How I got into Photography - how did You?

[xpatUSA]

It really started with the watch hobby - buy 'em as "runs then stops" on eBay, service them and re-sell them - which needed images. Disgusted with typical eBay fuzzy pictures, I determined to do better - only to find out quickly that a Kodak C643 and toy tripod, complete with room-only lighting was not the way to show those eBay Sellers how to do it. So I bought a Nikon D50 body and a micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 lens and armed myself with a couple of CFL (yep) desk lamps - and that's when the rot started to set in

So really, my only interest until recently has been in bench-top photography, usually with continuous lighting. (I do Wifeys eBay stuff, too). Which I hope goes to explain my on-going digs at Real Worlders, people who print, not to mention Professional owners of incredibly expensive gear (you know who you are ;-).

Anyway, here's some shots of my secret life:

Work in progress, a 99-yr old Elgin pocket watch, full hunter (cover over the dial), size 12, 14K rolled gold plated, 17-jewel movement. Quick snap with the Panasonic, IIRC:



A close-up, to record what bits go where. The Panasonic Leica Elmarit 45mm macro is good for those quick shots with it's image stabilization:



And, finally, the fancy shots for when and if I sell it. The missing bezel has been sent off to have a crystal (glass) fitted, which provided an opportunity to show the dial at it's best. Sigma SD10+70mm macro, not a bad shot. 3500K LED floods with tracing paper diffusers and an overhead fluorescent . As you can see, watches are not real sensitive to mixed lighting (another dig, sorry):



A shot of the 17-jewel movement (quite posh for that era, 7-jewel was much more common). Same camera, lens and lighting but final processing in RawTherapee - just to try out their RL de-convolution sharpening which proved to be a tad "better" than USM for this image:



What got you started?

[HaseebM]

I think I got into this like many of us do and still learning to become one.

[Venser]

I just decided one day I was going to start taking photos. I'm really big into sports, so I headed down to the local camera store about this time two years and bought myself an early Christmas present, the D700 with the 70-200 f/2.8 VR II. Christmas rolled around and I realized that lens isn't a good day-to-day lens so I had to pick up the 24-70 f/2.8 as well. January rolled around and I did one of those 365 projects. At first it was rough while I was learning how to use my camera, but February, two months after picking up the camera, I had sold nearly $700 worth of prints. They weren't good, but it was a right time, right place story. Now I get paid to do portraits nearly every second weekend.

First Two Images:




Some Recent Images:

[HenkB]

Photography has been a passion of mine for a very long time. I picked up my parents' camera (a Kodak Brownie Duoflex) around age ten and fell in love. The decades have gone by but that old ardor endures. I find having a camera in my hand to be reliably therapeutic - almost as calming as patting the dog. My first camera - that is, really mine, one I bought new as an early teen with my own money - was a YashicaMat. A recent photo of the very same may be seen on my profile page. It comes from the days of brass and glass: a time of clockwork, before light meters or batteries and on/off switches made it into cameras. Anyway, my TLR (plus the school darkroom, plus a Weston Master III light meter - always on, no battery) allowed me to be photo editor for the school newspaper. I later got into 35mm via a few hand-me-downs from my wife's parents, both of whom, I'm convinced, never saw a camera they didn't want to give a nice comfy home, and then, finally, my own proud purchase, an OM-1. It has a light meter (now dead) complete with a battery and an on-off switch but is still largely clockwork and can be shot with the battery compartment empty. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Went digital shortly after the new millennium. And so it goes. However, my ancients of days still function thanks to the iPhone which can function as a perfectly competent light meter - there's an app for that!

[James G]

I was 13, back in the 60's. I was mooching around in a drawer and found a box with blank cards in, labelled 'Gas Light Paper'.

I asked my dad what it was and his response, (he was a teacher), was to make me get an old negative, place it on a card under some glass and leave it in the sun for a few hours.

Once I saw the image, he then told me it had to be 'fixed' and loaned me six pence, (which I never did repay), to go to the chemist and get some Hypo crystals.

After that I was hooked, borrowed my dad's Kodak Brownie and went mad...... havn't stopped since....


My B&W imaging is slightly better now....

Auxerre, Chablis region, France

[rpcrowe]

My father was drinking in his favorite pub when I was about 14-years old. Someone needed beer money and my father bought a camera from him and gave it to me. It was a Mercury II 1/2 frame 35mm which had a pretty fast lens for its day (f/2.7 if I remember correctly) and also had a shutter speed of 1/1,000 second which was unheard of, those days, except in the most expensive models like the Leica cameras.



That is how I started my downhill plunge into photography as a career and a hobby. I joined the U.S. Navy Reserves at 17 (while still in high school) and attended boot camp during the first summer and then, after I graduated from high school, I attended the U.S. Navy Basic School of Photography, Pensacola, Florida, during the next summer.

