First photographic memories...

menthel

menthel

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Following on from a discussion in another thread I thought I would start this one! What are your first memories of photography? Mine are of the red safe light set up in the kitchen and my dad making his own prints from the negatives he had developed at home! Mind you he nearly always had a camera on him of some sort and still does today.

So, what do you first remember of photography?
 
On one trip to the Yorkshire Dales, the weather was blowing a gale, rain pouring down, but my dad wanted a photo of my brother and I. So we stood on the side of this mountain, barely standing up due to the wind while my dad took a photo from the car through the window
 
Zharrt said:
On one trip to the Yorkshire Dales, the weather was blowing a gale, rain pouring down, but my dad wanted a photo of my brother and I. So we stood on the side of this mountain, barely standing up due to the wind while my dad took a photo from the car through the window
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Back then you thought that was rude but I bet now many of us would do the same thing to save the camera from a soaking! ;)
 
When I was around three, a friend of my father's was a keen photographer and I was always fascinated by his cameras and the pictures he took. All the photos of me as a baby and toddler were taken by him. I used to make camera out of Lego and pretend to take pictures.
 
menthel said:
Back then you thought that was rude but I bet now many of us would do the same thing to save the camera from a soaking! ;)
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If I did that to my kids I think Social Services will make sure the next self portrait will have number across the bottom of the shot!
 
as a teenager being given a camera for xmas then having to save up to buy film and then again to have it developed..
 
Being given an old Kodak rectangular film camera that took some weird film :) All I remember is dad would give it to me with film in, tell me to go and play with it. When I couldn't take any more pictures he would take it away and four days later would give me it back with more film inside and a packet of blurry photos of the cat and the TV when the football was on :D
 
Ah - you started the thread then Jim... Excellent.

I think my first photographic memory was of using the camera (a 120 roll film box of indeterminate origin!) on holiday in Scarborough at the age of 6 - I pretty much monopolised the camera all holiday, there's only 3 shots that i'm in, and 2 of them were taken by my mother, so i've been decapitated! I think I worked out that if I was to take the photo's I could avoid being the subject in them. Even at that age I HATED being photographed, and to this date, I'm much happier behind the camera than in front of it.

Unusually for our family photographs that year, we went through 2 films in one holiday. Normally our family photographs had a christmas tree at each end of the film and a couple of shots of a beach in the middle. This on a 120 film - so we're only talking 12 frames here!
 
i dont remember the camera but i do remember the shot ... about mid-1950s

a B&W image of Tower Bridge from the Embankment, framed by trees

printed on 8x10 and then lost somewhere

on my ''bucket list'' to re-create
 
My dad had a small box room that he'd turned into a darkroom. It was crammed with all kinds of junk that had me absolutely fascinated, but we kids weren't allowed to set foot in there. Until one day when I was probably about 12 or so and he showed me how to do B&W chemical process, from the enlarger to the chemical bath and so on, and all under a peculiar red light - it engendered a fascination with photography that I've never forgotten. I didn't get my own camera until some 20-odd years later, though, and wasn't very good at using it even though it was an early digital point-and-shoot.

And my mum had a small stack of biscuit tins that were full of assorted-sized photos in various stages of decay and disrepair: sepia portraits of my grandparents and older relatives, faded B&Ws of my aunts and uncles, and quite a few of us kids, including one of me aged 1 with my teddy. I still remember that one even though I haven't seen it for decades.

Ah, memories... :)
 
I think i was probably the last generation to get disposables to play around with... ah :)
 
My first main memories are standing with my Dad at the 1976 Tour de France passing through Lacanau near Bordeaux. He was taking photo's on his Minolta rangefinder using slide film. It was nearly 40 deg C and as the race passed we all ran and jumped in the lake to cool down. The race then returned after reaching the ocean and headed to Bordeaux for the stage finish. I keep meaning to scan the slides as it would bring back good memories.
Seeing the Tour was such an amazing atmosphere at 10 years old, seeing the photographers standing up on the back of the motorbikes started my passion for photography and cycling.
 
after several film cameras (boots special, ooh yeah) I got a digital camera when I was about 11. It didn't have a screen, just a small lcd saying how many pics you had left. found a cd with some pictures from scout camp I took with it the other day, maybe I should post them for crit ;). Bought a dslr with two weeks of paycheck money from my gap year job just before I turned 18. Oops....

a few random ones that don't all sound completely sappy....

