Not long after I went full-time with Wyrding Studios, I bought a Nikon D40, which I used to shoot thousands of photos over the following years. Last year, when it became obvious that I needed to upgrade to a camera with image stabilization because my hand tremors were so bad that at least half the photos I took were unusable, my ex-mother-in-law very generously gifted me her Nikon D5100.
The D40 is still a perfectly solid DSLR camera - if my hands hadn't gotten shaky after my brain surgery, I probably have used it until it died and was beyond repair. I love this camera, and somehow, I could never quite bring myself to put it up for sale. Instead, I've decided to pay it forward: I'm giving it away in a random drawing.
The giveaway form is below. You can earn multiple entries by joining my mailing list, following me on Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest, pinning shinies on Pinterest, telling your friends about this giveaway, and by committing random acts of kindness. The contest runs until midnight January 31st, 2016, and one winner will be drawn at random from all the entries received. I'll ship it for free in the US; if the winner is outside the US, I will ask that you cover the difference in shipping costs.
If you win, I will ask that at some point in the future you find a way to pay it forward - you don't need to tell me about it, just keep an eye out for an opportunity to help someone and do what you can. Make the world a kinder place. We all need that.
Go forth and enter! Good luck!
(And thanks again, Randi - not having to re-take half the photos for every update is wonderful!)
Here's a review of the D40. The winner of this giveaway will receive the D40 body and kit lens as seen in the photo, plus the battery charger and one battery. No memory card, but you can pick one up pretty cheaply almost anywhere if you don't already have one that will work. I don't have the original packaging or the manual, but the manual is available online and I'll pack it carefully with lots of bubblewrap. No strap, no case. The lens does have some minor scratches but they don't affect the image quality noticeably in my opinion.
(Portrait photography by Brooklyn Logan/Mindful Mama.)