I spent 32 years on active duty in the Navy, most of the time as a photographer or cinematographer. Early in my Navy career, I needed a part time job (my pay was about $240 U.S. Dollars a month) and I got a job selling cameras in a discount store. I was on shore duty and married. It was not long before I realized that I could make a lot more money and work shorter hours shooting weddings. From then on I did weddings and a lot of other part time photo gigs whenever I was on shore duty and had the time to do that.

I shot my private stuff with numerous cameras, starting with a pair of Yashicamat twin lens reflex cameras (they were cheap but reliable), then on to Rolleiflex, then Mamiyaflex and finally settling down on a Hasselblad as my main camera using the Mamiya as backup. I only used two lenses with the Hasselblad (80mm and 150mm) along with Honeywell Strobonar flashes for location work and a Brownline studio setup for my studio work which I did in my garage.

BTW: When I purchased my second Canon 7D a while ago, it was the first time that I ever had the luxury of shooting with a pair of identical cameras...

Towards the end of my part-time professional career, I was using a pair of Canon 35mm film cameras (A-1 and AE-1) with Sunpak 120J flash to shoot the receptions. Even then, it was getting pretty hard for me to shoot a wedding all day long using the heavier medium format gear and then turn around and shoot a reception in the evening. The 35mm setup was a physical relief to use and. since I almost never got orders for reception shots at over 8x10 inch in size, 35mm was a perfectly adequate format.

I decided against pursuing a second career in professional photography upon retirement from the Navy because of health concerns (degenerative joint disease) and because I hated the business aspect of photography which is where many aspiring professional photographers fail. Besides, the G.I. Bill paid me to attend university where I received a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling.

I sold most of my equipment when I decided not to shoot any longer and kept only the two Canon 35mm cameras and lenses.

As I transitioned into digital work, I picked up a couple of used White Lightning WL-5,000 units as well as a 3-monolight Ultrablitz setup.

I now shoot only my rescue dogs as well as an occasional paying gig shooting someones show dog or pets. I did this series for a breeder who wanted to publicize her show dog.





Am I a good enough photographer to have earned my total living doing photography? I am sure I am because every time I shoot a job it will result in referrals and happy customers. Am I a good enough businessman to have managed a studio which would pay me enough to live on? Heck no! However, I guess that if I had enough interest in the business side, I could have learned that phase of the operations!

Believe me, although photography is a great way to earn a living, shooting where and what I want is more relaxing and a lot more fun! My father always wanted his own business (restaurant) and began several which failed. I think that my remaining in the Navy for its retirement and healthcare package is due to the lessons that I learned from him. My wife had the same concept and taught nursing for over 30-years on the college level. Her retirement and health benefits along with mine have set us up quite well in our advancing years and allow us to do many things which we enjoy, dog rescue and travel are among our favorite things...

BTW: I earn more each month from my Navy retirement than the total I earned during the first three years of full-time Navy service. Of course when I joined the Navy, the entry pay in the U.S. Military was $67 (no typo: sixty-seven!) U.S. DOLLARS A MONTH!

[Daisy Mae]

I got Cancer and waiting for surgery etc my husband bought me a second hand bridge camera from a mate at work.

[Brev00]

Outside of the first thirty years of taking pictures using everything from a Kodak Instamatic to a Nikon N80, my interest in photography has seriously ignited in just the past few years. The specific cause was my effort to improve on the pictures I was taking of my daughters' ice skating. My N80 was not cutting it. So, I purchased a D90 to see if digital could do any better. I found an immediate improvement and, also, a desire to improve on that. To get sharper shots, I bought the Tamron 70-300 vc. That seemed to work well for me:
[IMG][/IMG]
But, getting the lens also had several other immediate results. I joined DPReview and flickr. I bought Elements 9 and starting shooting and processing raw files. I bought a myriad of photography texts from guides to processing in Adobe Camera Raw to Sue Bishop's flower books. The snowball was rolling downhill. I bought a new midrange, the Sigma 17-70 os, and, eventually a macro (Sigma 70) and a wide angle (Tokina 12-24) along with now two tripods. My interest in skating has subsided as my one daughter dropped it and the other is now in college. She still skates but opportunities for me to photograph her have basically evaporated. Fortunately, as I pursued my interest in ice skating photography, my interests have broadened considerably. From flowers to landscapes to travel to my younger daughter's soccer, I find plenty of subjects to keep me practicing and alert for the next opportunity whatever that might be:
[IMG][/IMG]

[mknittle]

For me it is something I always wanted to do. I had a friend in high school in the 70s that took a photography class. I would go with him to shoot one thing or another. He would explain what he was doing and it looked like something I wanted to do.
I played around with point and shoots for awhile in the 90s with good results.
I 2009 I started looking at dSLRS. Then in February of 2010 my wife bought me a Canon XS. that worked for two years.Last February I got a Canon 7D and am very happy with it.

[davidedric]

Mostly, I wanted a pictorial record of places I have visited. It's probably a good job, since my wife and I have visted around 65 countries, mostly together. Here are two - one from the beginning and one from this year.

