So how did you get started photography?

[jim]

At Dad's work Christmas party in 1970 aged 8 I got (probably out of a lucky dip) a plastic toy camera that took 35mm film. I lined everybody in the family—including the dog— up against a wall facing the sun as instructed by Dad, and shot them full length. Naturally I never looked back after that.

I still have the pictures. Boy was that a terrible camera.

[Miyuki]

I started photography very recently (just over a month?), but I have always been interested in photo taking. My grandfather and dad were/are into photography, and always watched them taking photos when I was a kid. I remember watching my dad taking night photos in cemetary (being in Japan, it is hard to find somewhere without lights from buildings).

I learnt a bit of photo taking basics from my dad with his old Nikon and Olympus cameras when I was a teenager, but I didn't have a proper camera for a long time. My hubby bought Nikon D3100 over a year ago for trips to NZ and Japan, and I used it sometimes, but had no time to actually learn it until very recently due to my uni study. After I finished my study, I bought Nikon D7000, and I'm finally learning now. Over 2 decades on...it took a while to get started

[ktoopi]

I did photography at highschool in the early 1980's where we had a fully fledged darkroom! I fell in love with it and got my first camera, a second hand Pentax K1000 film SLR with a 50mm lens on it. I then went on to do photography as elective units inbetween my double major units at Uni where they had an even more impressive darkroom which we were able to access at at any time. After Uni I bought film point and shoots with huge zooms on them and kind of forgot about my SLR for many years. In 2003, We went on a 4x4 trip into the Simpson Desert (we were heavily into 4 wheel driving at that stage) so I bought a high end digital p&s (cost over $1000....huge $ at the time) that had a lot of manual functions that allowed me to control depth of field etc. It was all of 3.1 megapixels!! It actually turned out to be a fantasic camera and many of the pics I took on that trip are some of my best! a few years after that I had a major flood at my house and all of my photos, albums and film photo gear was destroyed.......The insurance payout bought me a DSLR...a Canon 400D and the rest is history I have since upgraded to a 7D and am thinking about the 5Diii in the not too distant future

[waylib]

I started taking pics of the kids competing at equestrian events with my trusty old Kodak 3 mp digital. I soon realised that without any control of shutter speed I was not going anywhere so 3 years ago got my first dslr, a canon 1000D. It was upgraded to a 60D along with a Sigma 120-400 about a year ago. Very soon after that I was asked to help a pro with photographing a large equestrian event and have now just started on my own. It is still very much a hobby and I still have a lot to learn but that is part of the fun.


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[tcdev]

The Space Shuttle!

I'm another late starter in photography. Throughout school and uni a good friend of mine was into photography but despite his best efforts I was completely and utterly disinterested in it (maybe because he was a Canon guy?).

I never even owned a camera for many, many years and it wasn't until I started traveling with my now-wife that we bought a point-and-click. Even during the ensuing trips, I never really thought about it much other than the obligatory holiday snaps in front of [insert landmark here].

I then got a unique opportunity to attend a Space Shuttle launch in 2010, actually ON the base. Realising that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided to buy a decent camera and (try to) learn how to use it. Talked my wife into a Nikon D90 and 18-200mm lens (she thought it was overkill), which I bought a few months before the trip. We started going on walks and day trips around Sydney where I'd practice using the camera, and she'd take along her point-and-click. I started to get more interested in photography as I was learning, but it wasn't until we went to the launch, and perhaps more significantly, Yellowstone National Park, that I really started to enjoy it. My wife was frustrated by the limitations of her camera on that trip and for her next birthday I bought her a D5000 and the 2 kit lenses. We did a few more overseas trips after that and photography was a big part of the experience for both of us. For this reason I think travel and landscape photography are my favourite genres.

At home we have a panorama of a Zion sunset that my wife took on the dining room wall; I have one of the Space Shuttle (night viewing) and a Red Rock Canyon panorama on the walls at work. IIRC all three of those have been posted to this forum for CC in the past. It's just so satisfying to see your own picture on the wall!

