How did you first get into photography?

TriggerHappy

TriggerHappy

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I was going through some old photo's on my computer and found a scan of the photo that first got me interested in photography. I was 11 or 12 years old and using my parents fully automatic film slr. Here it is, a dragonfly just as it emerged from its cocoon:

3821704176_8c56a74e15_o.jpg


I'd love to have a chance to re-shoot that same situation now.

What first got you interested in photography?
I bet some of you are too old to remember :p
 
I can remember. It was thirty years ago when my father, a part time wedding photographer who started doing weddings with glass plate negatives, gave me an Agfa Isolette.

I used it for my aunt and uncle's wedding and presented them with twelve perfectly exposed portraits of themselves and their guests with their heads missing off of the top of the frame.

Strangely, I was the only one there with a camera.


Steve.
 
Found an old copy of Mayfair when I was 12 and decided right there and then that I wanted to take photos of naked women...got a pentax Spotmatic from my Granddad and never looked back - first 'girlie' shoot eventually happened four years later...lol
 
for me it was when I were just a mere lad some 35 years ago that I used to love looking at the photo albums of everyone that we'd visit ( I was just 6 years old) I still ask to look at family albums now. Then I started to capture people, family and friends doing nothing imparticular, on disposable cameras then look at the images repeatedly to see if I would notice anything else or different in the background or an expression on someones face. ( still go through old albums regularly.)
The thing that most of the forumites will remember and miss is the excitement of going to the chemist and getting your pics or getting them sent back through the post, but then being disappointed at how many keepers were in the pack.
I was 30 before I picked up a proper camera but didn't have the knack for it.
It was only last year that my mum died and left me £640, and I wanted to get something that she would love to have got me.
Unfortunately she cost me money in the end as I brought the Nikon D300, 2 good lenses and an SB900.
But the thing I want to do more than anything in photography is to develop just 1 good B&W pic myself in a dark room as for me that is proper photography.
 
I was sort of into Photography using a Ilford Sportsman when I was 12. But never really that much. About 18 months ago when I got into Astronomy and decided I wanted to try and capture the glorious night sky sights did I really get into Photography, although I was snap happy with my old Z2 for a few years before that, there was no real thought behind it.
 
When i was a young lad i did my Photography badge in the scouts..... then bought an early digital camera about 25 years later and started clicking at family events, bought my D50 about 4 years ago. I'm not really that good but as with any hobby its teh enjoyment i get out of it.
 
This goes back a while! I had a Brownie 127 when I was about 6 - 7, a Kodak something or other with a flash (bulbs) after that, another Kodak (bellows, manual, 120 format), an Ilford Sportsman, a Zenith SLR (non-return mirror), an Olympus 35 RC and, eventually, an F2 when I was in my 20s. I still have the Nikon, but I've moved around a lot and don't know what happened to the others. Can't say I miss any of them. Moved into digital with a Minolta Dimage 7i, Canon A640 and a 30D.

The DSLR is my current camera and it's great, but I still have a hankering for Nikon. Might post about this in another thread.
 
As a 6 year old my mum bought me a 110 film camera (Scooby Doo brand I think!) which I used constantly. I then used a Kodak Disc camera for a while and bought my first 35mm around my 10th/11th birthday which I think was an Olympus. I briefly had a Kodak Advantix when I was 16 but after looking at the "big" cameras in the Argos catalogue, I saved up for ages to buy a mates Minolta 7000 (which I've still got!), then bought a 7000i about a year later........

My first go with digital was a very expensive Fuji compact around '98 which was crap, I gave up for a few years then bought a Sony a100 about 2 years ago mainly because the Minolta lenses I had in the bottom of a cupboard from my film days would save me a few quid in buying new lenses!!

I've since bought another Minolta AF film camera, but I've only managed half a roll of film so far......
 
Got into it when I was at school over 50 years ago.

Spent some time every year in my 20's hitch hiking to Greece and turkey because I always wanted to travel, then had a stint as a pro. doing the usual things, weddings, kids, portraits etc, but still had the wanderlust so joined the Merchant navy.

Had 18 months as a crew member then joined a firm who supplied photographers to the ships and spent the next couple of years sailing the seven seas taking "happy snaps" of the passengers.

So I can say with all honesty that I've taken photos all over the world - lol.

Left the "Merch" and saved up for my last big trip - hitch hiking to India(in the same year Mrs Ghandhi declared a state of emergency).

But developing thousands of colour prints and always having my hands in colour chemicals on the ships gave me dermatitis so gave up photograhy until a few years ago when the Digital age renewed my interest in it.

I finally got the Canon EOS 350D after extensive reading of online reviews and have never regretted that decision.
 
