Photography Education Fund

UPDATE: With everyones Help I have made it through my fisrt Photography Certificate, Applied Photography. I'm not done yet however. I'm, at the moment, taking business classes to help me build my own "Self Employment" ability.  I will have to keep shooting pictures to keep my skills up and look for other avenues of instruction. Again, none of this education is cheap, as many of you may know.  My choice of Macro and Close Up Wildlife comes with some specialty gear that needs to be aquired for the best quality images. Even the shear amount of DIY mods available to this genere the base equipment is not cheap.  

For those awaiting images printed out, I'm working on getting into the Photo lab to get them up and running.

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Hello all, my name is Shawn Jeffries. I’m currently working my way through Photography school. As one can imagine, Photography is not an inexpensive endeavor. However, given my medical issues, I’m left with little else to earn a living with. Not working in 4 years has completely drained all savings and we, as a family, we have given up on most luxuries: cell phones, cable, Car, and so on just to keep above water.

                After an active life in the Army, fire prevention in Yosemite, culinary school, and teaching kids to cook while at home. I became sick with debilitating chronic conditions. Chronic pain, and chronic fatigue to name a couple have prevented me from holding any jobs. Photography has become my release and escape.  I want to be able to upgrade my equipment to be able to compete with other like-minded Photographers.

                I have been lucky in that my classes have been affordable because of my military service. However that doesn’t cover the significant cost of quality photography equipment needed to compete in my chosen specialties. My desire to specialize in Pet photography, and specialty pets, has a list of equipment that can be staggering. Local craft shows require that every aspect of the craft is done by the seller.  That means I take the image on my camera, edit the image myself, as well as print the image on my own printer; second party printing services are not allowed. Professional grade printers allowing for 22” wide prints is a daunting bill in itself,  Not to mention back up services to save all the electronic data.  Currently my needs in gear is in excess of $6000, to include replacing my current camera, a professional printer, lighting equipment and software subscriptions. 

 Thanks to donations so far I now have a battery back up for the computer as well as my back up system of hard drives. This have left me with peace of mind that I will be less likely to loose images.

                I am asking for help in developing my skills in Photography so I can supplement my family’s income.  As anyone having gone through the disability insurance struggle can attest, the struggle for years to get on the list only drains your meager family funds and energies.  I receive no funding currently to get me back on my feet as a wage earner.  I am asking those that can help here on Go Fund Me to spare what you can, when you can.

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Needing 12 of these inks
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