How did you get into photography...the catalyst that is.

Golf007sd

Despite my life long passion for photography, it was not until 2010 that I took the full step forward in getting my "ducks in order" in persuing my first purchase of a D-SLR (D7000). The catalyst was due to one of my clients on May 30, 2010 to be exact, on a family wine tour in Temecula, CA. Hence, the photo below...and it is the only one I have of that day. Needless to say he too was using a Nikon. Moreover, upon close examination it happens to be one of Nikon D3's family with the 24-70 to boot.

I remember so vividly what a rush it was to shoot with that body of his. My client was very kind and generous in letting me play and take pictures with it; specially after he asks me to take their first family photo. The joy and pure exhilaration on my face spoke boldly about the fire that had been lit. In short, I did not want to give it back....and he knew it. He did not break the bubble or put out the flame burring inside of me, he just let me shoot, and shoot, and shoot. That smile you see on his face never left. Every time I pressed down the shutter and clicked away he smiled and game me a tumps-up. I truly believe he had as much fun seeing me play with his camera as I did...maybe even more. I wish I had his contact info, so that he can see where I'm now. Moreover, to say: Thank you.

We live in a very small world...I hope one day our paths cross again. Yet, should that time come, him and I will be on more equal footing. In fact, I owe him a few clicks and one hell of a high-five.



So now that you have heard my story...what is yours? How did it all start for you?

Cheers....

NSXTypeR

My story started at around 2007 when my friend handed me a D50 with a SB600 to shoot a school performance he was participating in. He just said "have fun" and I went at it.

Some of the photos came out really nice actually, and that sort of pulled me in. I always had an old Coolpix something camera that I used for macros and stuff, but nothing high end. I got some nice shots, but I was always frustrated at how bad the autofocus was.

I really pulled the trigger in the Spring of 2008 when I got a D40 kit with the 18-135 the day before the NY Auto Show, and that camera lasted me until January of 2013 when it died on me when I was in Hong Kong.

Msmoto

This is funny…. in the 1950's….in high school, I was taking some snapshots. My first decent camera was a Voigtlander Bessamatic, then a Minolta SR-3, which had some one lenses for shooting, yes, cars…. A Canon 7 was in the mix, then a couple of Nikon F bodies and a Zenza Bronica…very rugged. In my early years in college (1960-), I was into many things and photography for the newspaper and yearbook became important, with my academic pursuits, falling.
I left regular college and attended the Winona School of Professional Photography in Winona Lake, Indiana, receiving instruction from Gerhard Bakker, Fonville Winans, and a couple others who were the very top shelf in photography at that time.
Fonville Winans was into available light wedding photos at that time and I believe that is one reason I shoot lots of available light…
From there I attended Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, directed by Gerhard Bakker. Worked professionally for several years until 1971 when I went into another career. After retiring in 2002, I slowly found my interests in photography again, and here I am….
For nostalgia, a recovered Ektachrome Slide from about 1963….my car is third from the right:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/6771377785/in/set-72157629055356347
and, my model director in the late 1960's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/7776036474/
Copied from a 16"x20" print…original on Tri-x I believe.

elopez95

I first began to discover my love for photography around December of 2012. I had just gotten a new phone (galaxy note 2) and the camera on it was phenomenal compared to my old Iphone 3G. This is actually where my passion began. I was visiting my brother in Washington at the time and just began to take pictures of every breathe-taking scene I saw. After returning home and looking through the photos I realized photography could be used as a way to preserve a memory. Whenever I looked through the pictures I was immediately reminded of all the good times associated with that given moment. So I began to take pictures of my journeys. However, I never gave composition, lighting, etc. any thought, I simply wanted to capture the memory for myself.

It wasn't until about three months ago when I decided to invest in an actual camera. I purchased my D7100 about a month ago and I am absolutely in love. Each day I go out and take more pictures, watch more videos, and read more forums/articles.