Iv always loved art but am a terrible painter I dated a girl whos father was a photographer but still never really understood the kit, but I enjoyed borrowing the photoshop magazines and making the pictures on the disk... years later I met my current girlfriend who is a medical photographer, well she bought a nikon d40x that same year and it spent more time in my hands than it did in hers!
i now shoot a d700 and converted to ir d70 and have very deep pockets and very short arms!
 
I remember that we did photography at school as part of art, only for one term I think and this when we were 11 or 12. School had it's own little darkroom so we used to go out and shoot a roll between two of us and then go back and develop and print. Shouldn't have left it almost 30 years to start learning more.

Anyway, here's my favourite shot I took when I was doing that school term. I still like the shot now if I'm honest, although I can now see all the myriad of things wrong with it. (And excuse the terrible scan!)

3822997340_669c0f2ec4.jpg
 
Watching my father at work in his darkroom motivated me into taking over the developing and printing of my B&W films around 1962.
 
i broke my leg playing American football, and was bored ******less, so i borrowed a m8s Olympus e-410 or something, got hooked taking sports pics, then moved onto my own camera a few weeks later
 
my grandfather was a keen photographer and when he died in 1963 when i was 20 i inherited all his stuff..mainly an agfa karat 35mm an enlarger and some tanks etc
i took it from there and havent ever given up
i progressed to slr's then to digital in 2005 with my present camedia c765 4Mp
i was a slide man and used 35mm and 6x7 roll film
now i cant see why anyone wouldnt have digital



capri
 
I got an Olympus film compact as a birthday present from an Aunty when i was about 15, then later moved onto a Minolta 7000 when i started a good enough job. I stopped doing photography i think looking back because of the price of film and the waiting etc that went with it at the time. Now i'm back into it again with digital after having a 3.1mp Kodak compact that i got rid of for two Nikon's. Isn't it great to just shoot and load onto the PC, print out and all sorts. I knew it would be the death knell for company high street shops such as Bonusprint when digital soon got established.
 
A long time ago when I was curious to see what the world looked like as a photograph
 
Last year (I'm only young lol) I joined a couple of forums, and they had photography sections. I never looked in them for a while, but when I did I felt inspired and wanted to start getting into Photography, I was going to buy a D40 around Christmas, but bought other things, but a couple of months ago I bought a D60 and it's just started from there, so I'm a complete and utter noob (Just starting trying to leave automatic mode now).
 
I first got into photography just by wanting to capture memories of the wildlife and nature that i was already going out to see anyway. That's since developed into an obsession to take the best photos i can, but still only of nature.
 
My mate bought a Zenith EM back in 1979 and after seeing some of his images I decided I wanted one, so I saved up my pocket money and bought this...

3181455074_62e6aac616.jpg


When I started doing my family tree I discovered that my mum's family had a film processing company in Glasgow from the 30s to 50s and my paternal grandfather had been a keen amateur, so it must run in the family :lol:
 
A friend pointed to a D40 once and told me the price in Canada (we were in Poland at the time). I thought to myself, "Hmmm, camera eh? Why not?"
And I ended up buying a D60 and some lenses.
 
wife bought me a D80 as an engagement present....

and now got a few other bits and bobs.

looking forward to getting me a D700 and a few more pro lenses

24-70 next week sometime if in stock....
 
Some great stories in here!

Unfortinatly, mine is deffinatly not has interesting! Well my photography journey started about 6 or 7 months ago. I was slightly interested a couple of years back, when my dad bought his first digital SLR - a canon 400D (he had done alot with film cameras before). I think just seeing some of the results inspired me a little.

However my real inspiration came about 6 or 7 months ago. After a couple of seasons of watching nottingham forest play, and seeing some of the photographs that people take of the games, just really inspired me i think (not to mention the sight of big lenses:D). I remember thinking to myself "I wish i could do that". So i decided to give it a go and I got in contact with my local football club (good old sleaford) and asked if i could take photographs to see if i was really that interested (whilst borrowing his 400D). Turns out i bloody love it!

I haven't really looked back, and i really do think that discovering photography could be the biggest turning point in my life so far!

P.S Sorry if that didn't make much sense, i think that it maybe too early to post something this big!
 
Mine was taking holiday snaps with a little kodak flat camera (the one with the film as a cartridge)

my parents would take holiday snaps of us standing in front of scenery, but when it was my turn, id tell em to move as they were ruining the shot :D

Then i got a sony cybershot (3.1mp)
then i got a film canon 300 rebel, but developing was expensive so i sold it :)
a while later i got a kodak z750 (5mp) which i lernt to use the A and S modes
Then the fuji s6500fd (6.2mp) which i still have, that got me hooked on manual modes, manual focus and raw
and finally 4 months ago, i got the sony alpha 350 which im adding a little to, every payday if i can.
 