We've slowed down a lot recently with the birth of our daughter 10 months ago, but I'm slowly finding more time to browse this site again, and thinking about doing more of my own photographing (one of our long-term contractors is an avid photographer (Leica!), and has just started dabbling in paid work). I thought I'd do a lot more portrait work of my daughter, but I find it's still not that easy with such a young kid, so it's the point-and-click mostly. I'm sure when she's more independent there will be more opportunity to sit back and observe with a DSLR in my hand! And photographing her first outings to the zoo etc will be awesome!

[EB Alex]

Wow, so many on here started with film!

My journey began in year 11 high school when a popular art posting website had just been launched. Everyone was doing drawings, sketches and paintings and uploading them to their profiles. Unfortunately I am hopeless at all kinds of art, so I grabbed my point and shoot and off I went, wasn't half bad with the camera and it has grown from there

Alex

[Kym]

Wow, so many on here started with film

Given digital is only effectively 10 years old for most people that is not surprising. (In 2003 3mpx was consider ok and 6mp was tops)

[EB Alex]

Given digital is only effectively 10 years old for most people that is not surprising. (In 2003 3mpx was consider ok and 6mp was tops)

Yeah I guess you are right there. When I went to study at TAFE, most people in my class had never been in a darkroom, only a handful.

[Pixley]

Started many years ago with a ripper of a little Minolta. It would take better photos than my partners SLR. Then about 4 years ago decided I wasnt keen on the poor quality photos from a cheap digital P and S that I had at the time and upgraded to a DSLR.

[jollie]

Started off as a kid when I was given my former step father's old kodak star 110 to take on a camping trip where I found out I much preferred being behind the camera than in front of it. From there it was photography classes as electives at school (with lots of time spent manually processing film in the darkroom). While I had a break from it all during uni, once my niece was born (and then my nephew)i decided I should have a camera again to capture them growing up (found a perfect excuse more like it). From there it was a couple of years with a P&S until i finally decided I wanted to try and get back into it a bit more......bought myself a Canon 500d and that's where I find myself now...

[geoffsta]

My mum bought me a camera when I was 7-8. Can't remember the brand, but it was a plastic fantastic. I remember taking it on a school trip to Puffin Billy and taking some real fantastic shots. (Well, I thought so)
Later on I progressed to a instamatic (I think that was what they were called) One those ones where you got 10 images that you pulled from the front, waited X amount of time, gave it a shake and you could see the image. That was 30 years ago.

Then I got married..... That stuffed any idea of taking it further, Bought a house just as the interest rate went up to 18%. *Stuffed again. Had two kids. *Stuffed again. Lost part of tall finger on left hand in 1990, then lost index and half a thumb in 2000. (Worked in sawmill) *Stuffed again.......

In the meantime I bought a Canon Powershot which eventually gave up the ghost.
Colorbear.jpg

3 years ago, I decided to take it a bit more seriously as a hobby, with no intension of going pro. And I still feel that way. I'm glad I did. Although it's bit of a bank drainer.

I'm also glad that I joined this AP community. I have learnt so much, and met some wonderful people along the way.

[sunny6teen]

started using the family camera when I was 7. after much begging/pleading I received my own camera when I was 9 and started doing my own printing about 2yrs later.
started working as a printmaker in London in '91 and was shooting for the Guardian on/off throughout the 90s.
there's a great little video on youtube about Roy Snell (who I was with for a few years) and how everything went into decline. It's short but interesting.
http://youtu.be/XCRIvNIi50U

[mechawombat]

I started with a Pentax something SLR in high school in 1995.
shooting Ilford B+W cause I could ( I was hipster before it was hipster) and used the school Darkroom to develop pics and canoodle

Then photography disappeared until early 2000's when I had a Pentax 3MP P&S (was about $1K) which died suddenly after 2 years but I was so frustrated on how slow the shutter was on it anyway so a blessing.

Moved to a Kodak 6MP P&S (about $500)which was top of the range HAHAHAH only to out grow it very quickly.

2008 was meant to buy a D80 and somehow came home with a Sony A350. it was so I can document my first born and well it has served me well.