Been on stage in front of thousands of screaming people cheering for a photo.

Filmed an entire Chase and status set from in the booth with them, in a venue so hot my lens steamed up every 30 seconds.

Had a 'massive shout out to the big lens man' from Dick and dom

Got so wet my hands went pruney shooting at download festival. Drank the free beer in the press tent to recover.

Acquired my own fan club of 14 year old girls at a festival, they made me a banner.

Shot interviews with a lot of athletes who will be competing at the Olympics next yer. Their dedication is truly humbling.

Met so, so many inspiring and awesome people, and some of my absolute best friends.

Shot both Gordon brown and David Cameron.

Stavros flatley are lovely gents, as is zane lowe. Jeremy paxman is a grumpy ****.

A bottle of champagne in one hand, a camera in the other, is the right way to shoot.

Got drunk with a load of magnum photographers.

Had a huge corridor decorated with vast prints of my photos.

got a stack of train tickets just from this year about an inch high (that I need to add up for my taxes, ugh)

Given a class of school children an impromptu lesson on photography.

Been on cherry pickers, up scaffolding, on roofs and in building sites that noone else would get normally get to go.

Sunrises as I get home from a late night job, dump my gear and crack open a beer to see the job off will never get old.

Worked with special needs children that wouldn't talk to anyone, yet still made amazing portraits.

Generally 'been a part of it' rather than just a punter.

... and been paid for it :)

I'm 21 and just starting to build my life in photography... go take pictures and cool things will happen purely because you've got a camera in your hand :)
 
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I was given a disposable film camera as a child to use on a camping holiday. After being shown a few times how to use it, I took plenty of pictures. Wondered why the view from the camera was black but put it down to technology not being so advanced that you could actually see the picture you were taking, didn't really understand why I was using the viewfinder in that case... anyway, sent them off, and of course the majority were black. Lens cap had been on...
 
itsdavedotnet said:
Got so wet my hands went pruney.
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Wait, what?

itsdavedotnet said:
Shot both Gordon brown and David Cameron.
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Good man! :thumbs:

...wait, what?

Ava said:
I was given a disposable film camera as a child to use on a camping holiday. After being shown a few times how to use it, I took plenty of pictures. Wondered why the view from the camera was black but put it down to technology not being so advanced that you could actually see the picture you were taking, didn't really understand why I was using the viewfinder in that case... anyway, sent them off, and of course the majority were black. Lens cap had been on...
Click to expand...

I haven't seen a disposable with a lens cap before :D
 
I think my first ever camera was a film one that you got when you deposited £15 in the school "bank" when I was 11, don't remember much about the photos I took with it tbh.

As a teenager, I borrowed my parents' konica film camera to get a photo of the moon that was partially obscured by a palm tree. The shutter could be held open indefinitely using a remote control and I somehow managed to get the exposure spot on :lol: (must try and dig that photo out)

Got my first digital camera in 1999, it came free with a Tiny PC and was a 1.3MP "brick" that ate 4 AA cells faster than you could replace them but it was great fun as a first digital camera :)

Worked my way through a couple more compact digitals then my (now ex) wife got me a Konica Minolta bridge for a wedding present and I soon got a hankering for a DLSR but she wouldn't let me get one....... Found out she was cheating on my after 18 months of marriage, we split up 6 months later and the first thing I did was by a DSLR :lol:
 
I remember my grandad going into a very dark room and coming out with photos when I was about 6 or 7 which was magical. And then I had a Polaroid instant camera when I was about 13 or 14 which got a lot of use during the summer hols. Then I'm sad to say I drifted, moving from one hobby to another, never settling, never able to find something I really enjoyed. But about 6 years ago I caught the bug again and this time I had enough money to buy something half decent, or I thought I had. Now I own many , too many, cameras and I am reduced to begging for film and memory cards on street corners to feed my habit..... oh woe is me......

Andy
 
I remember being given a Kodak Instamatic for Christmas when I was about 9 and having a predisposition for taking still life. When I say still life, it was mainly of my Nan asleep on the sofa and the dog asleep by the fire.:D
 
Getting on for 40 years ago but I clearly remember this one of me being taken.

The photographer was a lady and I remember my mum stuffing that dog into the shot.

2781652267_a0ddfb4fed_z.jpg
 
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