The battleship Potemkin, taken as a schoolboy in 1967, in Leningrad (as it was then), and scanned from an old and rather faded slide.







Leopard, taken in Zambia in September this year:

[skilsaw]

I had a big income tax return coming last April.
I got into a manic buying spree and bought camera, lenses and flash all at once.
Put it on VISA, then paid it all off with the income tax return.
G1X (this is the little baby that started it all.)
7D, 24 - 70 f2.8L II USM, 70 - 200 f2.8L II USM, 50mm f1.2L USM, 430 EX II, 600 EX-RT

I started a camera course in September, and have enjoyed doing the assignments.
I also watched my son do Ironman Canada 2013 and took a ton of pictures in continuous shooting mode.
I was able to catch him 5 times at Transition 1, on the course in the Bike and Run, and at the finish line.
Took the G1X with me camping.

Learning Photography is good exercise for this old retired brain of mine.

[drjuice]

Thanks for asking!

My 4-months-older cousin got a Kodak Brownie camera for her fifth birthday so I thought I should have one too. When my parents asked, I told them that would be my first preference, even though I had no foggy clue about how to run one! So, then I had to learn how to take pictures. My Mom took me out to the backyard, showed me how to look through the viewfinder, then showed me the button to push and I started my photographic life. Several years later, I got a Kodak Hawkeye, and about 4 years after that, I got a twin lens reflex (brand unknown) which was my camera until I was a senior in college.

So, 50 years ago last week, I bought my first 35mm camera, a Mamiya with a fixed lens with which I took pictures at JFK's last public appearance in Washington, DC, and at Arlington National Cemetery on 11 November 1963. After he was shot, I remember taking a 36-exposure roll at the Capitol when he was lying in state and another roll during the procession from the White House to the Capitol.

Then, I worked with that camera all through graduate school until I put together enough money after the Maxxum came out to be able to swing two of them before I took my first trip to Europe in 1978. I kept one of them loaded with color film of various types and one loaded with Plus-X (that's a BW film if you don't know). I had a zoom lens that I still use today on my Sony alpha-700 and an 18-70 that I'm still using as well plus obviously my prime lenses from the Maxxum days.

At the beginning of 2007, I bought my alpha-700 and found two online resources, this website and uglyhedgehog.com (which I outgrew in about three weeks). I also took the Pro class at NYIP, one of the best classes of anything I've ever taken. From the class, I got the discipline of doing assignments, not just going out whenever something interesting was going on, like a parade or a football game or a party and taking snapshots. The rest is, as they say, history.

So, here I am answering your question.

Have a good evening or rest of the week, whichever applies.

virginia

[xpatUSA]

So, here I am answering your question.

Have a good evening or rest of the week, whichever applies.

virginia

Well, thank you Virginia,

I hadn't realized the depth of your experience, most impressive, I'd say.

[nimitzbenedicto]

Twas in 1953, I was in grade 3, my dad took home a box which he said was a camera. He made us line up, say cheese , then - click!

Wow, was hooked when I realized that little box produced pictures. And it was so easy.

And that started it all.

Thanks.

Oh, btw, I hope it's alright I limited my reply to your question just like Sharon.



( Just wanna add why I thought that little box was like a miracle. Before that little box, the only cameras I knew were the big monstrous accordion like things on a tripod in studios,which they also used to take pictures of us in school with it. The ones where the photog would slip under a black blanket to look at us. Then, he would slip something rectangular in , tell us to freeze, then click. )

[jcuknz]

My aunt bought a filmstrip projector for her work as organiser for the Girls Freindly Society[UK] .... inquisitive me played with it and blew the very expensive bulb, probably due to the old wiring in the house, and my aunt didn't tear a strip off me but encouraged me and it went from there She died when in her early nineties in mid January ,,, Cristmas before she was on the carpet playing monopoly with her grand nephew and nieces ... a fantastic woman to whom I owe my life's interest and work.

[PRSearls]

This will really show my age but curiosity got me interested in photography. My first photos were taken of the family with my Dad's camera (1940s). All manual mode and no histogram or light metering. It still works and has a worn, cowhide case. Pretty cool old camera.

In high school. I bought an Argus C3 (the brick) rangefinder camera until I went overseas in the Air Force and bought my first SLR, a Pentax and several lenses. That was when my REAL photography experience began. I've been an active hobbyist for 50+ years in several formats, 35mm, 120 and 4x5 view camera. I've had a wet darkroom for B&W and color films. Lots of technological changes over those years but the basic principles of good photography, i.e. light, composition, etc. has not really changed, just techniques and styles.

Paul S

[f8andbethere]

I started in the early 70's when I found out pretty girls liked having there picture taken. I still enjoy shooting people but I shoot still life and landscapes mostly.

[chauncey]

An urge to see if the right hemisphere of my brain actually existed after a lifetime of never using it.