Now I have a Nikon D7000, a Canon 600D and the Sony finds a new home today and will be replaced with a A65.

[Tony B]

50s- Kodak Brownie
60s Voigtlander .
70, 80, 90s- Contax/Zeiss & Bronica. My best friend was/is a 3rd generation pro photographer well known in the SYorks area & east coast of UK. We have 6 generations of family who have had their portraits taken at their studio. I was told I had a "natural eye" & was advised to do qualification & chose to do a New York Institute of Photography course. A forensic photographer & freelance for a couple of years before returning to my more lucrative accounting qualifications & some part time photography.
2003- Canon 300D,10D,20D 30D,40D, 5D, 1DIII,2x5DIII,1DX.
2013-Consolidated lens collection to 24-70vII, 70-200f2.8vII, 100 macro, 300f2.8 L IS, 14mm Samyang, 1.4TC vii,2x TCvii, 2x 580EXII. Back to being a happy snapper & hopefully no more wanting expensive gear. My Contax/Zeiss system was good for 20+ years so I trust my current line up will be.

[DonUnder]

My first exposure to photography (pun fully intended) was in school. I was always rubbish at any form of art but needed an elective module to fill in my schedule. I decided to do photography as I thought is thought "how difficult can it be?".

Started off using Pentax SLR's and developing our own B&W in the dark room. I seen remember soooo many blurred photos and plenty of ruined rolls of film as we always used to forget to rewind the spool before opening the camera back . Ended up loving it but when the course finished I never really followed up on it because it all seemed such a hassle to get my own gear.

Never got back into it until 10 years later when digital really started to take off (ironically, during this downtime my sister ended up becoming a professional photographer). My first digital camera was a little Canon A70 3.2MP P&S. At the time I thought it was awesome as it gave me full manual control but ended up getting REALLY annoyed by the shutter lag. From there I upgraded to the Canon 300D which ended up bringing all these memories of my school course flooding back.

[outstar79]

Started photography back in high school in Manjimup Senior High on my old lady's Pentax Z-10 with a 28-85mm lens (I believe) in the late nineties. Mainly taking terrible portraits and abstract stuff for class, didn't really venture out beyond school. Later had fun with a Pentax MZ-50 for a while. But, started working and left photography for a long while until I started a little more seriously back in May 2011, when I joined AP after family and friends liked my photos with my $100 fuji finepix 8MP!

So I got the Pentax Kx and got playing.
Here are some early "attempts" at Landscapes :

[Clark]

Well my story isn't that great but Im 26 andhave always liked looking at good photographs online and in art galleries when I was dragged around to them.

I can't draw, play music or anything else arty but when I went to Europe 2 years ago just using my iphone 4 and my girlfriends point and shoot I took some pretty decent photos and thought I could do even better with a decent camera. So after the two years had past I finally had the money to get one so I picked up a 650D twin lens kit about a month or so ago and I am loving it. It has helped me relax a lot more and be a bit more patient.

And I must be slowly doing something right as I just scored the beginner photo of the week for autumn which was a big deal for me so that's my story.

[flyonthewall]

My dad used to be into photography when he was younger and still had some old film cameras and gear collecting dust around the house. I took an interest in them so he started to show me the basics. We both developed more of an interest so we upgraded our gear and joined the local camera club.

It's been a great pastime for us to share. My dad rediscovered an old hobby an we now have an interest that has allows us to visit places or events we wouldn't have gone to before. It also sparks some friendly competition when our camera club competitions roll around

[ashey]

I started taking snaps around the house with a kodak 110 and some other plastic kodak in the 60's, then I joined the army in 74 and played around with a polaroid for a while that was cool, instant photos the boys loved them. I bought my first SLR back in the 80's a canon AE-1 program, that was when I got a bit more serious, the next acquisition was a Mamiya 645 which took stunning shots, then bang I dropped the ball ,for various reasons and did not pick up a camera for nearly 20 years. But here we are today, and back shooting with these magic cameras which I now have and loving it.

[Geoff Port]

Here are some early "attempts" at Landscapes :

wouln't have minded having these two in my early years albums Adam.