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[OM] E-1 as teaching tool and risk vs reward

Subject: [OM] E-1 as teaching tool and risk vs reward
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:15:53 -0500
Yesterday, we had our annual church picnic. Beautiful day, beautiful
weather.  I had the E-1 with me to document it for the church's continuing
photo album.

Near the end of the day, a young boy, I think he's eight, grabbed the
camera, firmly planting a greasy thumbprint right in the middle of the
lens.  This boy is generally more ADHD than a "Powerball" lottery machine
full of ping-pong balls at 10:59 PM.  One extremely smart kid, but not
generally one you'd trust a expensive camera with.

I quickly guided him on the finer points of lens preservation (Do not stick
thumb here), pointed to the shutter-release, zoom ring and playback button
and handed him the camera.  The look of terror on his mother's face was
beyond priceless.  To the uneducated masses, the E-1 looks like a $10,000
camera and is beyond comprehension as to cost.  Never mind the fact that
it's relatively obsolete and has a street price about the same as their
running shoes.

With rare exception where I gave him additional lens-protection guidance he
was on his own and I deliberately looked the other way to instill in him
that I trusted him.  The "crowd" (I'm using the term loosely as there were
about 30 there at the time) was incredulous and couldn't believe what I
did.  Mom was next to horrified, not only because replacing the camera was
beyond her budget as an unemployed single mom, but because she now has to
buy junior a decent camera.  :)

At one point he was trying to photograph some geese in the distance, so I
summoned him over, and we replaced the 14-54 with the 300/4.5.  I showed him
how to kneel and hold the camera and away he went. I did join him for a few
minutes as he needed additional help with that beast. After a while he was
ready for the 14-54 again because the camera and lens was about half as big
as he is. (no kidding, he's one small guy).

I glanced at a few pictures and will email his mom his pictures (or will put
them on a CD). They are remarkably good.  The kid has an incredible eye and
creativity.  No doubt that he can "see".  According to a email message from
mom, he hasn't stopped talking about it yet. I know the kid is beyond smart,
there are a handful of subjects he's multiple-years ahead of his grade.

As an adult which he looks up to, I had an incredible responsibility--one
which struck fear but also is humbling: How I responded would most likely
heavily influence how he viewed photography for the rest of his life. If I
grabbed the camera back and wouldn't let him look at it, try it, hold it,
look through it, what does that say about me, my attitude towards cameras
and most importantly, my attitude towards him?  We only have one shot to get
this right.

Fortunately the E-1 is nearly indestructible and the extent of my repairs is
cleaning the lenses of fingerprints and bits of grass. Had it been some
other equipment, like the OM-3Ti, I'd probably have hovered a bit more, but
a realization came upon me that a camera such as the E-1 is perfect for this
application.  Yeah, the camera got knocked around a little when he let it
bang into the picnic tables, but nothing worse than what I normally subject
the equipment to when shooting an event.

There is no projecting what is in the future for this boy, but I wanted to
make sure that I did nothing to give him anything but the most positive of
experiences with photography.  He knows I trusted him with the big valuable
camera and he set out to not disappoint me.  If he takes a keen interest in
photography, I may have to find some way to broker an E-1 for him (trust me,
lesser built cameras probably need not apply although I know he's
anal-retentive about his portable computer game machine, so who knows).

AG (nervous on the inside) Schnozz
-- 
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