She fell in Love with Canon

This past weekend. I had old friends over. I noticed one young lady, fresh out of art school I learned later, was taking pictures. Not just snap shots, but real composed, thought out photos.

My daughter borrowed my 5D to have some fun also. So of course this young lady tried the 5D. You should have seen her face when she looked at her first shot on the LCD. That was it. She was in love. She spent the next 30 minutes walking around my front yard taking shots.

She was so stunned by the beauty (her words) of the pictures. Of course I had to teach. See although the 5D is an amazing camera. The lens was the 70-200 2.8L. I taught her about the importance of aperture and DOF, etc. It was fun.

What camera did she bring? The Nikon D60 (Do not make this a Nikon vs Canon thread, or I'll shoot you). After I looked at her camera, she asked a most interesting question.

She has meet many photographers and they tell her buy brand XXX because its the best. Those other brands are just junk. Of course you know why she asked. Because most of her friends are Nikon users and here she just experienced a Canon.

For me those people are brand bigots. I have never been one. I started with Canon, then Nikon and now Canon again. There is this deep rooted thing for Olympus as well from the old films days. But I never owned one.

I told her forget the bigots, get out there and shoot, for the best lenses are the two on either side of your nose and the best camera body is the round thing on your shoulders.

She seems amazingly relieved and I could see in her eyes that she was ready to go on in life without worrying about what others think. We spent time on Ebay talking about how she could add to her arsenal on a students budget.

When she left, she thanked me for the umteenth time for allowing her to use my camera. She still thinks that the 5D and 70-200 is the most amazing thing on the planet. I had to agree.

PS. So when was the last time you helped out a budding photographer? Tell us your story.

So it looks as though you gave her quite good advice. I try and do a similar thing when presented with the same situation; either of the two major brands are more than adequate for taking beautiful photos if you choose your equipment wisely (or just have bucketloads of creative ability).

Shooting a wedding/reception. I'm using off-camera lighting, but there's a guest using a Nikon (don't ask the model, I'm not up to speed on their models) and an external flash. We're indoors and she' been pointing the flash directly at the subject and getting the "shot in a cave look" for the last 1/2 hour or so.

I pull a rubber band out of my kit and tell her to run down a piece of paper, "I'm going to show you a way to use your flash to get better photos" I tell her. Five minutes later, she's back with an 8" x 11" piece of paper. We fold it up, attach it to the flash and point the flash at the 8' to 10' suspended ceiling. "Take a shot" I tell her. She does and she's amazed and very surprised I would take time out (a total of about 2 minutes when nothing else was really going on) to help her out that way. On very happy guest!

David,, when I was teaching photography in the '80s one of my students introduced me to her brother then aged 14.. He was studying photography at high school and we would spend as much time as he could in my studio or darkrooms.. I would take him out on shoots as my assistant.. At that time I was also freelancing for a newspaper which eventually became my fulltime job.. The picture editor asked me if I knew a young person to start as a cadet.. I got on the blower to this young guy who was marking time at McDonalds after leaving school and told him to get his butt to the newspaper with his portfolio,, they hired him on the spot.. That was in the late '80s,, he is still at the same newspaper working as a senior photographer..

I dunno if this fits, but here you go. I am a budding photographer myself, with a 40D that I purchased in June... and with a 17yo daughter. Now, I've been an aficionado of neat little p&s cameras for about 10 years, culminating with a G9; they are interesting machines, but this is my first "real" camera. I've tried giving the old p&s to MJ (my daughter) as I've acquired new ones, but she's been indifferent.

So I came home from work, and unpacked the 40D, and charged the battery, and took a few shots. And then MJ said, "Dad, can I try?"

And I didn't get the camera back for two hours, as she was absolutely captivated by it; a 17 year old girl!

She's got a nice eye for composition, but she is learning more from experimenting with the machine than from reading the book. After all, she has school work occupying her time, too. But she has created some absolutely outstanding photographs. I don't have any of her recent photos uploaded anywhere, but I do have one that she took that very first day, of the neighbors' pooch. It could use an extra 1/3 of exposure, maybe, but otherwise I think it is a nice picture. And she worked for it, getting the little guy to pose.

I love helping new photogs learn! I have been working with one person for a few years (I think about 7 years now) and just started working with another.

It is very rewarding to help someone express themselves and to see the results of their improvement! Plus...I love talking about photography, so what the heck!

Scott_Quier wrote in post #6310177
Shooting a wedding/reception. I'm using off-camera lighting, but there's a guest using a Nikon (don't ask the model, I'm not up to speed on their models) and an external flash. We're indoors and she' been pointing the flash directly at the subject and getting the "shot in a cave look" for the last 1/2 hour or so.