Now that I think about it, growing up I always loved being in charge of taking pictures for my family with the disposable cameras. We'd get new film developed at Costco nearly every week!

Vipmediastar_JZ

in the late 90's in H.S. I picked up my dads canon point and shoot maybe a basic range finder look a like and started photographing friends and went to the local cruise nights to photograph cars. I was broke and only developed half of the film.
later that was on hold until 2003 when i picked up a fuji then a kodak point and shoot then reverted to filming on a camcorder, mostly parties and such.
Finally after some adventures in life and getting out of the car club scene I picked up a D80 From there I just kept shooting.
The clicks are like an addictionn to me. I have to press the shutter, it calms me and relaxes me. The photographs are a big reward.
Especially when somebody passes and I happen to have a photo of that person it feels good to bring joy to somebody else.
So I continue clicking and clicking. It is a rewarding thing.
I have always like art and I am person of few words so this is my way of expressing myself.

ThomasHorton

Honestly, I got into photography when I found out that I had neither talent nor skill in drawing.

NSXTypeR

Haha MsMoto, I forgot to add that that time would probably have been my senior year of high school as well.

Seems like most of us get into photography around that era.

My dad was always somewhat interested in photography. He bought his FM2 new way back then.

jimo

Christmas of 19 58 my parents bought me a Sears Tower Camera for Christmas that sparked my love for photography. In high school I took a photography class which fueled the fire more. After high school (1967) I enlisted into the Army, I tried to get in to photography but all they had open at that time was photo lab technician. Upon graduation I was sent to South Korea, I was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division Information office. I worked as a photographer /lab tec. After finishing my tour in South Korea I was sent to the Combat Developments Command Experimentation Command (USCDCEC) in California and worked as a photographer. From there I was sent to the 7th psychological Operations Det. In Okinawa, Japan again worked as a photographer. In 1972 I was assigned to White Sands Missile Range New Mexico, again as a photographer. When the draft ended the Army became short of combat arms personal and they reassign the top 10% of overage MOS’s into combat arms. I was given the choice of leaving the military or being retrained into artillery in 1975. My wife talked me into staying, and it was tuff. The next twelve years I spent in Fort Still, Germany, South Korea and at Fort Lewis. Not once did I lose my love for photography. I took as many pictures as I could, as long as I could buy film. After retiring from the Army I let life get in the way of my first love, my cameras set in the closet collecting dust. In 2013 I retired from civilian life and rediscovered my first love, photography. I now have three digital cameras and go out shooting whenever it’s not raining, life is good.

Symphotic

I had to document plant diseases during my senior year in college 40 years ago and found that I couldn't do a good job without taking pictures. I had an Olympus 35 RC camera, but the results I was getting were not adequate to do the job. So I spent a few hours in the Sather Gate Camera Shop (now long gone) with the owner and he explained f-stops, depth of field, the proper grip, shutter speeds, guide numbers, close up lenses, filters, and film types. He suggested I use Ektachrome.

I was hooked.

After I graduated I went to Japan and started work at a national research center as a foreign guest worker--a job that had a nice title but not many real duties, so there was lots of free time to photograph. I met a high school girl whose father and mother ran a camera shop: they traded camera and darkroom lessons for English lessons for their daughter. The parents got free labor in the darkroom and the daughter got free English lessons, and I got to play with all the neat toys. She ended up going to an American university, so she was a better English student than I was a photography student!

I came back and worked in a chemistry lab, but my boss found use for me and my camera documenting field studies and environmental remediations we were doing, and since then I have always used photography as part of my job. I went back to Japan to run a scientific instrument company and traded my Contax with two lenses for a Nikon with three and a strobe, and there you have it.

For all my adult life I have read, taken online and live courses, and hung out with people who know what they are doing. Anytime I see anyone with a pro level camera, I try to learn something from them. Some of my photos have been published by others, but I do well selling operators and training manuals that I publish myself and are amply illustrated with photos take by yours truly.

