Darren Clarke needs a new camera!

Hi, my name is Tim.

I'm a musician and at times I get the opportunity to perform on the radio at 3mdr studios east of Melbourne near Mt Dandenong, for a show called the dotted line. This is where I first met Darren, he had a DSLR camera strapped around his chest with a huge lens and we began talking while having a cup of tea. He shared with me his love and enthusiasm for music, art and capturing the perfect moment through his camera. He comes in every week to photograph the musical guests who perform on the show and gets a great buzz from putting them up online for the artists and their friends to enjoy.

Since that first meeting, I've followed Darren's FB page watching new photos pop up of performers such as Kasey and Bill Chambers, Charles Jenkins as well as other great acts from the Healesville Music Festival, plus all his other artist side projects. See his Facebook page here

Upon scrolling through Facebook one day, I was very saddened to see Darren had posted that the camera he has is no longer useable, some of the buttons are sticking and it would require it to be fixed, however being such an old model it's not worth fixing and to be able to shoot photographs of the same quality, a new camera will cost 7,500-8,000 dollars, being that technology has upgraded to mirrorless.

It would be a huge loss for the music community in and around Melbourne if Darren was unable to do what he loves and I figure that it's worth a shot to kindly ask those who have enjoyed Darren's photography to lend him a hand in donating or perhaps you could consider it a form payback for his huge effort and contribution to the music and art scene.

Artists thrive from great photographs and Darren puts so much talent and energy into what he does that it would be such a shame to lose it, please donate what you can as we would appreciate it greatly!