I pull a rubber band out of my kit and tell her to run down a piece of paper, "I'm going to show you a way to use your flash to get better photos" I tell her. Five minutes later, she's back with an 8" x 11" piece of paper. We fold it up, attach it to the flash and point the flash at the 8' to 10' suspended ceiling. "Take a shot" I tell her. She does and she's amazed and very surprised I would take time out (a total of about 2 minutes when nothing else was really going on) to help her out that way. On very happy guest!

Haha, if you don't mind helping out someone else; how did you set up the card, and for what purpose? Typically, I'll bounce off the ceiling, but where does the paper reflect the light to?

Microcosm wrote in post #6311818
Haha, if you don't mind helping out someone else; how did you set up the card, and for what purpose? Typically, I'll bounce off the ceiling, but where does the paper reflect the light to?

Put the paper behind the flash. When it shoots up, it also reflects off the paper to shoot forward.

www.abetterbouncecard.​com

Yes, brand bigotry is a bit like Penis envy..."Mine is better than yours!" blustery, so as to not feel bad about what you have!

And what works best for a pro is often a very POOR selection for a snapshooting homemaker. And vice versa.

Mosca wrote in post #6311102
And she worked for it, getting the little guy to pose.

Fun to watch the joy as they go about capturing their photos. Isn't it.

During a recent wedding, a family member was shooting with an XT and using the pop-up flash. They were not thrilled with the result. I took time out of my shooting to put my 430 on their camera and let them fire off a few. Their expression was priceless.


Kevin

The business manager at work recently got a Nikon D50. I thought "cool, now we can talk photography! Too bad she doesn't have a Canon cause I don't know Nikon all that well.." We talked about gear and of course I told her about my Canon gear.

She went on a trip to Saint Thomas islands or something, there is no tax there and stuff is much cheaper. She said she would be buying lenses for her Nikon there. Cool, cool.

When she came back she ended up buying a Canon 40D, grip, 17-55 IS, 70-200 f/4L, 430EX, a Canon 2x TC (dunno why they'd sell her that for that lens... oh well), and some accessories for total of $2500. Not bad! She has money and wanted to get good gear, and I guess the D50 doesn't allow all types of Nikon lenses? So she got the Canon body

Now I've started showing her some stuff on her 40D like the continous 6fps shooting, and stuff (I don't own a 40D, have to learn it myself!) but I think it's great cause we both can share a hobby. Soon I'll be helping her out with Adobe Lightroom (which I recomended to her) and so on.

Photography can be a lonely hobby when you only do it by yourself all the time, it's nice to have friends that are in it as well.

When I was out shooting around London last year during Christmas, I saw a couple shooting street decorations with their camera (Canon) also which they had just bought from Jessops (equiv would be Ritz perhaps). They were sold a own brand Speedlite which they were told would be great for things like that.

I saw them struggling so I went over and gave them a hand and explained what type of settings they should use to get the photos they were after. They were thankful and carried on shooting with some very nice results in the end.

As Kevin mentioned above, I have handed a spare Speedlite out to a family member who was struggling with a pop up flash on their 40D and they were amazed at the difference. Its just insane that thinking from a less experience member, thinking a DSLR would be all singing and dancing from the word go and no extra accessories are required. I just like to help out an educate where I can.

Good thread, OP.

I have had issues where other shooters seem to think that their camera is always better but then are confused when comparing the results to me, there is a big difference. Buying the most expensive DSLR does not make you a better shooter. The camera maybe better than mine but the user makes the biggest difference.

davidfig wrote in post #6309974
PS. So when was the last time you helped out a budding photographer? Tell us your story.

About a year and a half ago, I sold my 300D/Rebel to the son of one of my colleagues.

Just the standard set, with the kit lense and a suggestion to go read "Understanding exposure".

I talked to the father the other day, he just bought the Rebel from his son.

The reason: the kid just got himself a second hand 1D mkIIN...

So, I wouldn't call it direct help, but I've certainly lured a soul over to the Dark Side...

Knud

My son, daughter, and 16-year-old grandson are the heirs to my photographic aspirations and my spare gear. They each have gone with me on outings, have put up with my passion/obsession, and have seen me develop my skills over time, and each shows some aspiration toward developing their own body of work. That's cool -- our disease can be contagious!

It's also cool when you run into photogs "in the field" and you make some kind of meaningful connection. Not long ago, I was with my grandson shooting some waterfalls, and ran into another Canon shooter who didn't have a good wide angle lens, and I loaned him my 16-35 L lens to get some shots he would have missed. "What goes around comes around"...I was on the Portland Photo Walk last month and I hadn't brought my 16-35 and was at a place where I needed the wide angle, and happened to be around some Canon shooters -- a father/son combo -- and they had the lens and loaned it to me, and I was able to get a cool shot!

I like to be friendly and helpful to photogs that I meet in the way!