Golf007sd

For those that have contributed to this topic...Thank you.

It is very rewarding; moreover, helps build a closer connection with one another. I hope other members feel the same as well.

Please keep them coming....cheers

PB_PM

My love for photography started when I was a young lad. Watching my Dad photograph family events and vacations was a trigger, along with looking at all the amazing photos in National Geographic. I got my first camera (a Ricoh film P&S) when I was 10 or 11 and for many years taking photos was just something I did casually. I remember thinking it was a big deal when I had 15 rolls of film developed, after a family road trip across Canada in 1998. It's kind of funny looking back, because I can easily take that many photos in a day now.

I started to take photography more seriously in 2006, within a few years of buying my first digital camera. This photographic journey really took off in 2008 when I picked up my first DSLR, a Nikon D80 and 18-70mm kit. I've never taken any formal art training, photography classes, or read books by great photographers from days gone by. Everything I know about photography I learned from fellow photographers, and through experimentation.

Golf007sd

...Everything I know about photography I learned from fellow photographers, and through experimentation.

+1
Here...here! I'm on that same boat.

Ade

I've always been fascinated with photography, as far back as I can remember to my early childhood. My mom used to take slide pictures on our holidays and we'd all sit by the projector to view them -- that sort of thing.

When I was about 7 or 8 years old my parents bought me a Kodak 110 camera for my birthday. Similar to the one picture below (but all black). Anyone else remember these cameras? I was hooked and became the de facto photographer in the family.

Kodak Ektra, from kameramuseum.de

But my photography didn't really expand until high school, when I was lucky to take classes under R. "Skip" Kohloff. I didn't know it at the time, but Skip was and is a very well known art photographer in Colorado, having directed the Colorado Photographic Arts Center for many years. He held an MFA in Photography from RIT (the top photography school then) and could've made it big in NY, but decided to come to Denver to teach instead.

Skip made us start at the very beginning. The first day of class we had to make our own pinhole camera out of a shoebox. We experimented with shutter speed by removing & replacing a duct tape covering the pinhole. For the first year we only shot black & white film. We did everything ourselves, from cutting our own film (from motion picture stock), loading them into canisters, developing them, printing them, matting & framing, etc. We studied perspective, motion, composition, etc. When I teach photography now I still use the same lessons as I learned back then.

I saved up some money and bought a Minolta Maxxum 7000. I loved that camera and carried it with me almost every day for two years. Sadly it got stolen and I stopped taking pictures for awhile. Later I received a Nikon F3HP as a gift, and I've been shooting Nikon ever since.

warprints

In 1964 a neighbor was revamping his darkroom and he asked my brother and I if we wanted his old darkroom equipment. We did. We set up our darkroom in the basement. The first camera I used was an old Zeiss Ikon. Added a couple other old used cameras, and finally obtained a new Minolta SRT-101 in 1971.
For me, things kicked into high gear when I discovered that if you had a couple of professional looking cameras hanging from you, you could get places or talk to people you wouldn't normally have access to. For instance, I was invited onto an ABC News camera tower for Jimmy Carter's inaugural parade. As Carter walked by, I got down from the tower and walked behind him right onto the White House grounds. Secret Service eventually decided to ask me for credentials. uhhhh, what? More recently, I walked onto a movie set and sat next to Tommy Lee Jones. Was never challenged. Jones started bitching to me about all the "tourists" that wanted free photos of him. I think he thought I was with the production crew, as he let me take photos of him without complaint. Lots of other examples. All great memories. Some good photos.

michael66

So now that you have heard my story...what is yours? How did it all start for you?

The cheerleaders.

In the mid-70's, I was teaching myself to use an Ikon Contina with a light meter. Then I got a Canon AT-1. I literally slept with that thing. I am semi-joking about the cheerleaders, but that was a big part of it. They were enthusiastic about the pictures and willing to pay the small amount I charge. Enough to fund my photography addiction. Then it was band pictures and I would get paid (!!!) for a shoot.

