. But then again, better glass on a cheaper body is always a winning combination.

Moving right along! The second lens in this kit is the Fujifilm 14mm f2.8, a wide-angle lens which is perfect for landscape and architecture shots, both of which are in ample supply living in a big city surrounded by awesome natural vistas. It can take pictures like this:

At $250, this lens costs a fraction of the previous one but still retains wonderful build quality and utility. Why is this lens important for me? I currently work for an interior design and staging company and have been given the opportunity to become a photographer for the company. This kind of interior design and architecture photography requires a lens that can capture wide, encompassing photos in a small space which a wide-angle lens such as this is perfect for.

The next piece of equipment is the VG-XT1 Vertical Battery Grip, a piece of equipment which makes long portrait shoots much easier by doubling the buttons when the camera is held vertically as well as increasing battery life. It looks like this:

It costs $130 and will serve as a massive upgrade to the normal functionality of the camera as well as a helpful utility for the kind of photography I'm pursuing.

The final piece of equipment in my kit does not deal with the camera itself, but rather the editing process. Photographers spend far more time editing photos than they do taking them, and it can be quite demanding at times. In order to make this process more accurate, enjoyable, and efficient, I've included a Wacom Intuos Pro graphic tablet in my kit. It looks like this:

It costs $250, and you may well be wondering why this thing costs as much as it does or what its basic purpose is. Basically, this is a replacement for using a mouse for editing. I use brushes, filters, and many other tools in my editing programs which are much more easily controlled with a tablet that effectively allows me to draw in my edits naturally with a writing utensil rather than a clunky, inaccurate mouse.

And now for the grand total of this kit. Drumroll please...

$2,405! That is, if my math is correct, and I haven't studied math in college for a very good reason...

So there you have it, an exact breakdown of my new camera kit and exactly what it will cost. However, if you haven't noticed already, I've set the campaign goal for $2,000; the reason for this is that I intend to raise some of the money for the kit by continuing to do paid photoshoots over the course of the next few months, and the hope is that this lower goal will help me meet my campaign goal sooner rather than later. At the end of the day, I'm just an aspiring young artist who hopes to provide something for himself and the people around him. If you'd like to donate to my campaign, you are a wonderfully generous and trusting person and may possibly receive some goodies for your hard-earned cash. If you would prefer not to donate or simply lack the means to do so, just sharing this campaign around with your friends and family on social media is just as helpful for its success. Thanks for reading!