Another Grandad who was into photography was my catalyst... so when I was ten he took me out a few days one summer and let me use his pentax K1000... he taught me as much as I could probably technically comprehend then... and I always remeber changing apature and shutter speed so the wee needle at the side was in the middle (lightmeter) and remebering him telling me his rule of f11 for scenes hand held and if using a tripod f22... Sorta simple but it kinda worked when you where 10.

The photos I took we then entered in an Edinburgh Evening News junior photography competition... and I won!

And had the bug has been with me ever since... although I have to say this is the one and only photo competition I have ever entered!
 
Carrying my dad's huge bag of camera's around for him while on holiday. Did'nt see the point in it until I saw the results.

Just brought him a D90 as a retirement gift which has relighted his passion for photography, nice to return the favour.
 
When I was about 12 a friends mother brought home a load of developing kit from a school jumble sale thinking we might be interested.

We put a roll of FP4 through my friends Dad's Ilford Sportsman, used the bedsheets as a changing bag, and we were both hooked.

We set up a darkroom in my Nan's spare room and spent many happy hours trying to produce prints from our fuzzy mostly underexposed negatives.

We both still take photographs, my friend now owns Flyer magazine and he does a lot of the photography himself.

On the equipment front I think it goes like this.

I went Cosmic Symbol, Zenit EM, Canon AE-1, T90, 40D and my friend went Olympus OM-1, Eos 5 (?), D60 (lent to me before I bought my 40D) and then 5D. He bought the 5D then the first thing he did was suction cup mount it on the wing of a plane and take it flying - literally - I have a picture somewhere.

David
 
I've always loved taking photos, but it was always just snaps of friends on nights out, or family on holidays etc. This year, some people I know online were doing a 'photo a day' project so I thought I'd join in, as kind of a photo diary of the year. Really quickly I got inspired by some of their fabulous photos and starting taking photos just for the sake of the shot - the photo diary aspect of it went out of the window! I bought my DSLR in March, and have loved photography even more since. I've signed up to do a module with the Open Uni starting in October, I can't wait!
 
I always had a passing interest in photography for as long as I can recall, but took it up more as injuries meant that I had to give up the more vigorous sports - but the last injury to my right arm is even hampering my photography - and they do not make a left-handed DSLR!
 
I always liked taking pictures as a child. I remember shooting with my parents Polaroid camera though I have no idea what they looked like as I was only a nipper.

When aged about 9 we went on a school day trip to Margate and I took a 110 camera with me, we were told there would be a photography competition afterwards and to take pictures while we were there. I took a picture of a boy in my class who we buried in the sand with just his head remaining, he was laughing his head off and much to my surprise I won the competition :D

After that I always had a camera and took pictures mostly of friends, I enjoyed it but other stuff got in the way (discos, clubs and boys!) so other than taking holiday snaps and pictures on nights out I never pursued it as a hobby. It wasn’t until last year we went on honeymoon to the Caribbean and I bought a newer camera (Canon Ixus 80) and I managed to get some really nice pictures that I started getting a bit more into photography, I was looking for a hobby and this interested me.

Since I got my SLR in February I’ve just got more and more interested but I just wish I had more time to be able to spend on getting out and about with my camera – unfortunately there’s annoying thing that gets in the way called work ;) :lol:
 
I was going to say I started about a month ago after randomly deciding to do a few macro shots with my fuji point and shoot. Then I remembered my first real flirt with photography was long exposures of the night sky on an ancient film cam i found in the loft about 15 years ago.

This time around I was lucky to have my significant others cam to try and buy lens for. Now I've got a 450d arriving today :-)

Hi all by the way! I'm new to the forum. I'm really enjoying a different attitude to flickr.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/turnpike0101
 
I've always had a compact camera of some description but only really used it when on holidays. Then one day poking round a disused cement works I bumped into some urban explorers. My first thought was "I'm not as wierd as I thought" and my second was "Oh, they 'document' their visits. That was it really, I started urb-exing with a 2nd hand 300D. I recently realised I was now more interested in the togging than the exploring.
 
turnpike said:
I was going to say I started about a month ago after randomly deciding to do a few macro shots with my fuji point and shoot. Then I remembered my first real flirt with photography was long exposures of the night sky on an ancient film cam i found in the loft about 15 years ago.

This time around I was lucky to have my significant others cam to try and buy lens for. Now I've got a 450d arriving today :-)

Hi all by the way! I'm new to the forum. I'm really enjoying a different attitude to flickr.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. This place is very different to flickr, thankfully! Oh and enjoy the new toy :D
 
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