But time killed most of my opportunities and digital killed film and everything went into boxes. After some 15 years, I'm back, just under a year, and realize that most of my shots back then were just plain, stupid luck.

@warprints I hear you about getting in where most could not. Having a 'professional' looking camera certainly opened doors back then.

mikep

i love it for many reasons, its an awesome tool that can open doors (i learned that by observing a colleague who was present at a show merely for possessing a camera; it was a ticket to ride, and i got one soon after so i too could ride along in these occasions)

but besides work opportunities, i just love the internet and images are a major part of it, i love travel and taking pictures when i go somewhere interesting because i have a terrible memory, but the pictures bring it all back so well. the internet allows us to make blogs and share pictures and chat on forums such as this, and i just really enjoy the whole arena that is camera and internet technology.

the cameras and the lenses, the computers, the creativity in the editing, the exploratory nature of the process, learning to concentrate on places/people/objects in an aesthetic way, the way it focuses your brain on the task at hand, and the way it teaches you to see the art that is all around oneself, this may sound silly to some, but i really think it makes me view the world around me differently.

i love the complexity of an idea + a plan + dslr + lights + photoshop and i love the simplicity of a cameraphone and instagram as well.

autofocus

I started in the 60s with a Kodak 110 only to find that I had to pay to get the film developed. My picture taking was limited based on film, flash cubes, and developing costs.

I joined the Army and mid career was given the opportunity to spend a week learning film photography which included using an SLR, film developing (in the field no less) and printing BW photos with a developer. I actually built a developer out of an old brownie camera from a yard sale and developed my own photos in my garage for a while. My family grew and time (and money) were at a premium so photography was set aside.

Jump ahead, in 2008 I was at a car show with a Nikon point and shoot and found my passion was re-ignited. The point shoot gave way to a D5000 which led to a D300s and another lens. As the story usually goes, I bought another lens, another body, and so on. Then lights, then other must have accessories (haha) and now I'm equipment poor.

It's been fun pursuing a hobby that I can look back on (literally) to see where I've been and dream of where I want to go. It seems I learn something every day about this hobby and feel I'll never make it to where I want to be. But, maybe that's what keeps it interesting. That's my story. What's yours?

dissent

Always been interested in the visual arts; drawing, painting; pastel, charcoal. Took a serigraphy class in college that I enjoyed immensely (boy, was that a long time ago). Bit of a science nerd too, so I have a lot of interest in the intersection of art and nature, both at the very large, and very small, scales. Had some entry level film cameras (Pentax) and cheap lenses (Samyang), but didn't spend much time there other than taking snapshots. So much time lost. Moved to digital as the opportunity arose and now (finally) I am trying to learn a bit more about the craft of photography. Been fun so far.

Photobug

Back in the late 50's my parents gave me a Kodak Brownie. Took lots of pictures but they only developed about 1 out of 3 rolls...we had little money. My Dad got a 35mm rangefinder and it was decent and then he started shooting 35mm slides. When he got the Voigtlander Bessamatic SLR he started projecting pictures on the screen and we would watch them. Later he would project them and tell me what was good and what was bad about each picture. He was in the military but had an artsy side. His composition skills were excellent and it rubbed off on me.

That planted the seed that developed. I won $45 and bought a Yashica "A" twin lens camera and enjoyed the sharper images. Won a photo contest as a junior in high school and bought a Yashica SLR. Then bought a Soligar 135mm lens and as a senior went to the NY Worlds Fair with my high school band. Lord did I take pictures and then we split off and toured Washington DC. More pictures. I am hooked.

Freshman year in college got a Nikon SLR. Six months later sold it for $5 less than I paid for it and bought the newer model, did not have to index the lens to set the max aperture setting. Got out of college and bought another Nikon.

During college took a photo course and realized that photographers don't make good money, stayed in engineering so I could afford to buy more Nikon lens.

Attended a few photo courses along the way and found out I was a "gear-head" but had the skills as an advanced amateur. Great decision not becoming a newspaper photographer. Went from an active photographer to shooting the "family pictures". They formed a photo club at work and I found my spark again and became the 2nd fastest to earn the Gold Metal in our photo competitions. At our monthly competitions you get points, so many points for bronze, silver and gold. The average was four year to reach Gold, I did it in less than 2.

My wife loves to walk around when I am shooting landscape photos to find better composition shots. We work well together. Finally in 2008 bought her a D90.

Now retired, I am shooting far more than I did the last five years. Loving what I do and taking lots of pictures of our grand kids.

FreezeAction

I sparsely used a Kodak Brownie in my youth and remember those blue flash bulbs. I loved taking snapshots then. Mid to late 20's I made good friends with a wedding photographer and was always picking his brain for more info as he shot Nikon film bodies. After a year or so of seeing his work come to life I ask him for a recommendation for a 35mm camera for me. He ask be what I wanted to photograph and my interest was moving objects. He told me to try out a Canon AE1 and I did. I shot from fast moving cars in the Mexican deserts to mid western farm fields from light single engine planes. All learning trial and error. After upgrading to the super smooth & quiet Elan some years later. In 2003 I took a vacation to the Rockies to see a son and shot several rolls of film and for some unknown reason 95% of the photos where filled with artifacts at high elevations and I didn't find out until after returning to FL. Digital was beginning to blossom at that time and I went straight to the first store I knew that had DSLR's and purchased the only Canon 10D they had in stock in the state without a thought. At that time it was a great choice. I had already taken college courses in B&W darkroom photography and while working in the computer lab at the college kept watching a student out of the corner of my eye using an early version of Photoshop. I followed suit and enrolled in digital photography with was really classes using digital editing tools and got myself waist deep literally. Shooting fast moving boats from a low perspective. The day the Canon 1D MII was announced I ordered one. The waiting was worse than waiting for Christmas as a 4 year old. It was not long after its arrival I gave my notice as a data base programmer and took to photography as a full time job and have not looked back. I've slowed down now and am in a sense retired but really not retired as long as I can get around and squeeze of the shots. Even shots with 4x5 film. I do enjoy shooting the small light weight Nikon D5300 that I chose for its articulating back but still cling to the 1D MII when $'s are on the line. For now I'm impatiently waiting again to see what September brings to the market. I still have a hankering to shoot some panoramas with 6x17 film and that might come before a new high res digital body. The time has come to slow down and enjoy the art of photography more than just capture history being made. Whether digital or large format film now I'd rather take my time and make the image the way I want to see it rather than grab what I can in a fleeting second. When my wife leaves for work tomorrow she takes possession of the D5300 for what she sees on her daily routine. I'm keeping the pickup though for heavier equipment as it finally arrived today after being purchase in Jan. It is the first piece of the mobile digital lab we are assembling. It is just a few months she can retire and we are off traveling with time and equipment to print to canvas what comes our way while we are on location. A dream 11 years in the making is about to become reality. My wife is also a college trained photographer and print maker from darkroom to Photoshop. The kids can come to see us but now we won't be home. :-h From this forum I've spotted many places that I want to visit that otherwise I would have never known about. A big thank you to all who have added their mark of inspiration on me.

ChasCS

My Dear old Dad always had a decent camera for the times.
I guess I just followed in his previous large footsteps.
Bought a Kodak 110 in the 1960's with its flash bracket, which removed red eye.
Eventually moved on to bigger and better.
My first real good 35mm camera, I still have, my Nikon FE.
First digital was a Nikon Cool-Pics 995, with the reversing lens.
Buying the rig I have now has been a huge upgrade, many improvements~galore, all with a nice learning curve...
The forums are a blessing in this regard!!
Thanks to you and several others like you Golf, who unselfishly share the knowledge. Give guidance and acceptance.

Chas